10 Trends That Are Destroying Modern Movies
5. Musical Tie-Ins Are Getting Cynically Obnoxious
Pop songs that originated on a soundtrack album need not be terrible. Take That's Rule The World came to life as Stardust's end credits song, while The Smashing Pumpkins' The End Is The Beginning Is The End (which went on to win a Grammy) originates from the soundtrack of Batman And Robin (arguably the one good thing to come out of that mess). So yeah, far from a bad thing. However, recent years have brought this to disturbing prominence as an example of when this really doesn't work.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2, How To Train Your Dragon 2 and Transformers: Age Of Extinction all feature action sequences in the movie itself that use their respective tie-in songs as the background music. It can work if it's a bit of silly fun (Despicable Me 2) but in these more serious movies all it does is mean in a couple of years it'll be more than the special effects that look dated. Maybe a few more people will buy the song, but is that worth souring the film's legacy?
Songs inspired by a movie were just that; you don't have Celine Dion crooning over the sinking of the Titanic because the film doesn't need it. Putting a song over action is the domain of YouTube montage makers, not the people making the film in the first place.