What do you want?

What do you want?

What do you want when you read a book? See a movie? I can’t count how many movies I walked out of when I was younger, thinking, “Why didn’t they just do this instead?” Simple little things sometimes, major plot points or different endings.
Most of them I can’t remember any more. I remember thinking as I left the Day of the Dead movie that Bub should have spoken at the end of the movie, after he shot the captain.

I remember thinking as I watched Star Trek V they never should have filmed that sorry movie.

I remember thinking that the Deep Impact movie needed a re-write when I watched it. Very sad.

There was a World War II movie done in the 90’s I remember thinking should never have been filmed. I can’t remember what it was, but it seemed like every Hollywood star was trying to get in on it. Sean Penn was in it. That movie was terrible. There was a truly terribly-done scene where a man is mortally injured when he lands on a hand grenade, and people laughed at the scene as this man dies of shock. See Dr. K’s first golden principle, The Imperial Stormtrooper effect.
I don’t remember watching the Road Warrior in the Jane Pickens movie theater, except to say, it ranked as my all time high number of voiced complaints as to what they should have done – and first on the list was to hire someone else to write the soundtrack.

There are scenes I’ve seen where I wondered, “Why did they even include that sorry, uncomfortable scene?”

Arachnophobia missed on the chance to make a statement that would have been emotionally satisfying, and provided a laugh at the end of the tension – at the end, when the homeowner shoots the nail gun, he should have said… “…nailed him.”

Things like that.

I know you’ve done it too. You’ve walked out of the movie theater and complained. “Man, I can’t believe they did that!!!” I’ve heard people do it. I think it’s a universal theme. “They should have…”

I resolved years ago that if I ever got the chance, I would make the kind of movies that I wanted to see. I would write the kind of books I always wanted to write.

The first movie I ever saw where I said as I left the theater “I wouldn’t have done it any differently! That’s exactly how I would have made it!” was Aliens.

I’ve seen a few like that. But most I walk away from, thinking, “I’d have done that part differently.” It’s bad when I walk away saying, “That movie should have been in the reject pile.” The only assumption I can make is, it got tossed in the wrong pile.

So, my resolve is, make the kind of movies I always wanted to see. Write the kind of books that I always wanted to read. Like opening the Star Trek Technical Manual as a kid, seeing the Dreadnought, and saying, “They should make a TV show about that!”

That was a visceral reaction. When you get that, pay attention to it.

What did Star Trek fans want to see? A war with the Klingons and the Romulans! Certain Star Trek episodes were popular because they were action, not because of the lessons in them (although as you get older, you appreciate them!).

Like reading a book I got from a used bookstore and thinking, “That would make a really good movie!” Can’t remember the book, alas.

And I think this is a universal feeling. You see some movie, and you think, “That was terrible.” Or worse, “That was good – but they should have…”
It ruins it for us when there’s the feeling the movie would have been perfect IF….
Or they make a boneheaded mistake. Deep Impact – for all its well written pathos (it’s a tear jerker, seriously), is considered a comedy in Virginia, where half of the movie takes place. It seems that the characters are saved by climbing a mountain in Hampton, just off the interstate.

Um… There’s no mountains in Hampton. And the highway sign there reads, “Virginia Beach 14 miles”, not “Virginia Beaches 14 Miles.” A lot of people know Virginia Beach, because a lot of people are in the Military or grew up in Military families.

The point is, I absolutely hate it when I watch a movie, and the next phase, the next object to make it emotionally satisfying is completely disregarded. I think in many senses, this is why most sequels are terrible. The Must-have step is always ignored.
Really, it takes reading your script through a different way. You have to read it and ask, “what am I feeling?” Can you SEE the movie as you read it? The project I’m working on right now, I wrote one episode completely based upon this premise – write enough scenes and ask myself, what do I FEEL must come next? I don’t want the person seeing it to say, “He should have…”

Like the “You earned it” scene in “We Were Soldiers”. Cut from the final movie, but it really added a emotional fit piece. You promised us something with Joe Galloway as the reporter, you showed us the transformation into fighting soldier, and when we saw the payoff was coming it… was cut from the movie.
I want to write the kind of movies where you’re completely unaware how uncomfortable movie theater seats are. If you’re thinking something, then the movie is dragging or lacking.

Audience members should almost never walk out of a theater, saying, “They should have…”

Like World War Z. You know, guns are lying EVERYWHERE, and the hero keeps walking away from them! And takes on the zombies with a crowbar. Yeah, I understand the premise, but hey… it’s just ridiculous. Gerry should have picked up every gun he found lying around. If you’d been in his situation, you’d have done the same thing.

Dawn of the Dead remake – when Max Headroom is dying, and Ving Raimes sits facing him holding the shotgun. What was the needed dialog there? “How long do we wait?” “The rest of your life.”

So I resolve that my career is to write the kinds of books and movies where you leave, saying. “That was perfect!” and not, “why didn’t they…”

What do you want to see in movies? What do you want to see in books? What is it you like? What is it you don’t like? What movie have you seen where you think, “They went the wrong direction!” “They should have…” “Why did they…”