10 Movies To Blame For The Current State Of Movies

2. Nostalgia-Baiting Sequels - Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Hollywood has been on a real nostalgia kick for the last five-or-so years, selling your childhood back to you one movie at a time, because that's easier than, you know, actually coming up with original ideas.

Our test case is of course 2015's Star Wars: The Force Awakens, a sure return to form for the ailing franchise, albeit one which cribbed far too eagerly from A New Hope, leaning back lazily on our collective dew-eyed nostalgia for the original trilogy.

Similarly, Jurassic World, Terminator Genisys and Dark Fate, the Creed movies, Halloween 2018, and many more, all milked iconic themes and imagery from prior films, recycling them to various degrees of success.

These movies were all technically new, yet lacked enough fresh ideas to truly feel like original sequels.

And you can blame The Force Awakens in particular: its $2.068 billion final gross was a defining statement that audiences embrace the safety of familiarity.

Look no further than the divisive response to Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which actually tried to ditch the nostalgia crutches and do something new with the series, to observe how much general audiences truly fear originality.

And so, the upcoming Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker will most certainly be a return to the rose-tinted, nostalgia-heavy storytelling of The Force Awakens, which is a real shame.

When people's sentimentality can be exploited so easily, though, it's easy to see why Hollywood isn't that keen on coming up with anything new.