Netflix : super 8

This movie got so much hype, and was blown all out of proportion due to it's actors and behind the scenes people. I'd like to say in a world where all to often the film makers hide nothing and lose everything.
What made movies like jaws and aliens great was the absence of the creature, yet this just went to far, all to much like a puzzle where they forgot to put in the edge pieces. The decision to make it a period piece made no sense. It not only failed to add anything of substance but detracted massively.
I'm guessing part of that was a bit of self indulgent nostalgia for the director making movies as a youth, when this could have been placed today when digital cameras are pervasive and more kids make zombie movies today than ever they did then. I guess this movie was in a sense aimed at my generation with HAM radios and super 8 cameras and walkie talkies.
Talking about the HAM the military wouldn't be broadcasting on a public band but frequency resonance mirroring or power bleed through from being close to the source broadcasting at such a high power the signal bleeds through. Yes this was another hobby at one time, I still have very powerful radios, scanners, shortwaves, frequency detectors, hell, there may even be a few C. B. 's laying about, not that it has anything to do with the movie.
Sadly they even try for the idiotic Romeo and Juliette story, and having the African-American soldier kill the other black individual was clearly making a statement, is the director trying to say the military started black on black violence in the 70's. For such a visceral point it's import or lack of made it powerless. The whole star crossed first time lovers just seemed tacked on. Though Juliet's, not her characters real name, dad was really pretty good considering. But weird stuff going on in town and the stupid kids are fighting over the girl, and don't even get curious about the military or the train until half way through the movie, when it takes an hour to even get into the movie, UGH!

I'm not one of those people that needs explosive action before the credits roll, but really half way through the movie before you start setting up your chess pieces? Nuts.
The power outages and moving objects seemed to badly written for aliens and ultimately was just badly done. I expect more if that's supposed to be foreshadowing of aliens, the bizarre attempt at humanizing the creature was done in the most inane fashion. I guess to be brief after all the hype and teasers, with the first hour and a half of a two hour movie more teaser I was left wanting more of everything, worst they made the worst, biggest mistake a movie maker can make in my book, they filmed it all to dark, again it was a useful the more frustrating than successful technique in it's day, it is useless now. I find at 1.27 in a 1.51 length movie I really am invested more in this blogs notes than I am the movie. Not a sign of a four star movie. I base my movie rating on two things how will I see a movie, this I saw on Netflix, I didn't wait for cable, but I didn't buy it, or see it in theaters, this is not a movie I want in my collection. Seeing as I have over a thousand movies in my collection, not counting laser disks, see I really am that old, not wanting this movie is saying something so on the fang system, 5 fangs being impossibly good nothing has 5 fangs, and 0 fangs being bleh normal id give this movie 1 fang, it's a broken vampire!

Movie Soundtracks

Movie soundtracks, great for a movie, I've been educated that there's a really important reason for soundtracks, my love, a theater major graduate and one of my best friends a film grad have explained sound tracks do two major things one they can be traced back to at least to Greek theater where they where called a chorus, first they give us a background of the world/enviorment where watching and they represent our (the viewers) thoughts and feelings, cueing us on how to feel and think about what where seeing, and preparing for what is coming, think about jaws or Halloween and replace that heartbeat syncopated rhythm with a jazzy uptempo music and a tense moment becomes amusing, even funny, strangely though it's musical construct has strange effects like discordant off-tone keys instead of chords makes us feel uncomfortable, and it's what made the original chain saw massacre so terrifying, it had no soundtrack, possibly the first of its kind. We had no sub-Liminal cues on what to base our feelings, just screams, chainsaws, and roaring cars, mixed with the raw lonely empty sounds of nature, this created panic in many people. That being said what makes a good soundtrack to listen to? I have and listen to regularly the soundtracks to the lord of the rings, Harry potter, avatar and tron are two favorites, and avengers is growing on me. So why do we listen to movie soundtracks, to remind us of those moments in the movie? Similer moments in our lives, or do we attach our own meanings to the music? Just something to think about next time your watching a movie, that soundtrack was carefully crafted and blended to have an effect, if it's a movie, a TV series, or whatever. So listen carefully to the music next time you watch a movie and hear that sweeping up tilt in the music as Harry rides the flying griffon the first time, and the music rises in a hallelujah moment as he sweeps down and it's claw touches the water and enjoy, someone took a lot of time to create that moment which most people will never notice overtly. So which soundtracks do you listen to, I love queen of the damned with its great songs as much as animatrix with its great techno driven beats, what do you like and why? What do these albums mean to you?