Sequels, Franchises, Remakes

[Barry]

 I haven’t posted lately about new movies for a couple of reasons. First, our members are concerned with the 4Ks of movies and how it will look and sound on their system rather than my movie going experience.
 
Bu there is a big second reason.  First, I love movies.  Before Covid I was going to the theatre at least twice a month, and, way before that even three of for times a month.
 
But there has been a change in movie releases that bothers me greatly.  Movies today tend to be:

1. Remakes
2. Squeals
3. Franchises

Now some of that has always been the case.  Movies including the Wizard of Oz, Ben-Hur and Cleopatra were remakes of silent movies, and I am not talking about those here.  Many other remakes, “You Got Mail” is a remake of “The Shop Around the Corner” and “Here comes Mr Jordon” was remade as “Heaven Can Wait.”  Here, they took old concepts and really gave us something new.  But I didn't like the remakes of “The Day The Eart Stood Still, “Total Recall” and a dozen others.  But they are remaking Superman, Batman, Captain America all the time.  Give me a break. I want something new. And Disney is making all their animated classics into live action remakes. (And a New Lion King is coming out soon.)
 
2. There have been great sequels: Terminator II, The Empire Strikes Back, Goldfinger, The Bride of Frankenstein, Son of Kong (well, maybe not Son of Konmg.)  But everything now has to have a sequel if it is successful. Did we need Joker 2?  Ant-Man was a surprisingly entertaining movie. So did we need Ant-Man 2? Okay, but Ant-Man 3?  Didn’t they see that two was enough?  Add to that Thor 2 and 4 (3 was okay!); More Venom, More Aquaman, more of everything. Wonder Woman was great, Wonder Woman II was rotten. But add Beetlejuice, Avitar, Indiana Jones, Top Gun etc.
 
I am waiting for Titanic Part 2
 
3.  Finally, the Franchises: This was clear and new when Marvel began. They tied together movies and created the Avengers. And I did enjoy it.  They were not the first, although it is hard to tell a squeal from a franchise. For me it started with the Universal Horror movies. They introduced Franky, Drac and Wolfy individually and then united them. The British horror movie of the 60s did something similar.  But Marvel had taken a fresh idea and has beaten it to death (and to boredom) and they now include their TV streaming shows.  Enough.
 
I don’t know if we consider all the Fast and Furious movies, Alien, Terminator, etc sequels or franchises, But add to them the last few years of DC movies and the next few years of DC movies.
 
Of the eight coming attractions I saw with the Joker, 7 of them fit the category above.
 
I am just getting bored, really bored and less and less anxious to go the theater.  I loved Oppenheimer and mostly like Barbie, and the were NEW!!!!
 
 
 
 

[David Vaughn]

Totally agree Barry. I haven't been to the theaters in over a year because frankly, nothing has enticed me to go. Pretty sad. 

[AVSCraig]

Some sequels are good, most not. Deadpool 2 was fun, as was Guardians of the Galaxy 2. I agree - Barbie and Oppenheimer were excellent. But some stories need to be told in 3 parts - like Dune. I loved the Nolan Batman trilogy. Didn't care for that last Patterson one. That said, Gladiator 2 looks to be a good film based on early reviews. 

I'm pretty much done with the Marvel films. In fact, I have 2 or 3 on the shelf I haven't watched yet.

[David Vaughn]

Some sequels are good, most not. Deadpool 2 was fun, as was Guardians of the Galaxy 2. I agree - Barbie and Oppenheimer were excellent. But some stories need to be told in 3 parts - like Dune. I loved the Nolan Batman trilogy. Didn't care for that last Patterson one. That said, Gladiator 2 looks to be a good film based on early reviews.

I'm pretty much done with the Marvel films. In fact, I have 2 or 3 on the shelf I haven't watched yet.

I watched Deadpool & Wolverine on Saturday night and my wife absolutely hated it...I barely tolerated it. Seriously, crude is one thing, but they turned the crudeness/violence up to about 25 on a scale of 1-10. When it's said that people in Hollywood are complete perverts, all one needs to do is pop in this film and see exactly how messed up they are. 

[AVSCraig]

I watched Deadpool & Wolverine on Saturday night and my wife absolutely hated it...I barely tolerated it. Seriously, crude is one thing, but they turned the crudeness/violence up to about 25 on a scale of 1-10. When it's said that people in Hollywood are complete perverts, all one needs to do is pop in this film and see exactly how messed up they are.

I haven't seen it yet. 

[SRW1000]

I agree with you Barry, for the most part. 

I don't mind franchisees, as long as they are done well.  And going back to earlier days, much of my early movie watching consisted of franchises that made it to TV on Saturdays and Sundays.  Besides the Universal Monsters, we had Andy Hardy, Frances the Talking Mule, Blondie and Dagwood, Sherlock Holmes, Charlie Chan, Ma and Pa Kettle, The Thin Man.  And I'm sure I've forgotten some.  Eventually, they can get stale, but in the right hands, there are plenty of fresh stories to tell.

The problem we have right now are a combination of people that don't understand the franchise property, resulting in lifeless, repetitive sequels and studio heads that won't gamble on anything unproven.  Some of them go so far as to subvert the subject matter that they tempt the audience with.  It's not long before customers wise up, and that's where we're at today.

As for not finding anything original or new, it's one of the reasons why we don't go to theaters anymore.  There's a ton of good stuff coming out, but you may have to look outside of the normal commercial releases.  Foreign films offer a lot of variety, as do independent movies.  Most of the movies we've enjoyed this year never hit the theaters near us but were readily available on Blu-ray.  Lower budgets allow them to present new ideas, stories, and themes that Hollywood would never greenlight.  And production values have gotten to be so affordable that you may be hard pressed to notice a difference between them and big-budget bores.

Do you have any small, independent cinemas or art houses near you?  They may be worth checking out if you want to see something different.

Scott