I mean without a good story or characters a movie is a painting

by Anonymous 10 months ago

But without actors, sets, lighting, costume designs, sound engineering, cinematography, so on and so on a movies is just a badly formatted book.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

It's almost as if they need all those things

by Anonymous 10 months ago

That is the OPs point Yet people overemphasize the writing

by Anonymous 10 months ago

Well, characters are kind of the point of a movie, or it is just a masturbatory celebration of action/sex, which I reckon has its place, but I want more.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

See, to me, the most worthwhile movies are the ones that are heavily story and character-driven. If the characters aren't compelling, I don't give a crap. I simply get bored with a big special effects-fest or beautiful cinematography if there is no "meat" to the story; It feels like there is no point other than to marvel at the technical aspects, which don't interest me on their own.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

I couldn't agree more. YouTube is full of so-called movie critics who are so cinematically illiterate they can't talk about anything other than plot and characters. Cinema is a combination of so many art forms; writing is just one of them. It's rare to come across YouTubers who know something about camera work, cinematography, film score or special effects. If good writing is the be all and end all for you then read a book.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

You're not even wrong. A movie, much like any piece of art, is a story represented by making use of a specific medium. A book is a story told using words. A song is a story told using music. A movie is a story being told visually using a sequence of images, music and audio. Without story, there's no movie. It's as simple as that.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

>So when someone says Pirates of the Caribbean or Transformers are bad movies, they're pretty much often wrong. Ugh.  The first PotC movie got five Oscar nominations, including one for "Best actor in a leading role". It is an *extremely* well written movie, btw. "Transformers" made my sister, who was 12 at the time, happy, so I'm happy it exists, but it's nowhere near as good as "The Curse of the Black Pearl" or any of its sequels. For some reason it seems to me that you're one of those people who believe action and adventure are inferior genres that don't need good writing. Well, surprise - they do. One of the reasons low budget action movies like "Taken" and "John Wick" made such a great splash is that they are, first and foremost, very well written movies - meaning that they establish their characters and their setting well and deliver everything they've promised narratively.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

If your story doesn't engage me, I don't care how pretty the lighting is or how good the acting is, it's wasted on a movie that I have no reason to care about.

by Anonymous 10 months ago