With The Avengers breaking numerous box office records, is there an end to superhero movies in sight?
What makes a film a classic? Is it a well-written story with deep characters and a beautiful location or world-class graphics and lots of sequels? It seems that today’s public loves to consume easy-to-digest plot lines, pretty CGI sequences and beautiful actors.
But what happened to the days of profound and meaningful films?
Sure, I love a movie filled with flashy fight sequences and car chases just as much as the next person, but where do we draw the line? While many movies with profound or controversial plot lines are released yearly, it seems as if they belong only in the Oscars and are pushed aside for titles like “Cars 3” and “The Fast and the Furious 5” or “6” or “12.”
I believe that today’s world of film is made up predominantly of sequels and spinoffs because that’s what the public wants. When people get off work or have a weekend free to head to the movies, they want to be able to remove themselves from their reality and step into a world free of finals, deadlines and bills. Movies like “The Fast and the Furious 5” or “6” can do just that.
Hollywood and all the movie giants know exactly what makes money and what doesn’t. Sadly, money-making pictures include “The Hangover,” which showed such high box-office ratings that a trilogy came about. In today’s time, instead of heading to the movie and picking whatever sounds good, consumers have to make the conscious effort to know what the film is about and who it’s by.
“Most sequels have two big problems,” wrote film critic Jeff York in his movie blog “The Establishing Shot.” “First and foremost, their scripts are lazy, content to tread the same ground as before with precious little news added to the narrative. And two, sequels are usually overproduced and bloated because studios feel the need to make everything bigger and more extravagant.”
While I agree with York, we shouldn’t fear the films with meaningful plot lines. There are still those who desire to consume thought-provoking movies like “Her,” “The Grand Budapest Hotel” and “12 Years A Slave.”
The art of film has become so diverse that now you can pick a movie for any mood. While the variety is fantastic, there still needs to be standards, like developing a line of when another sequel becomes too much. With rumors of “Pirates of the Caribbean 5” and “Paranormal Activity 5” in the works, one can grow weary of hearing about the fate of the film industry.
There is one simple fix to this: Don’t consume. If the public stops buying or renting or watching in the theater, the dozens of sequels that litter the film world will slowly become endangered. While sequels wont completely die out, we can rest assured that there will always be another Die Hard, or Transformers movie on the way, so we never have to wonder what will happen to our favorite characters.