Magic of Movies

I love old movies. There was a charm about them, a charm that came from not having every little thing explained. We celebrate the concept of a film that leaves information out—all the while, we route for another film for the anthology to tell us everything about the universe we are watching.

I’ve said countless times (to anyone who will listen) that I love Dark Souls. I love those game for the story telling. These are stories that dare to keep a huge part of the world and the story away from you so that you have to do the work and finish the story yourself.

This used to be something that happened consistently with movies.

Watch a film like Alien. The film was scary not because of the monster lurking in the shadows (although yes that did send a tingle down my spine), but because we knew practically nothing about the creature. It came from an embryo… which came from another creature… which came from an egg… which came from another creature that probably didn’t come from an egg… the mystery is what makes it scary. When you don’t know how something came about there is a primal fear that steers inside of us because we could cause that situation to come about by our ignorance.

But then the years pass. This Alien mythos was explored in comic books, novels and video games. And to be honest, I love them too. I love knowing that half the Alien’s DNA is depending on whatever creature comes across a face-hugger. But then the ‘prequels’ came out. And while yes, Prometheus was an okay film—aside from some of the obvious issues—it opened the door to something that we shouldn’t have got.

The monster in the shadows was put in the center of high beams and the anatomy was explained in a thousand page medical paper—figuratively speaking.

It’s not just horror films that have fallen to this trap. I love John Wick. The first movie gave us questions with nothing more than little hints. John has a number of gold coins and we have an idea that just one of those coins is worth a considerable amount of blood, sweat, and tears. Yet we don’t know where those coins come from, how many are in circulation or even where they come from.

We are left coming up with our own answers and that gives a beautiful romantic tint to a film that is more than a little dark.

At the end of the third film, we have seen where the coins come from, we have had John’s links to the Russian mob explained and even his training showcased by other’s—so… Mr. Wick isn’t special, he just put more time in when it comes to training? Well… that’s a bit of a kicker.

I still enjoy those films of course and I will watch a fourth installment—if we get one. But there was no need for it.

Hollywood gives the masses what we demand, but for the most part, we don’t know what we want. We have an idea but most of us aren’t storytellers. Our demands of wanting to know more and have more of what cinematic gold we got has lead to the point where that gold is just a shinny metal. Sure, from the distance it looks as good, but when you start to dissect it, it’s not as exciting. It’s not as valuable or stunning.

At this point, if the promises for another movie in the Alien franchise comes out, I’ll be compelled to watch it at some point, but I’ll be going in with such a low bar that I’ll be expecting a bad film.

So like a lot of people, I’ll be going to watch a ‘bad movie’ with the idea that I wont really like it. Knowing that the new installment is taking so much more away from the original. Making that one film that scary the expletive out of me, now just something to giggle at.

The magic of movies has been removed by our demand to know more. The kid at Christmas is more excited on Christmas eve because they don’t know what they are getting.

Any child who is taken to a toy factory to see the whole process from start to finish would get bored long before the end. There is no magic in knowing everything. This is the only time I’ll promote ignorance, but with films, it’s always better to have questions left at the end.

I know it’s a hard balance to get, especially these days where there is so much pressure from studios to make ‘The next big thing.’ But surely that’s why we send so much money to Hollywood. So that they can have the best writers and craft the best stories that leave us wanting more and not over-saturated with information so that these films become a bore.

I can’t watch Alien and be scared. And when I play a game like Alien Isolation, I’m not scared of the alien, I’m stressed because the damn thing can hear me walking around and even picks up sound from my microphone.

So as from one little movie fan to Hollywood, let me end by saying: please, please stop explaining everything. Let me leave a film with more than one question. Let me sit and wonder about the anthology without ever getting concrete answers. Let me have that magic back.