Characters

I watched Jupiter Ascending today with high hopes despite what many of the critiques were saying. After all I don't generally see eye-to-eye with them so their opinion doesn't usually have any sway over me. This time however I think that they got it right.

Despite being created by a couple of cinematic geniuses, the Wachowskis, this movie fell flat. As I was watching I couldn't quite put my finger on what was wrong. I mean the visual effects were stunning. The action/fight sequences were on par with the Matrix movies. The plot was relatively original with the appropriate amount of twists. So why did I find my mind wondering? Why did watching this half-dog half-man fighting a 7ft winged lizard bore me?

The answer I finally came to were the characters. They were shallow. Without some sort of depth I couldn't invest myself into them nor could I care about what their conflicts and struggles were. Characters are everything to story, especially a science fiction story.

This of course is of even more profound import when you're talking about the characters in a written story. You can have a good story, with an interesting plot, and a beautifully described setting, but if you don't have profound characters that the reader can relate to then the story will fail.

I don't think anyone has ever said it better than Tim O'Brien

"The goal, I suppose, any fiction writer has, no matter what your subject, is to hit the human heart and the tear ducts and the nape of the neck and to make a person feel something about the characters are going through and to experience the moral paradoxes and struggles of being human."

That ladies and gentlemen is the truth of the matter. Without character there is no story.

Thank you for taking the time to read what I've written.