We all know what they are, and most of the time, we all put up with them, shoving another couple of pounds into the studio’s pockets, entirely aware that they’re ripping us off, giving us the short shrift and laughing as they do so. It’s those trends that are created in the mind of crass, blandly unimaginative individuals looking to make quick money with the least effort possible, but we as audience members are also to blame, buying into their ridiculous trends time and time again, only helping to reinforce the creatively stagnant miasma that so often is mainstream Hollywood cinema.
Here are 10 trends that are killing movies…
10. Adapting Board Games
When a Battleship film was announced, there was a collective sigh the world over that I’m pretty sure registered on the Richter scale; had Hollywood run out of novels, songs, video games and theme park rides to adapt, that they’re now taking on board games, too? Granted, Peter Berg’s take on the classic military game was an absolute aberration that took ridiculous liberties with the property and basically turned it into a slick, sub-Halo military sci-fi film, but it’s still trying to make a buck on its immensely popular namesake. Thankfully, the film was a box office flop, hopefully proving to studios that they’re going to have to be a little more clever and inventive if they want massive box office returns.
However, that hasn’t stopped Ridley Scott, who is producing a film adaptation of…Monopoly. It’s been a while since we’ve heard anything about it, so we can quietly pray that it’s been cancelled, though we imagine with such a dynamite producer at the helm, that prospect is not likely. I mean, what’s next? How long is it before we end up with Hungry, Hungry Hippos: The Movie?
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7 Comments
… Only, Hunger Games was not shot for 12A. It was shot for PG-13 in America, and cut for 12A. There are two different versions of the film; the one shown in the UK was not the same as the American version.
These are not things killing cinema this is a list of things that you find annoying about modern cinema
Films having scenes in countries that aren’t the USA or UK is killing movies… seriously??
And to use Mission Impossible as an example of this is slightly ridiculous considering it revolves around a top-secret spy agency which has a global mandate. Is James Bond killing cinema for scenes being shot around the world?
A ridiculous statement to make, and I agree with Clubboy, this is a list of things you personally find to be annoying about modern cinema, so at least change the misleading title.
Cool. Another article complaining about reboots and 3D….
Considering ALL of these have been going on since the time of color in movies, I highly doubt these are killing movies. In fact, more movies come out a week now than ever before, meaning there’s just MORE movies in general than there were years ago or, “the golden age.” If we only had 1 or 2 movies per week like before, I’m nearly positive not all of them would have these “horrible flaws.” And just so ya know I’m not blowing smoke, I’ll give examples of each:
Board Games – CLUE The Movie. When was that, the 70s/80s?
Pop Culture References – Ya know, the other day I was watching Goldfinger and James Bond outright name drops the Beatles.
Ensemble Comedies – Parodies in the 60s/70s were big on this.
Market Targeted Filmmaking – Now this is just friggin horrible and the one on the list that I just have to say, ARE YOU SERIOUS? People can’t make movies in other countries anymore without being accused of trying to appeal to certain people? The hell? Name a time when movies WEREN’T being made in other countries. In fact, haven’t people been saying, “ugh, I’m tired of seeing LA/NY being destroyed in every movie?”
Prequels – Godfather Part 2. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Both in the 80s. 25+ years later, Prometheus. Obviously, there’s a right and a wrong way to do a prequel as there are with any type of film in general. Also, Michael Myers’ origins were discussed in the remake of Halloween, not a sole movie devoted on his origins.
Reboots – I hated Amazing Spider Man too, but considering Batman and James Bond have spawned the most successful 3 films (critically & financially) of their respective franchise because of rebooting, it’s hard to complain about this quite yet.
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 – Off the top of my head, I can’t think of anything, but for something more modern, Kill Bill split itself into 2 halves quite well.
For Ratings Sake – They’ve aaaaallwaaaaays been doing this, c’mon! Even horror films have problems getting an R rating and obviously getting an X (like a few of the Friday the 13th films would’ve back in the 80s) wouldn’t suit them well.
Remakes – They’ve been remaking movies since movies began. They’d remake short films into longer films, silent films into talkies, B&W films into color. All the classic Disney films could be considered remakes of live action films from an earlier time, afterall, not to even mention adaptations in the first place. I’m actually surprised ADAPTATIONS aren’t on here – _ -
3D – Huge in the 80s.
As you can see, none of these are killing movies. We just have MORE movies now, so it feels like they’re in abundance in comparison to before. With such a large market, I see nothing wrong with all these instances taking place. Imagine 4 original AND great movies coming out in the same week. How the hell would you find the time to catch them all, even when they came out on DVD, considering that week, there’s another 4 coming out in theaters? We’re actually very LUCKY to have all this variety. And we’re even more lucky we have a choice instead of thinking, “well, it’s the only movie out this week, might as well see it” or simply going weeks or months without a trip to the cinema which would personally make me very sad. Original movies without gimmicks will always be around, they’re just paired up with 3 other movies that weekend that are trying to be more marketable.
Movies are already dead. Do you know why? Un-originality. 3-D is not killing it, it’s people like the members here that enjoy the Avengers instead of good movies.
Because you can’t do both? A ‘good’ movie is something very subjective to ones personal tastes. I enjoyed the Avengers a great deal. I also enjoyed The Artist a great deal. Two very different films. I know people that either didn’t enjoy one of them, didn’t like either of them, or enjoyed both.
Most people have very wide and varied tastes when it comes to movies, something which can be entirely dependent on ones mood. So to say that movies are being killed by people who enjoyed the Avengers, instead of ‘good’ movies, is a pretty far-fetched and heavy handed statement.