Okay, so this is part question, part gripe.
It seems that whenever movies get made in the more "geeky" genres such as fantasy or sci-fi and to a lesser extent, horror, that they always seems lacking in at least one way or another. Too lighthearted/geared towards children (LOTR), too heavy on the action/lacking detail/shallow story/overly abridged (Reign of Fire/Chronicles of Riddick), terrible acting/production values (most anything on the Sci-Fi channel, try as they may) or SOMETHING else goes wrong that keeps a movie from being high quality, AND gritty/dark, AND a deep/epic story. That being said LOTR, Chronicles of Riddick, Reign of Fire, and a few others are probably my favorites, but each of them unfortunately is lacking in one of the above.
Now, that's not to say I don't understand WHY this is happening. There's a childish/lighthearted element to create a larger customer base to increase ticket sales. The heavy on the action/lite of the story to appeal to more adults, because let's face it, most people have the attention span of a gnat. And of course the lower budget films (like Sci-FI) have the best of intentions but since they lack the child appeal, and lack the action film angle they get screwed on funding because there isn't a large enough target market to make money off a film with double the budget. It surely would be interesting to see HBO/Showtime/etc make a strong attempt at fantasy/sci-fi in the vein of Dexter or Band of Brothers- even though they aren't fantasy/sci-fi they're prime examples of having strong stories, great production, and a certain grittiness about them.
So ending my rant, does anyone know any good movies I might have missed that don't screw the pooch in one of these categories? Or are you aware of anything currently in production that I might check out in the future? Or if you'd simply like to discuss the makings of a good movie in these genres...
It seems that whenever movies get made in the more "geeky" genres such as fantasy or sci-fi and to a lesser extent, horror, that they always seems lacking in at least one way or another. Too lighthearted/geared towards children (LOTR), too heavy on the action/lacking detail/shallow story/overly abridged (Reign of Fire/Chronicles of Riddick), terrible acting/production values (most anything on the Sci-Fi channel, try as they may) or SOMETHING else goes wrong that keeps a movie from being high quality, AND gritty/dark, AND a deep/epic story. That being said LOTR, Chronicles of Riddick, Reign of Fire, and a few others are probably my favorites, but each of them unfortunately is lacking in one of the above.
Now, that's not to say I don't understand WHY this is happening. There's a childish/lighthearted element to create a larger customer base to increase ticket sales. The heavy on the action/lite of the story to appeal to more adults, because let's face it, most people have the attention span of a gnat. And of course the lower budget films (like Sci-FI) have the best of intentions but since they lack the child appeal, and lack the action film angle they get screwed on funding because there isn't a large enough target market to make money off a film with double the budget. It surely would be interesting to see HBO/Showtime/etc make a strong attempt at fantasy/sci-fi in the vein of Dexter or Band of Brothers- even though they aren't fantasy/sci-fi they're prime examples of having strong stories, great production, and a certain grittiness about them.
So ending my rant, does anyone know any good movies I might have missed that don't screw the pooch in one of these categories? Or are you aware of anything currently in production that I might check out in the future? Or if you'd simply like to discuss the makings of a good movie in these genres...
