I took my three-and-a-half-year-old son to the "Creature Double Feature" at the Detroit Film Theatre this afternoon. We watched The 7thVoyage of Sinbad and Godzilla Versus the Sea Monster (though the literal translation of the title seemed much longer). I thought I'd introduce him to something from my childhood (they were old when I saw them for the first time in the late 70s). While he did enjoy them and was very well-behaved for his age I hope he doesn't get the idea that this was fine cinema. Camp, camp, camp! Was that dialogue the best they could do for Sinbad? I don't know what cultural conditions were like in Japan in the 60s but the American filmmaker's attitude seemed to be "This stuff is just comic-book crap. It's just for the kiddies. It doesn't need to be well written." That was unfortunate, because the fx director, the great Ray Harryhausen, took his craft seriously. The stop-motion work in that 1958 piece was astounding. Sure, it's no CGI, but given the tech at the time, his creations were luminous. If only the writing and the acting were as good.
Another observation I made was that the audience was 80% male, 90% white and the majority of the men were middle-aged (I'm not quite there). No lie, but except for the hair color one gentleman looked spot-on like this. (Judgement alert) Most of the guys looked like they spent their youth at too many comic-cons. Of course, what does that say about me? Thankfully, Cai is too young to say "Face it, Dad, you're a nerd."
Another observation I made was that the audience was 80% male, 90% white and the majority of the men were middle-aged (I'm not quite there). No lie, but except for the hair color one gentleman looked spot-on like this. (Judgement alert) Most of the guys looked like they spent their youth at too many comic-cons. Of course, what does that say about me? Thankfully, Cai is too young to say "Face it, Dad, you're a nerd."
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