I recently saw Spider Man 2. I grew up reading Spidey in the comics, so I went in to the movie theater (a drive-in, actually) with some degree of skepticism, even though I liked Spider Man 1. This was a sequel, after all -- something Hollywood rarely does well. I found to my pleasant surprise that I enjoyed the film very much -- except when it came to the fight sequences between Spidey and Dr. Octopus.
The shortness of the cuts, the lack of continuity from cut to cut, the "jump" cuts, and the frequent "crossing the line" of action (so people seem to move from one side of the screen to the other) left me completely disoriented. I often literally couldn't tell what was happening. I've noticed this when watching several recent action sequences in Hollywood flicks.
I recognize that this disorientation is probably deliberate, as editors want to make the audience feel like they don't know where the next punch is coming from. However, lately, it seems like it's gotten so bad that it hurts the storytelling.
Is this just me? Am I just an old-fashioned dinosaur who's too set in his ways to appreciate this style of editing? Do younger viewers more readily accept and follow this kind of chaos? I recall my parents expressing great confusion when "Hill Street Blues" came out on television, saying they couldn't focus on so much simultaneous action at once. It seemed perfectly natural to me. I remember similar comments about MTV, too.
Anyone else feel a bit lost and long in the tooth?
The shortness of the cuts, the lack of continuity from cut to cut, the "jump" cuts, and the frequent "crossing the line" of action (so people seem to move from one side of the screen to the other) left me completely disoriented. I often literally couldn't tell what was happening. I've noticed this when watching several recent action sequences in Hollywood flicks.
I recognize that this disorientation is probably deliberate, as editors want to make the audience feel like they don't know where the next punch is coming from. However, lately, it seems like it's gotten so bad that it hurts the storytelling.
Is this just me? Am I just an old-fashioned dinosaur who's too set in his ways to appreciate this style of editing? Do younger viewers more readily accept and follow this kind of chaos? I recall my parents expressing great confusion when "Hill Street Blues" came out on television, saying they couldn't focus on so much simultaneous action at once. It seemed perfectly natural to me. I remember similar comments about MTV, too.
Anyone else feel a bit lost and long in the tooth?