6 Annoyingly Repetitive Movie Trends Ruining Modern Hollywood

2. Incomplete Films & Expanded Universes

The staple of modern blockbuster cinema. With so many sequels, €˜side-quels€™, cinematic universes, reboots, spin-offs and alternative timelines being banded about, it€™s a wonder how modern cinema hasn€™t gotten itself all tied up in knots. The truth it to some extent, it has. Rarely is a summer blockbuster allowed to enter popular culture without promise of several other films to follow, and it€™s noticeably affecting the here and now. This is nothing overtly new of course, but the damning indication is that Hollywood places little priority in just producing one rounded, complete film anymore. The films listed below placed so much stock in their spin-off films and sequels that they failed to operate as one film with a satisfying resolution. Plot threads are left loose for clarification in a film that may be a good five years away, future characters are shoehorned into cameo appearances to the detriment of the ones we should be caring about right now, and worst of all, it gives real films a sense of being little more than two-hour trailers€ for the next two-hour trailer. This isn€™t to say cinematic universes do not work. For the most part, Marvel has succeeded in tapping into the greater mythology of their universe without compromising the quality or focus of the current story. Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Guardians of the Galaxy, and the original Avengers all manage to keep the story grounded and resolved whilst naturally tying into the larger story. They work simultaneously as both standalone films, and individual chapters within the MCU. The worrying thought is that ahead of phase three of the MCU, the growth of the DCU, and planned franchise expansion for Terminator, Ghostbusters, and others, is that money-hungry studio execs may lose sight of this. Recent Examples: Terminator: Genisys (2015), The Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)
 
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Contributor

Full-time cinema manager come film writer. Learnt his trade repeatedly watching Fight Club whilst studying Film at the University of Portsmouth. Margot Robbie enthusiast.