Views from Medina Road

Saw The Incredibles last night, about which first I will note that movie ticket prices in suburban LA have reached $10. This was at an AMC chain. (I suppose they've been that high in Manhattan for a while.) Liked the movie a lot, thought it more consistently clever and inspired and intelligent than, say, Shrek 2 or Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. But I also felt, moreso even than those two films, that the pace was so fast, especially near the end, with minute after minute of 1 1/2 second scenes, that it seemed to verge on the incomprehensible. Blink, or sneeze, and you've lost the storyline. I realize the pace of American movies has gotten faster and faster over the decades, with film students baffled or bored at being tasked to view the 'classics', but has it really gotten to the point where filmmakers fear they'll lose their attention deficit audiences if any nondialogue scene lasts 5 seconds...? The material was so rich, I felt at times I was experiencing the cinematic equivalent of viewing a book of art masterpieces as a flip book...

Or, hmm, maybe it's a ploy to make me pay to see it again... or buy the DVD. Hmm.