MovieBob said:
Jack the Giant Slayer
MovieBob gives us a few giant reasons to not go see Jack the Giant Slayer.
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The core problem here is that Bryan Singer has trouble emotionally connecting audience to character. This was clear back in the
X-Men movies and in
Superman Returns. For all their other faults, both movies failed spectacularly at making the audience feel, well,
anything about the perils of the protagonists.
I don't say this to bash Singer's chops. Actually, that's what makes him interesting. From a technical standpoint, there's no reason these characters shouldn't work -- they have recognizable personality traits (if a bit tired), they get their requisite one-liners, all the elements are there -- but they simply don't. It's the director equivalent of someone doing the old high school "acting like you're acting."
He's using the right tools and techniques, but just shy of the way he really needs to. It's like watching someone pantomime using a hammer. Even if they have perfect form, you can just
tell they're not really using it.
And what makes it even more interesting is that other directors (see: Christopher Nolan) can turn in great work in spite of this seeming inability to emotionally connect. Bryan Singer is caught somewhere in the middle, and I can't really pinpoint exactly what it is... though I do have a hypothesis or two.
1. He chooses the wrong actors, and then doesn't let them work. Directors like Nolan choose their actors carefully. Nolan, for instance, knows he doesn't really do well with drawing the audience in emotionally. So he hires actors like Michael Caine, and Leonardo DiCaprio, etc., and he trusts his
actors to handle that part. Singer doesn't. He chooses people who
look the part, and then he overdirects them, thus handicapping what they could do.
(In
X-Men, the costume choice was the worst offender. The leather limited motion, and made all the action look stiff and fake. And Cyclops?
You try emoting with 1/3 of your face covered, and see if it doesn't seem forced and awkward.)
2. He fails to commit to peril. In most cases, the "final showdown" or "high-stakes moment" in his movies often takes place somewhere far away from civilization. All three X-Men movies? Island, remote lake, island. Superman Returns? Made-up island. What's missing from all of these?
Innocent bystanders. See, it's hard to connect your audience to heroes reliably, so often you can use the bystanders as an audience insert... except if they're not there (or, as with
The Last Stand, magically edited away).
(Biggest offender:
X2. Prof. X is frying the brains of every human being on the planet. The stakes are incredibly high... yet we see
none of it. No planes crashing, no surgeons falling to the floor in the middle of an incision, no infants screaming in horror, not a bit of it.)
