The way the storytelling craft is plummeting, they're going to need more and more tricks to get people in the theaters. Louder, bigger, brighter, in 3D... this is the kind of stuff you have to keep raising the bar on when nobody gives a crap about the story you're telling. This is why little independent movies on shoestring budgets come along and blow big studio films out of the water - they don't have the money for shiny objects; they have to survive on their storytelling. And when they do, they pwn. You can't get around having a story people are drawn into and characters they connect with. But that is a billion times harder to do than turning the volume up, putting everybody in cardboard dork glasses and saying, "How about THAT!" with a big, "repurposed" shit-eating grin on your face.

And Peter Jackson can go pound sand as far as I'm concerned. King Kong was 3 seconds of kick-ass monkey eyes and 1,900 "so-so to piss-poor" CG shots. Ditto all those freakin' LotR movies that might as well be surgical anesthetic. I am still stunned that people have had their expectations lowered so much that they actually enjoy watching a digital crowd simulation run for 6 minutes. What's even more sad is that movies are such an important part of our entertainment that people will increasingly watch with their expectations and nostalgia, forgive this stuff or refuse to see it because their eyes and ears and hearts couldn't possibly justify the $10.

_Mike