my hierarchy of movie needs

Matt Page's review of "Children of Men"

I'm only linking to this review because this movie is what got me thinking about this. I don't necessarily agree with his review, but he might give you a little more to go. In a nutshell, I'm not recommending the movie.

So, this morning in the shower I was thinking of what a movie needs for me to enjoy it. I started coming up with a list, but it's not really hiearchy because there are times when a movie can be stronger in one thing and it covers up a lack of another aspect. Sometimes this turns out acceptable to me and sometimes it doesn't. So here's the first of my list of important aspects for a movie in loose order with the exception of the first...

Movies Need to Have a Good story. This is far and away the most important. I can forgive a lot of bad dialogue, bad acting, bad cinematography, bad casting, bad editing if the story is good. Case in point: Star Wars saga. If you watch the whole sexology top to bottom, there are plenty of cringe-worthy scenes of horrible acting and worse dialogue; and not just in episodes I-III, although probably the worst instances would be found there. In episodes IV-VI, there are tons of cheesy, stupid lines of dialogue and lots of horrible acting. In fact, it's a testament to Harrison Ford as an actor that he's able to deliver some of those lines and NOT sound like a campy, cheese fest. In spite of these flaws, the Star Wars saga is among my favorite movies. Not a certain episode, but the whole thing. Why would I separate them? They're all the same story. And it's a GREAT, epic story.

Children of Men had an interesting premise: In 2027, everybody stopped getting pregnant. And suddenly one woman gets pregnant. That's interesting. But, that's about all that is good about this movie IMHO.