The Modern-Day Movie Crisis
"There is nothing new under the sun," my father said.
There is no such thing as an original idea; every idea is just a mixture of the ideas that came before that one. One can see this in modern-day media. I believe that there were great movies before the 2010's, but since that era has been over, all of the movies are remakes and sequels.
The only new, slightly original movies are the super-hero ones that Marvel keeps pumping out. Marvel releases about 3-5 new super-hero movies each year, and most of them are remakes and sequels as well. The abundance of these type of films is what I call The Superhero Epidemic.
However, an under-lying issue from this movie crisis arises. Why do the unoriginal movies become popular? Why does everyone choose to go see the remakes and the sequels instead of the movies that propose new concepts?
Perhaps it is because the new generation lacks the creativity that other generations had, or maybe it is due to the nostalgia that is packed in these sort of movies. Audiences tend to choose familiar concepts that the unknown ones.
Some time ago, my step mom and I went to go to the movie theater. We did not have a movie in mind, but we wanted to see something entertaining. Everyone who was in line in front of us went to go see A Wrinkle In Time, but we went to go see Thoroughbreds instead. The movie was thrilling and new, but the theater was barely filled on the second weekend of it being out.
I am not trying to sound like a "hipster" that rejects anything if it is not obscure, but it just astounds me that people would choose to see the same reruns of a concept than a more original idea. Surely the under-performing style of Blockbuster movies gets boring after a while. There were many fantastic movies shown this year, but there were also a humongous amount of awful movies.
A good example of this would be the Harry Potter spin off series, Fantastic Beasts. The first movie was incredibly good and it surpassed my expectations. I expected it to be slightly bad due to it not being based on a book J. K. Rowling wrote. My father enjoyed the movie and he despises the Harry Potter series. Due to the first movie being stupendous, my expectations for Fantastic Beasts and the Crimes of Grindwald were high.
My family and I went to go see the movie on Christmas Eve. There was a group of ten, we ate a fancy meal and we bought movie theater snacks. In my family, if we get movie theater snacks, that means that we expected it to be a very good one.
The movie theater was packed, so we had to sit in the first row. My neck was turned ninety degrees, but that is not why I was disappointed in the movie. The movie felt like a rushed filler for the third movie. The plot was lost in the midst of all of the CGI and pointless back story. The film had lost its original essence of why it was great. I felt like the characters lost their traits and just turned into the catalyst for a good fight scene.
The sequel had not met my expectations, like every sequel does. I refused to go see the sequel to Mamma Mia! I believed that it would ruin my love for the first movie. I was one-hundred percent correct as well; I heard many original fans say that the sequel was disappointing.
To conclude my thoughts, I wish that the film industry would push the creative ideas that take time and effort instead of the fast, easy ideas that make quick money. I believe this crisis to be a part of a much larger crisis: the fact that our society suffers from instant gratification on a daily basis. Our society appreciates quantity over quality, and the media that is created today suffers from that ideology.
There is no such thing as an original idea; every idea is just a mixture of the ideas that came before that one. One can see this in modern-day media. I believe that there were great movies before the 2010's, but since that era has been over, all of the movies are remakes and sequels.
The only new, slightly original movies are the super-hero ones that Marvel keeps pumping out. Marvel releases about 3-5 new super-hero movies each year, and most of them are remakes and sequels as well. The abundance of these type of films is what I call The Superhero Epidemic.
However, an under-lying issue from this movie crisis arises. Why do the unoriginal movies become popular? Why does everyone choose to go see the remakes and the sequels instead of the movies that propose new concepts?
Perhaps it is because the new generation lacks the creativity that other generations had, or maybe it is due to the nostalgia that is packed in these sort of movies. Audiences tend to choose familiar concepts that the unknown ones.
Some time ago, my step mom and I went to go to the movie theater. We did not have a movie in mind, but we wanted to see something entertaining. Everyone who was in line in front of us went to go see A Wrinkle In Time, but we went to go see Thoroughbreds instead. The movie was thrilling and new, but the theater was barely filled on the second weekend of it being out.
I am not trying to sound like a "hipster" that rejects anything if it is not obscure, but it just astounds me that people would choose to see the same reruns of a concept than a more original idea. Surely the under-performing style of Blockbuster movies gets boring after a while. There were many fantastic movies shown this year, but there were also a humongous amount of awful movies.
A good example of this would be the Harry Potter spin off series, Fantastic Beasts. The first movie was incredibly good and it surpassed my expectations. I expected it to be slightly bad due to it not being based on a book J. K. Rowling wrote. My father enjoyed the movie and he despises the Harry Potter series. Due to the first movie being stupendous, my expectations for Fantastic Beasts and the Crimes of Grindwald were high.
My family and I went to go see the movie on Christmas Eve. There was a group of ten, we ate a fancy meal and we bought movie theater snacks. In my family, if we get movie theater snacks, that means that we expected it to be a very good one.
The movie theater was packed, so we had to sit in the first row. My neck was turned ninety degrees, but that is not why I was disappointed in the movie. The movie felt like a rushed filler for the third movie. The plot was lost in the midst of all of the CGI and pointless back story. The film had lost its original essence of why it was great. I felt like the characters lost their traits and just turned into the catalyst for a good fight scene.
The sequel had not met my expectations, like every sequel does. I refused to go see the sequel to Mamma Mia! I believed that it would ruin my love for the first movie. I was one-hundred percent correct as well; I heard many original fans say that the sequel was disappointing.
To conclude my thoughts, I wish that the film industry would push the creative ideas that take time and effort instead of the fast, easy ideas that make quick money. I believe this crisis to be a part of a much larger crisis: the fact that our society suffers from instant gratification on a daily basis. Our society appreciates quantity over quality, and the media that is created today suffers from that ideology.
I really like the concept of this post, and I agree with it. It seems to me from all the Marvel movies that are created a majority are just sequels instead of being based off of an original idea.
ReplyDeleteI feel a tingling sensation in my heart. It is one that I feel every once in a while, but it is never too often. It is the feeling of "agreement".
ReplyDelete