Why I Love McG
Personally, I thought Terminator Salvation was a fun, interesting, cool future war movie. While it wasn't about a mean old anachronistic robot stalking Los Angeles, the first two films gave me everything I'd ever want to get from that formula.
Given that Charlie's Angels was designed to be a silly, fun chick-power movie with over the top characters, hammed-up action and a nod to the sexually liberated reputation of the seventies, in what way do you think McG could have done a better job? To me, that film succeeds on every level on which it's playing - and offers up more honesty and more fun than it needed to, thanks to the wonderful cast. While the second one was drowned in excess, that was kind of the point.
While I haven't seen We Are Marshall, I hear it was good. So what if McG hasn't been making Chris Nolan movies his entire career? Calling him a crappy director, or suggesting he lacks in vision, is both unfair and innaccurate. Every film McG has done has required a director with a strong internal sense of the sandbox he's playing in - the universe, if you will - and every time, he's delivered.
While he may or may not create something as crisp and new as a Star Wars, Matrix, or Avatar of his own, he's proven himself to be a rock solid, clear-eyed director who cares about his audience and nurtures his cast.
McG is the Sid Lumet of action cinema. There, I said it. People accuse Sid of not having a style, just like McG - but what he doesn't have, really, is an agenda. Both of those guys live and breathe in total service to the films they're making.
Sometimes, an agenda can lead a director to do something great. At the same time, like any tool, agendas can get out of hand, misused, or worn out. For McG, it's better to let the film talk to him, than to tell the film what it is. That's not a lack of vision. That's humility.
Sometimes, humility gets in the way. Like when you're inventing a universe from the ground up. Right then, you need to believe that you are God.
Those aren't the movies McG is making, people. IMHO, he directed Charlie's Angels PERFECTLY. Flawlessly. Provided I want to see the film they set out to make film, which I often do, there's no way he could have more movie for me to watch. Anything else would have been less.
With Terminator: Salvation, I might not be willing to go that far. I might not call it the perfect Terminator: Future War. At the same time, there's a lot to love. It's no less than what the franchise deserves, and I love it.
That man busts his ass to make me happy when I sit down in the movie theater, and he does good work. What more can I ask of a filmmaker?
On top of that, he makes some VERY courageous choices in terms of what projects he's willing to take on. Charlie's Angels pidgeonholed him, and he did it anyway. We Are Marshall is way outside his "wheelhouse", and he did it anyway. Terminator was coming off a shaky third installment, and the plan for revitalizing the franchise was ambitions, to say tyhe least - and he did it anyway.
McG has done right by me, I'll tell you that much!
Given that Charlie's Angels was designed to be a silly, fun chick-power movie with over the top characters, hammed-up action and a nod to the sexually liberated reputation of the seventies, in what way do you think McG could have done a better job? To me, that film succeeds on every level on which it's playing - and offers up more honesty and more fun than it needed to, thanks to the wonderful cast. While the second one was drowned in excess, that was kind of the point.
While I haven't seen We Are Marshall, I hear it was good. So what if McG hasn't been making Chris Nolan movies his entire career? Calling him a crappy director, or suggesting he lacks in vision, is both unfair and innaccurate. Every film McG has done has required a director with a strong internal sense of the sandbox he's playing in - the universe, if you will - and every time, he's delivered.
While he may or may not create something as crisp and new as a Star Wars, Matrix, or Avatar of his own, he's proven himself to be a rock solid, clear-eyed director who cares about his audience and nurtures his cast.
McG is the Sid Lumet of action cinema. There, I said it. People accuse Sid of not having a style, just like McG - but what he doesn't have, really, is an agenda. Both of those guys live and breathe in total service to the films they're making.
Sometimes, an agenda can lead a director to do something great. At the same time, like any tool, agendas can get out of hand, misused, or worn out. For McG, it's better to let the film talk to him, than to tell the film what it is. That's not a lack of vision. That's humility.
Sometimes, humility gets in the way. Like when you're inventing a universe from the ground up. Right then, you need to believe that you are God.
Those aren't the movies McG is making, people. IMHO, he directed Charlie's Angels PERFECTLY. Flawlessly. Provided I want to see the film they set out to make film, which I often do, there's no way he could have more movie for me to watch. Anything else would have been less.
With Terminator: Salvation, I might not be willing to go that far. I might not call it the perfect Terminator: Future War. At the same time, there's a lot to love. It's no less than what the franchise deserves, and I love it.
That man busts his ass to make me happy when I sit down in the movie theater, and he does good work. What more can I ask of a filmmaker?
On top of that, he makes some VERY courageous choices in terms of what projects he's willing to take on. Charlie's Angels pidgeonholed him, and he did it anyway. We Are Marshall is way outside his "wheelhouse", and he did it anyway. Terminator was coming off a shaky third installment, and the plan for revitalizing the franchise was ambitions, to say tyhe least - and he did it anyway.
McG has done right by me, I'll tell you that much!
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Tennyson E. Stead on -
McG would be the perfect guy for adapting all the cheesy, awesome books I used to read as a kid, in fact. McG for Ender's Game! McG for Moon is a Harsh Mistress!
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