We're too stupid for character development I guess.

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Krullban

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#1  Edited By Krullban

Movie Snowpiercer, was really looking forward to it, looked interesting. But I feel a little bit insulted by this! Movie was released in Korea, but the western version is getting 20 minutes of content cut because:

"Weinstein is making the cuts so the film can be more accessible to American audiences. Director Bong Joon-ho has said the cuts would "eliminate much of the character detail, which would make the film seem more like an action movie." It is also reported that Weinstein is adding opening and closing voice overs to the film."

http://www.superherohype.com/news/articles/178655-snowpiercer-reportedly-being-cut-by-20-minutes-for-us-release

We are too stupid over here in the western world to watch a movie with character detail. It's not like it's actually a Korean movie or anything where people will be bored in the west of listening to Korean. It's an English movie with Chris Evans and Ed Harris in it.

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Daneian

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All of that worked for Blade Runner's theatrical cut.

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jimmy_p

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This isnt anything new

more famous examples of executive fuckery attempts include: 2001, bladerunner etc.

studios dont exactly hand out auteur licenses these days

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deactivated-5e49e9175da37

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Do you notice that action movie trailers are loaded with explosions and people screaming and not character development? Then why would you be surprised when they just make an entire movie out of explosions and people screaming?

If 'we' refers to the movie going public, then yes, we are too stupid.

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OldGuy

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Hrmm... you write as if this is something new... I regret to inform you that it's not.

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deactivated-5cc8838532af0

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What's a character? Is that those things in front of the explosions?

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rebgav

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The Weinsteins just shouldn't be allowed to touch foreign movies. It seems deeply weird and ironic that their reputation is all due to campaigning for awards but their companies actually survive on gross-out comedies, low budget horror, and shitty "action" cuts of imported films.

On the plus side, maybe Snowpiercer will do well and get a proper home release by a company that actually likes movies.

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Video_Game_King

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@daneian said:

All of that worked for Blade Runner's theatrical cut.

I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not.

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OldGuy

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@daneian said:

All of that worked for Blade Runner's theatrical cut.

...and the Sheinberg edit of Brazil...

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Wampa1

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@rebgav: I find it weird people can be into Films and not know how notorious Harvey Scissorhands is. At least now you can usually get your hands on a complete cut on blu-ray day and date with an american edit.

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bigjeffrey

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Me Want Grown Up 3/4/5 already

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tourgen

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Unfortunate... but accurate

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chrissedoff

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#13  Edited By chrissedoff

From my experience with the Korean cinema, I think it's possible that the cut content is a bunch of loopy convoluted nonsense, but I guess there's really no reason to give Hollywood the benefit of the doubt either.

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JasonR86

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@daneian:

My first thought too. Honestly, do they think doing this will lead to a bigger gross? It seems like just the biggest waste of time and money.

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Rowr

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Have you seen anything made in Hollywood ever?

The USA is pretty widely recognised as far as movies go as needing everything spelled out so no one gets confused, full of fart/sex/injury jokes and extreme pandering to patriotism in order to sell.

Don't start arguing with me on this until you do a quick mental check of every recent blockbuster made in the USA.

Don't get me wrong there have been some great filmaker's from the states, not all of them necessarily profitable without following any of the guidelines above.

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RavenX302

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#16  Edited By RavenX302

All I want from movies is strong character driven plots and development......as long as that character has the appropriate tit to ass ratio...

I'm not even going to bother going into it, but what do people expect from Hollywood? its always the lowest common denominator. At this point, it is almost your fault if you expect anything more or less. God bless the USA. (though, this is not just an American problem, but they sure as hell are not helping.)

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Justin258

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@rowr said:

Have you seen anything made in Hollywood ever?

The USA is pretty widely recognised as far as movies go as needing everything spelled out so no one gets confused, full of fart/sex/injury jokes and extreme pandering to patriotism in order to sell.

Don't start arguing with me on this until you do a quick mental check of every recent blockbuster made in the USA.

Don't get me wrong there have been some great filmaker's from the states, not all of them necessarily profitable without following any of the guidelines above.

I'm not going to argue with you. They all seem to be following Independence Day's lead, even seventeen years after it came out. I mean, that was a good movie, but I don't think it was good enough to warrant being a template for two-thirds of every summer's output afterwards.

Fuck, I'll just go watch Drive again.

Anyway, it's not that the American public at large is actually that dumb. However, smart people can enjoy dumb stuff, and dumb people take dumb stuff seriously, so the appeal of dumb stuff is pretty massive, and mass appeal is what makes the people funding movies cream their pants, so blockbusters won't stop being crap anytime soon.

All of that said, it's possible to hide weird and crazy bullshit that makes no sense at all behind the curtain of "character development", so I'm not sure what to make of this without knowing anything about the movie or director. Although the premise sounds pretty awesome.

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Blu3V3nom07

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Why can't they just make a movie based on "Gunny the Gun". He and fellow gun-desperadoes have to fight the Explosions in this huge battle, while is Fire always in the middle fucking things up.

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Humanity

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#19  Edited By Humanity

@rowr: @believer258: It's not really only an American "Hollywood" problem but American movies happen to be the most popular all over the world and as such we get attributed with being these huge dummies that like their explosions and less talking. All over the world movies are being made and it's not like Korea or Germany or anywhere else you have this dense population of intellectuals that only watch Lynch movies and ponder the introspective nature of man. There have been plenty of thought provoking, deeply interesting cinema to come from American directors and screenwriters. While Korea has interesting cinema like Oldboy as the most widely known example, they also have mindless action like Dragon Wars or The Host - the latter being a pretty good action flick. Bollywood is not exactly cinema for the intellectual either, so is everyone in India a moron that needs to have dancing and singing in their movies or else they'll get bored?

It really is a shame that America gets all this flack for being filled with overweight, burger eating morons, because there are plenty of people living here that enjoy a good movie with a deep plot. Sadly it doesn't look like this silly reputation is going to go away anytime soon, but blaming Hollywood for making explosive summer blockbusters isn't really fair - especially when movies like Pacific Rim actually do better overseas than in the US.

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Justin258

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@humanity said:

@rowr: @believer258: It's not really only an American "Hollywood" problem but American movies happen to be the most popular all over the world and as such we get attributed with being these huge dummies that like their explosions and less talking. All over the world movies are being made and it's not like Korea or Germany or anywhere else you have this dense population of intellectuals that only watch Lynch movies and ponder the introspective nature of man. There have been plenty of thought provoking, deeply interesting cinema to come from American directors and screenwriters. While Korea has interesting cinema like Oldboy as the most widely known example, they also have mindless action like Dragon Wars or The Host - the latter being a pretty good action flick. Bollywood is not exactly cinema for the intellectual either, so is everyone in India a moron that needs to have dancing and singing in their movies or else they'll get bored?

It really is a shame that America gets all this flack for being filled with overweight, burger eating morons, because there are plenty of people living here that enjoy a good movie with a deep plot. Sadly it doesn't look like this silly reputation is going to go away anytime soon, but blaming Hollywood for making explosive summer blockbusters isn't really fair - especially when movies like Pacific Rim actually do better overseas than in the US.

That's not really what I meant, I don't say negative things about the country I live in lightly. I know other countries make smart and dumb movies, but it seems like that's all Hollywood advertises and that's what they put their huge budgets behind, with the occasional exception coming along every so often. Is decent talent really that rare? Can we go a year without a superhero movie? I'm not particularly big into movies so maybe I'm really missing good stuff made by American directors in Hollywood, but what would that be? Maybe Cloud Atlas?

I'm glad that Pacific Rim did well if only because it's a new property, but I'm also kinda scared that it's paving the way for, I dunno, an Evangelion movie or something.

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ryanwhom

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#21  Edited By ryanwhom

Not sure how a cynical assessment from a producer gives you the right to cast aspersions on 200 million people. Plenty of smart movies have done well in the states, and plenty of dumb movies have done well worldwide and poorly in the states (Pacific Rim). I know some people are looking for any excuse to shit on America but get more creative, all this indicates is America is a bigger market and 'old Hollywood' producers are jaded and very often out of touch.

People act like the highest grossing movies of all time outside of America are documentaries and scientific roundtables, get a clue everyone everywhere is equally stupid, find a new lynchpin.

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Dallas_Raines

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#22  Edited By Dallas_Raines

International audiences love stupid, light blockbusters as much, if not more so than Americans. Most blockbusters are designed to be as vapid and mindless as possible, so that anyone in the entire world can understand it, even with language and cultural barriers. 3d is also huge in countries like China, so there's that. Don't just throw everything on stupid Americans.

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Video_Game_King

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#23  Edited By Video_Game_King

I'd post the Shin-Ra theme if I didn't do that too much already.

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falserelic

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I know I am..

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MikkaQ

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#25  Edited By MikkaQ

Hollywood makes dumbed down movies to appeal to international audiences, not the other way around. It's not that western audiences wouldn't understand a movie like Snowpiercer, it's just that ol' Harv has never hesitated to cut down something to insure he gets the most money/awards returned for his investment regardless of how it affects the artistic qualities of a film. On one hand the guy totally knows what he's doing and will forge a movie that appeals directly to critics, on the other hand I think producers like him need to get their filthy money-grubbing hands off auteurist films.

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ArbitraryWater

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I'm glad that Pacific Rim did well if only because it's a new property, but I'm also kinda scared that it's paving the way for, I dunno, an Evangelion movie or something.

Nooo! If you keep on mentioning a live action EVA, at some point it will emerge out of development hell and become a real thing that we would have to deal with instead of some sketches done by Weta Workshop. Same goes for the live-action Akira.

And, as said previously, the increased size of international audiences are probably a bigger reason why all of our blockbuster films are mindless and easily digestible. Explosions cross all cultural boundaries.

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LikeaSsur

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#27  Edited By LikeaSsur

But dude, Pacific Rim is all about the deep subtleties and nuances of the characters! They're as complex as the giant robots they pilot! How could we not care about characters with such thought provoking movies like that, huh?! Remember that memorable quote in Pacific Rim?! "First of all, don't ever touch me. Second, don't ever touch me." Mind blowing stuff there.

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alternate

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lol Bong.

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pwr905

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#29  Edited By pwr905

Does "The Dude" count as character development?

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CreepyUncleBrad

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The first thing I thought of when I saw this post was Bladerunner. Then again I know nothing about Snowpiercer so I'm not sure how accurate that comparison is. Regardless you should be able to acquire the Korean cut of the film one way or another.