From: john grigg (starman125@hotmail.com)
Date: Sun Mar 26 2000 - 14:52:28 MST
Greg Burch wrote:
Well, trying as hard as I could to reserve judgment for as long as I could,
I nevertheless was compelled to conclude early on that "Mission to Mars" was
deeply and thoroughly BAD. It STINKS. I left asking the question (as I often
do after a truly terrible movie), "How do hundreds of people spend
$100,000,000 and months and months of hard work making a movie and not
notice that the script is TERRIBLE?"
(end)
I enjoyed the film much more then you did but was still disappointed. I
look forward to the Val Kilmer film with a very similar theme that is coming
out later this summer. The buzz is that it will be the film to get a good
response. Remember how their was first 'Deep Impact' and later
'Armageddon'? Actually while 'Armageddon' was more fun I really enjoyed the
other film more for the portrayal of the scenes on the comet. I want Morgan
Freeman as our president! lol
he continues:
I left asking the question (as I often do after a truly terrible movie),
"How do hundreds of people spend $100,000,000 and months and months of hard
work making a movie and not notice that the script is TERRIBLE?"
(end)
A weak script gets greenlighted by a studio and the producers and director
blow it by for whatever reasons not overhauling it to produce quality work.
The actors may or may not have a say in things. After that, the
movie-making machine is a giant headless monster (bureaucracy) that lumbers
forward to crank out the film regardless of quality. Everyone just does
their job which is a small part of it generally.
I have a good friend here in Anchorage named Grant Walther who is in his
fifties and went to a film school in California (no longer in existance)
which was funded by Disney. Among his classmates were Tim Burton!
My friend worked on the Alaska pipeline during the summers to pay for
school. He worked with a notorious group of welders that became the
inspiration for an award-winning script he wrote about a man who falls afoul
of the oil companies and has to fight for his life. He has collected many
'glowing' rejection letters from major studios saying they loved the script
and wished him success but it is not what they were looking for. He has
several other interesting writing projects now in the works.
His regret now is that he did not focus like a laser beam on his career
right after his schooling but he got distracted with making a living and
finding the right woman(he never did marry). At one time it looked like he
was in, he was signed up to be a scriptwriter for a project with the wife of
Fellini! But she died a month later! The deal collapsed.
He gave up an offer to attend law school because he wanted to become a
film-maker. His younger brother became the lawyer and his extended family
has lost faith in his dreams but I think he will make it. This man has the
raw talent in that he has technical understanding and creative imagination
combined. Cameron, Spielburg and most great directors have this combination
also. I hope someday I can tell you all about a film of his that is about
to be released, perhaps in a few years.
'Star Wars: The Phantom Menace' is a glaring example of this. I wish
someone had approached Lucas and told him things needed to be changed. I
have heard doing that is like trying to correct Darth Vader on a bad day!
lol My dream is to have been a script doctor for the film. I would have
had Anakin living in wretched slavery with his mother murdered by a much
more imposing slave master. Anakin kills him and you see in his eyes the
hate that will one day lead to Darth Vader.
I have read one reason the previous films were so good was that he had other
people direct some of them. And he had some real head-on collisions with
these directors over things like cutting out stupid 'cutesey' aliens and
allowing Han Solo to be himself in the scene where when Leia says, "I love
you" he replies "I know" instead of, "I love you too." Had Lucas had his
way his films would have been the lesser for it. Lucas claims the next film
with Anakin as a teen will really take off story-wise. I hope so.
I read in the latest issue of 'Cinemascape' that John Travolta is glowing
about his new film, 'Battlefield Earth.' He claims that though it was done
on a mid-size budget it is tremendous for both FX and especially acting.
Travolta actually plays the villain!! In the book the alien bad guys were
nothing like humans except for being massively bulky bipeds that could not
breath our atmosphere. But because of budget limitations the aliens will
resemble klingons that are nine feet tall! I'm disappointed already. I
wanted Travolta as the hero. I will reserve judgement till I see the film.
sincerely,
John Grigg
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