"Dabble - to work at anything in an irregular or superficial manner." *Dictionary.com

"Dabble" is the best word to describe what musician Kanye West is doing by directing a movie that will accompany his next album release, Dark Twisted Fantasy, which itself is part of his "Good Music Fridays" initiative, where he releases a new song every Friday between now and Christmas.

The 40-minute movie is called Runaway and it represents West's first time exploring film as a medium. He recently showed the trailer for Runaway at the pre-show or the MTV Video Music Awards and it left many viewers  grasping for words to explain what they had just seen.

This isn't the first time West has left people speechless as they try to understand the edgy hip-hop artist. At the 2009 VMA's, West notoriously interrupted  Taylor Swift while she was accepting her award and instantly solidified his reputation as an egotistical loud-mouth jerk. He took a lot of flak over the next few months, much of which has settled down now - he even got a stern talking to by Jay Leno, who asked the controversial star what his recently-deceased mother would've thought about his tasteless behavior.

I threw a Molotov cocktail on my career last year, in a way, and I had to come back as a better person.

Runaway directed by Kanye West starring Selita Ebanks

It's very hard to explain what is in the short trailer  for Runaway and even harder to explain what the movie will be about, but one thing is for sure - West's ego will be stamped all over it. The only way to watch the trailer is to check it out on West's website - fans can also download six audio tracks from his next album after watching it. Check out the link below for the trailer:

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While the imagery is beautiful to look at and the framing is excellent, I can't help but notice the lack of cohesion in the trailer. West says the film is a "visual" that goes along with the album and it's possible he's made one long music video that is supposed to be played along with the entire album. If that is the case, then the movie might make more sense when taken into context. Kanye describes Runaway as such:

It’s the story of a phoenix fallen to Earth, and I make her my girlfriend, and people discriminate against her and eventually she has to burn herself alive and go back to her world. I've been feeling the idea of the phoenix. It’s been in my heart for a while. It’s maybe parallel to my career.

Runaway directed by Kanye West

West has never been lacking in swagger and ego but I find the statement "I make her my girlfriend" to be very pompous. Of course I have to be honest - if a cute fiery girl fell to Earth and I found her, then I'd make her my girlfriend too. West told NY Mag this in reference to his ego:

“There’s no such thing as an alter ego for me. I am the ego."

West isn't the first musician to put down the microphone and step behind the camera. Rob Zombie has done it several times (The Devil's Rejects, Halloween), Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit has two films to his credit (The Longshots, The Education of Charlie Banks) and most recently Wu-Tang member RZA has decided to direct a Kung Fu film (The Man with the Iron Fist). Not all of these musician-turned-director efforts have been great. Zombie and Durst both had mixed results behind the camera and RZA has yet to be tested.

Runaway directed by Kanye West

West will have to please more than just his fans if he wants to continue making movies. Who knows - if he pulls this off, maybe audiences will be watching a tent pole summer film in 2012 directed by Kayne West - what do you think about that?

Runaway should be released November 16th, 2010 in correlation with Dark Twisted Fantasy.

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Source: The Marquee Blog