It's happened to me a lot recently, I've been sat watching a Hollywood blockbuster, full of hope that the wealth of talent behind the camera will deliver something that can match up to the greatest spectacles I've seen at the cinema. Now, that's not to say I demand every film to be a masterpiece, but when you consider the investment of both time and money put into every single film that reaches our movie theatres it's somewhat mind boggling to think how badly it can go wrong. Sure, people make mistakes here and there, perhaps working to a 'committee' is difficult as well, but sometimes films seem to miss out on such fundamentally basic ideas or narrative structure that would so easily render a piece of garbage into something at least entertaining that it saddens me, especially as I'm someone who would gladly take on the job of screenwriter or director for a fraction of the salary!
Occasionally films are pretty enjoyable, but they fumble the ball a few times as the conventions of being a blockbuster weigh heavy on their shoulders, this is why I feel J. J. Abram's Mission Impossible 3 is a bold and intelligent piece of popcorn, putting its set-pieces into the films 2nd Act and having its 'finale' set rather tamely in a few mucky rooms, but this is no less effective than, say, an intergalatic space battle, because it boils the film down to what is absolutely key in delivering a satisfying conclusion: characters, narrative and emotion.
Now, not every film is for every one, and maybe the things I'll gripe about are the things you love (and vice versa), but it's been striking me more often than not that a fair few films might be improved with some narrative tweaks that I was disappointed to not see in theatres and that's what this blog is, my own personal amends to films that are already out, so please bare in mind that there will be spoilers.
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