10 Reasons Why 2016's Blockbuster Season Sucked
9. Over-Relying On Nostalgia
Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Jurassic World alone accounted for over $3.6bn in box office takings last year. Both movies featured plenty of visual and narrative callbacks to beloved previous installments in their franchises, which unfortunately seems to have set off a lightbulb in the heads of studio executives all around Tinseltown that nostalgia can translate into big bucks. Yes, it can. But only when done right, which is something this year's nostalgia-laced blockbusters seemed to forget.
You loved Independence Day 20 years ago? Here's a sequel at least a decade too late! You hated the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie but loved the cartoons when you were a kid? Here's all of your favorite characters lazily shoehorned in! People online hate the Ghostbusters remake with an intense passion? But we're using the theme tune you love... and Bill Murray has a cameo! Miss the Golden Age of Hollywood? Here's Ben-Hur, Tarzan and The Magnificent Seven! Wait... what?
Even typing Hollywood's new buzzword 'legacyquel' makes this writer's blood boil, but The Force Awakens, Jurassic World and Creed proved last year that the approach can work, just not when its presented in such an obvious and cack-handed manner.