Stealth & National Treasure

I think these two Hollywood blockbusters empitomize the problems that are plaguing the industry. First, I was excited to see the trailer for Stealth, a fighter pilot film that returns to the soaring sky, ala Top Gun, but the whole movie was out of whack like it's villaneous AI system that made no sense despite of whizs & bangs. The whole movie was painting ugly pictures of many Pentagon weapon programs these days because there's no real enemy that can match technical powess America possess, so the movie/Pentagon digs itself into a hole, trying to justify the movie plot/weapon programs. And why oh why fighter pilots suddenly become a Rambo and pulling a gun trigger instead of pulling a joystick? Oh yeah, the black man dies first, obviously.

National Treasure on the other hand, enjoys even direction and story, because the story/script is actually good, although it's ladden with cliches. It's an American version of Da Vinci Code, except it's with the Declaration of Independence. I think the movie could've went much further with its subjects, but in typical Hollywood fashion, they try to capture the FOUR QUADRANTS, so the film went in circles, like the treasure gathers-heroes. If you play it safe, the stake is lower. When the stake is lower, the emotional involvement is lower. But so what? By the grand law of investment preservation, the movie made enough money to justify a sequel, despite the filmmakers protest of inflicting another sequel in the DVD interviews.

The movie bridges art and money, and must delicately balance each other in order for a filmmaker to keep on making films. No filmmaker is set out to make a bad film, but it is our job as an audience to reject bad films that are overtly commericalized, in order to restore the balance to the Force that is movie magic.