Comments on: Have Hollywood Scriptwriters Lost The Skill Of Storytelling?

By: spooks

spooks — Fri, 01 May 2009 12:23:35 +0000

I completely agree with you that the special effects department have taken over nearly every action film you see these days. The story lines are so thin and to a degree quite silly that the film needs padding out and what better than some computer generated action. The problem I have with it is that nowadays the effects are getting to be as ridiculous as the storyline. Bruce Willis in his last die hard movie (Absurd) The Day the Earth stood still (The robot looked more like a character that had come from some child’s crayon book) I could go on but I think you get the point. Story writers have run out of idea’s (Hence the pointless remakes)

By: Sanity is my full time job

Sanity is my full time job — Fri, 01 May 2009 12:23:35 +0000

It’s not the fault of the writers, I think it is the audience at fault. The MTV generation has such little attention span that they only enjoy trash like reality tv, stupid horror movies like Saw, and teenage trash like Twilight or Hannah Montana.
There are plenty great films out there, just look at more of the independent films.
Also, The Dark Knight, or Batman is supposed to be dark and brooding. The current movies are more true to his character than the previous ones.

By: Tank Mk1

Tank Mk1 — Fri, 01 May 2009 12:23:35 +0000

Comic strip heroes should be fun – I dislike the dark and brooding thing intensely true lol

By: Jorge Luis

Jorge Luis — Fri, 01 May 2009 12:23:35 +0000

I completely agree with you

By: slipstre

slipstre — Fri, 01 May 2009 12:23:35 +0000

I think you are unfamiliar with the process. In Dark Knight – the director was also one of the screenwriters and had the power to not have the script mangled by studio executives. Most good movies are made by people with the power to tell the story they want to. Or indie movies, where there isn’t huge amounts of cash involved so things happen as they should without changes that dilute the script/story. Most bad movies were messed up by the development process = the studios tampering, or by stars who want to make their characters go from bad guy to good guy for their own egos. It’s a case of too many cooks spoiling the broth. There is so much money involved that the studios hedge their bets and try to make films be all things to all people – which results in dull, flaccid films and characters/dialogue
It isn’t the screenwriters that are the problem 99% of the time.
Often movies made from books are okay as the book is well known and the plot cannot be changed much. But original scripts/stories get altered and watered down/destroyed by the studios all the time.
Read some books about screenwriting like William Goldman’s. Explains it all.