FX Saturation or Oh no, Not Another Tom Cruise Movie!

Mission Impossible – The Final Reckoning is in the theaters!  Ho hum.   Ok, let’s all just agree that Tom Cruise is one badass dude.  He is a living example of how massive wealth can keep aging in abeyance (or perhaps there is really is something to that scientology stuff?). But quite frankly, I will be perfectly happy to never see or hear about his derring do again in my rapidly diminishing lifespan.

I loved Mission Impossible when it was on television, though I imagine those episodes would seem dated and lame if I were to be desperate enough to watch them again.  In my youth I was fascinated by all the secret agent stuff and loved a good war movie.  I could sit through a couple minute car chase and a lengthy fistfight and be fascinated with the special effects necessary to stage them.  I was eager to watch each new Hollywood blockbuster.

 

But now I avoid them like the plague.  When I am forced to watch one due to social pressures, I find all the endless battle and chase scenes with all their incredibly high-tech CGI and special effects boring, trite and formulaic.  They simply do not interest me in the slightest anymore. I start to root for the evil guys out of sheer indifference.

 

Perhaps it is the fact that at almost 71 years of age I have seen so many adventure movies that I just don’t see anything new or intriguing in them.  I am particularly saturated with special effects.  I couldn’t even get excited by most of the Star Wars movies, though I was absolutely blown away by the first one.  I loved the first Raiders of the Lost Ark movie, but after that, Harrison Ford just left me cold (envy perhaps?)

 

I’ve only seen a few of the Marvel franchise or any of the other superhero stuff.  As a kid, I read comic books nonstop and would have killed to see blockbusters like the ones that seem to come out every few months. But now I couldn’t care less about the Fabulous Four or Green Lantern or any of the others whose names have now slipped into inaccessible spots in my memory.

 

Is it just me?  Is everyone else adoring this constant flow of Hollywood blockbusters with their ever more expensive, elaborate and stupefying special effects?  Do I no longer have my childlike wonder?  Can I no longer be thrilled by a fantastic adventure?

 

My movie and series tastes are very narrow now, and I find fewer and fewer things that really capture my imagination or that don’t seem terribly cliché to me.  But that’s ok.  I read more books and I find less sensational fare to pique my interest. I am a victim of FX saturation, but I can still fall in love with a book or a movie.  I guess I just have to accept that I am a bit of a snob and learn to live with it.