Anyone else loving the visual style of this movie?

[Leo656]

Originally Posted by Bry

Just when I think I'm out...

http://media.giphy.com/media/SkVREjcAhHggE/giphy.gif

I actually really dislike the visual style of this movie, actually. I'll explain why, but for the sake of fairness: it's a totally subjective thing and I don't expect anyone to agree, necessarily. Okay? Okay!

But... I actually don't think it has "good" cinematography or camerawork at all, based on the trailers I've seen. I think it has very flashy cinematography and camerawork, and that has its appeal and is definitely popular with some folks, but to me it just seems really obnoxious and overly-busy. It's eye candy, but... there's a reason you get sick if you eat too much candy in one sitting.

The most effective storytelling is often the simplest. The flashy stuff is best used sparingly, and it's more effective because of it. But with this movie, it seems to be all flash: we seem to have the camera almost constantly moving, sweeping and bouncing around, while nearly every shot seems to have spotlights and smoke machines going off in the background. Seriously, look at those shots in the original post - smoke and heavy, artificial-looking filtering and bright lights and lens flares all over the place. And I know that some people really enjoy that, but I think it's totally obnoxious and distracting.

And my worry about this, based on what I've seen so far, is that this movie's overall "look" is more concerned with being the cinematography equivalent of a fireworks show instead of offering any actual decent, legitimate storytelling - all flash, zero substance.

If you haven't seen it yet, there's a great (and fair) video describing the overall Michael Bay style called "Bayhem" that sums up a lot of my issues with the look of this movie. (And I know that Bay didn't direct it, but this movie is very much in his style and follows his influence, so I think it's relevant.) IMO, and as it says in the video, that style is great at being flashy, but it's incredibly limited by its need to be flashy at all times, and it suffers because of that on a basic storytelling level. There's no subtlety and no nuance. And I don't care what kind of movie you're making -- even a silly action/comedy -- you need those things, even just a little bit, to make anything worth watching.

In general, I like the cut o'yer gib, guy. But face it, you an' I are just doing it wrong. Apparently.

For what it's worth, as I said before, it looks slick. Too slick? Eh, I'unno.