MonoMyth is Over

I just got home from seeing Jupiter Ascending. And I have to say I have three gut reactions to it. One, Douglas Booth, OMG I'm so in to you right now. Rwaaar. (Um, Sean Bean, you're still a great movie date and the sole reason I went to this film. You were superb as always. I mean no harm to you. And hey, Boromir still does it for me better. I just love really bad guys.)

Two: This movie, by damn near every standard should have been a blockbuster and it isn't. I get why some of the critics have criticized the screen play. I mean I was sitting in the movie re-plotting the rewrite of my novel so yeah, it could have been done a bit better. The acting was really, really done well in this film. And should have carried the movie. And I loved the special effects.

Three: And most importantly for those of you who write, the failure of this movie is terrifying. Monomyth is over. It won't carry your story anymore. I mean, sure at one point having the female be the protagonist was unique, but it won't do it now. And sure, a good moral in the center of a sci-fi flick powered a movie through. But it won't do. We have to break free. We have to find something new. Audiences are bored now.This script (and why peeps thought this thing was incoherent is beyond me) is your basic tried and true monomyth. Let's run the monomyth check list. 

Ordinary Joe? I mean Jupiter cleans toilets for a living. You just can't be more mundane than that. Check. Call to adventure? (seeing things no one else can?) Check. Love story? Check. Conquers both worlds? Check. And all the other plot points. Check, check, check.  So it SHOULD have worked. But it just didn't and I think it's because we've seen this song and dance before. There isn't enough strange out there to make the monomyth sexy again. At least not for a few years. So courage dear writers, courage.

Love,

Melanie