Movies are obviously vast, complicated, ludicrously intricate endeavors that all require the work and passion of hundreds of people who don't get the credit they deserve. A film is shaped largely by actors, by the director, and especially by the editor in post. All of those people can help make a good movie great.
But all of those peoples' jobs are ten times harder, if not almost impossible, if the script is terrible.
Just today I'm looking through the reviews of Men In Black International, considered largely to be a bland disappointment, and you hear the same things over and over; the production is slick, the direction is fine, and the leads are working overtime to make their inherent charisma shine through. But it all crumbles under a bland, unfunny script.
I'm not caling the writer out, and I'm aware that a lot of people see that script and give it the go ahead before production, and it's commonly changed on the fly during production. But when you think about movies that have failed, it's rare to find one that you can point to as "this movie was well-written, but poorly directed so it failed". It's hard to find movies that outright fumble solely based on their acting, special effects, action choreography, etc. We're still all humans, and humans love to tell stories.
A good script can generally help prop up a lot of other aspects of a film, like acting or special effects, if they can't hold their weight. But the opposite is rarely true. And I dunno, I was just thinking about that and I find it really fascinating. It's a ton of pressure to write films, I feel like so much of what you put on that page will determine the success of a film. Which kind of makes it so fascinating that so many bad scripts get made, especially for big budget films. Do so few people in Hollywood know how to spot a bad script, and articulate why it's bad?
Sorry, this is more a rant than a question, but MIB International just got me thinking about something we see countless times in Hollywood.
But all of those peoples' jobs are ten times harder, if not almost impossible, if the script is terrible.
Just today I'm looking through the reviews of Men In Black International, considered largely to be a bland disappointment, and you hear the same things over and over; the production is slick, the direction is fine, and the leads are working overtime to make their inherent charisma shine through. But it all crumbles under a bland, unfunny script.
I'm not caling the writer out, and I'm aware that a lot of people see that script and give it the go ahead before production, and it's commonly changed on the fly during production. But when you think about movies that have failed, it's rare to find one that you can point to as "this movie was well-written, but poorly directed so it failed". It's hard to find movies that outright fumble solely based on their acting, special effects, action choreography, etc. We're still all humans, and humans love to tell stories.
A good script can generally help prop up a lot of other aspects of a film, like acting or special effects, if they can't hold their weight. But the opposite is rarely true. And I dunno, I was just thinking about that and I find it really fascinating. It's a ton of pressure to write films, I feel like so much of what you put on that page will determine the success of a film. Which kind of makes it so fascinating that so many bad scripts get made, especially for big budget films. Do so few people in Hollywood know how to spot a bad script, and articulate why it's bad?
Sorry, this is more a rant than a question, but MIB International just got me thinking about something we see countless times in Hollywood.
