I don't know why Titan A.E. failed miserably in the theaters. I don't understand why I now have to defend the movie against criticism. It is a wonderful movie! I think that the biggest problem with it was marketing. Granted, it's pretty hard to market a "cartoon" to adults, or a PG-rated cartoon to kids, but it should have been done. The quality of the animation is incredible and superb, and I loved watching it. Even on my first time through the movie, I had to repeat a couple of scenes just because I couldn't believe what I was seeing. The plot may be a bit simple for hard-core science fiction fans (which I am), but it also isn't so complex that it leaves the next generation of fans out in the cold. This movie's faults all fall into that gap between a kids movie and a grown-up movie, and it is that attempt at a dual nature that keeps this from being a great film beginning to end.

The Bad
First, a movie I didn't finish watching. I usually like accents and cute foreign movies, but I fell asleep during Waking Ned Devine, twice. The third night, as I tried again to start up where I had nodded off the night before, I finally gave up. The movie was just too slow and boring. Sorry.

Bringing Out The Dead compressed three days in the life of an EMS driver into two hours of mostly boredom. Martin Scorcese is a master of the cinematic arts, I hear, and so obviously the problem lies with me. Excellent camera work, fancy fireworks (in the most confusing of many boring scenes), and what is probably supposed to be an artsy slice-of-life script just don't add up for me. Maybe it's a generational thing.

I think that the only reason that Eye Of The Beholder was made is that it probably read well. It would make a much better book than movie, because in a book (and maybe in the script) we would have some explanation of what on earth was going through the characters' minds. Watching the movie, all we got was sad faces, scared faces, and pouty faces. These were probably supposed to convey some deep meaning. They didn't.

[ This was Part 1 of a two-part essay. Part 2 of this article features The Ugly part of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, plus a bonus section of movies that Should Have Been Better. ]