I just watched the last instalment of Peter Jackson’s Hobbit—-The Battle Of The Five Armies in 3D and I kept asking myself, when will African film-makers just be able to pull 1% of such great work?
From ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’ to his latest, Peter Jackson always takes you to a different dimension and the increasing improvement in his directing is so obvious. He is able to engage you for over 2 hours without you wanting to even blink.
Of course I cannot compare Hobbit to any African movie made or to be made in the next century but nothing stops our film-makers from improving, from where they started.
Even little things such as advertisement, our film-makers take for granted and their desire to make disproportionate profits mean, they do not even want to spend any good amount of money on advertising, let alone invest in their works.
I walked out of the cinema hall and for a minute, I thought I had time travelled into many years ahead to see a movie there…The whole elevator was blasted with the Hobbit advertisement and I have also seen several London buses, blogs and prints with the Hobbit adverts all over…
To be frank, the makers of Hobbit could have decided not to advertise and yet it would have been a huge success because there is no movie out there today with loyal fans like the Hobbit. Even that, a lot is being spent on advertisement.
Our African film makers will tell you; we have spent all our money on the making of the movie….And they expect their movies to receive huge views? By saying they have spent all their monies on the making of the movie, they mean they have put in some coins and expect to make millions—even without advertisements.
The total budget of the 3 Lord of the Ring films was 281 million dollars which I know it’s a hell lot of money. But the box office revenue the movies brought was 3 billion dollars. This is what we call; do it great and your returns will be great. How can anyone turn 281 million dollars into 3 billion in 3 years? Peter Jackson can do that for you because he does not compromise on standard—and he takes advertisement as serious as his projects.
Anyway, let’s hope we get there one day but I wouldn’t even bet my unworthy coin on our progress because our people have insatiable desire for disproportionate profits and quick fix.
The Elves came to glow in The Battle of the Five Armies and they remain my favourite group of persons.
My best part of the movie was when Legolas was fighting one of the Orcs of Middle Earth—and when the self created bridge was falling apart; he beautifully stepped on them each by each as they fell into pieces to make his way up.
Peter Jackson’s last instalment of the Lord of the Rings ( The Return of the King) received 11 Oscar nominations and won all the 11 (breaking the Academy awards clean sweep record). And his latest instalment of the Hobbit—The Battle of the Five Armies will definitely sweep more than 11 awards…
Umm, Chris… I realize you have to create these click-bait titles to draw hits, but at least be less contradictory with your statements. Sure, I do agree a 100% that Ghanaian movies suck – they suck BAD. And I agree they SHOULD be compared to international movies. What annoys me is your constant hypocrisy – you back these silly Ghanaian Shirley Frimpong-manso type fluff rom-coms (I guess, because they’ve paid for ad space), rate them high, encourage mediocrity and turn around and wonder why Ghanaian movies are not pushing the boundaries. I said it before – it’s the audience’s fault. They like these crappy movies. You don’t like them but support when it suits you. If I saw a ‘true’ review from you where a sponsor’s movie was rated less than 5 (I believe that’s where ALL Ghanaian movies stand now – in the 2 – 3 point range out of 10), it’d make a difference.
Oh and by the way, even though the Hobbit was technologically sound (production value and all) the trilogy was a bore. I LOVED the LOTR trilogy. But the Hobbit had overdrawn, unnecessary scenes that should’ve lasted 1 movie – but stretched into 3 so Hollywood can cash out big. And trust me, it WON’T get no 11 plus awards. What planet are you on? The only awards I think it would be nominated for and possibly win are Costumes and Visual Effects. Maybe Sound score. That’s it. And please, don’t tell me the fact that it made a lot of money proved it was good. No – Madea movies make a lot of money too. And they’re crap. It just proves people are die hard fans, stupid or just plain bored. People will watch crap – evidence in why Shirley is famous. Man, I hate these rom-coms. It’s like they look online for any “love” quote and slap it on a title and you have a movie. “love knows no bounds”, “love conquers”, “the thing about love”, blah blah. No thrillers, dramas, scifi, nothing. Stupid rom coms with bloggers like you giving it good reviews. Same bs. Look at this trailer: http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/watch-first-trailer-for-romcom-with-this-ring-regina-hall-jill-scott-eve-star-coming-january-2015-20141222. Same CRAP Ghanaian movies are trying to copy. It’s these terrible movies they try to rip off. Tyler Perry type crap. We’re Africans, we’re supposed to have storytelling engraved in us, but somehow we’re terrible at it. It’s sad, really.
Aptly Stated.Ghana Has No Movie Industry Or “Celebrities”,yet Chris gives Shout Out To Their Mediocre Crap Movies And Complains Afterwards.