Has quantity finally trumped quality?

johnny_ultimate

One could argue it did a long time ago, but this summer has shown a Hollywood even more allergic to originality than usual.

I don't like defining films on the simple basis of the year they came out. Indeed, like every year 2011 has seen its fair share of (IMO) great films: A Separation, Arrietty, The Tree of Life, True Grit Cold Fish, 13 Assassins, Meek's Cutoff etc... But even more so than usual, the true greats seem relegated to independent and foreign cinema.

Mainstream cinema hasn't been so lucky. The always reliable Christopher Nolan is taking his bi-annual sabbatical: and while I'm not as obsessive an attendee of the Church of Nolan as some, his artistic flair is solely missed. Instead, we've had an avalanche of big budget blockbusters. Some have been decent - Deathly Hallows or Thor. Some have had slightly alternative approaches - the retro stylings of Captain America or XMen First Class. Some have been obnoxiously poor. Pretty much all of them have been totally throwaway - films to watch and perhaps moderately enjoy but never bother watching again. Pixar - usually reliable purveyors of mainstream joy - have attracted more hostility than they ever have before with Cars 2. Even the potentially interesting Super 8 has attracted moderate enthusiasm rather than raves. There's been nothing worth, you know, buying on DVD or Blu-Ray. Barring perhaps Yates' work on Deathly Hollows or Vaughn's colourful nostalgia with First Class (pity about the script), there's been no compelling directorial voice amongst the explosions.

There's been much written about how Hollywood is banking on bulk. Reliable franchises tapped out, the result are increasing amounts of remakes, reboots and desperate attempts at new franchise starters. But having shat out the last Harry Potter (and it was a pretty solid conclusion, being honest) there are fewer and fewer 100% guaranteed money spinners. The result is 'more, more, more!' but far fewer risks.

The rest of the year ain't too promising - David Fincher is perhaps the only characterful mainstream voice to get excited about in 2011, and even then he's working with an easy sell (hopefully his adaptation will be far from safe, though). And 2012 is looking a bit more positive, with the third Batman, Star Trek 2 and a Hobbit film. But these are relatively safe bets. Luckily, there's a new Pixar IP that will hopefully provide something new. But there's also going to be a **** tonne of superhero movies again.

So, any opinions on this? Has Hollywood finally totally lost its way? Any great hopes for the forseeable future? Will Battleship buck the trend of safe and characterless blockbusters? Excuse me if I'm a more than a little cynical.

krudler

Movies have definitely gotten safer, there are exceptions like Fincher and Nolan but these days everything is about franchises and tie ins, now I like a decent comic movie as much as the next person, I love what Marvel are going with the Avengers characters in the run up to their own movie, and Thor was the most fun movie I saw this summer, but its getting tiresome that there are rarely any new ideas in Hollywood. Its all remakes and reboots and cash in sequels that just dilute the series, loved the first Saw, hated the others once they became a yearly thing.

Filmmakers have definitely gotten lazier as well, the amount of cgi used in movies for stuff that a stuntman could easily do is shocking, when cgi is used well its great, when it shoehorned into every film as much as possible it dilutes the effect, audiences are tired of big effects and yet still flock to them, its kinda baffling.

and films dont look like films anymore, everything is too flat, too digital. it works in stuff like Tron Legacy where the digital world is very much deliberate, or 300 where its meant to look like a comic book, hardly anyone uses focus pulling or depth of field in big movies anymore, unless its something like The Assasination Of Jesse James, which looked fooking gorgeous throughout, and really cinematic. Its kind hard to explain what I'm talking about without examples but look at something like Spiderman 3, the entire film looks like it was shot on a greenscreen, too much digital sheen on it.

Mr. Denton

I might be wrong here but I think DVD/BD is finally getting a big say in what actually gets made for the big screen and that the studios are playing the game forwards and backwards in order to maximise sales during the trickle-down period.

I look at a lot of "my dvd collection" stuff on youtube and over time it seems to me like these collectors are all essentially buying exactly the same movies and that they have no individual taste when it comes to selecting movies. (nearly always having a huge collection full of big franchise stuff, horror and sci-fi). I can only assume this phenomenon is extended to dvd buys who are not plastering youtube with their favourites too.

Studios might be thinking "Why not make 8 Harry potters?" as you're guaranteed 8x future BD sales when collector X finally gets round to seeing part 1, even if he only starts watching them in 2011 rather than 2001. It's a great way to keep the $$$ coming in.

I guess what I'm saying is Hollywood hasn't decided to go this way or tried to tell people what to like. They've simply gone and found out what these crack-pots (sorry collectors) want and are just supplying them with it.

Monty Burnz

Mr. Denton wrote: »

I look at a lot of "my dvd collection" stuff on youtube and over time it seems to me like these collectors are all essentially buying exactly the same movies and that they have no individual taste when it comes to selecting movies. (nearly always having a huge collection full of big franchise stuff, horror and sci-fi). I can only assume this phenomenon is extended to dvd buys who are not plastering youtube with their favourites too.

These people aren't fans of cinema; they are fans of collecting. I know some people like this who buy every type of dross that is released and watch it, and have a notion that they are film fans. But surely if you are an enthusiast, there has to be some degree of discrimination?

Mr. Denton

Monty Burnz wrote: »

These people aren't fans of cinema; they are fans of collecting. I know some people like this who buy every type of dross that is released and watch it, and have a notion that they are film fans. But surely if you are an enthusiast, there has to be some degree of discrimination?

I agree with you. I listen to them occasionally and they seem to get more of a buzz out of buying & owning a particular title than they do from actually watching it. Sometimes I even look at the rate of stuff they're buying and I can only assume they haven't watched all or most of it in the first place.

However as long as they're paying $$$ in to the system the studios will watch their habits and produce accordingly. This is why I think so much dross is getting made. Because these collectors are acting as a large voting block on what gets made int he first place.

mikhail

I agree it's been a poor summer for blockbusters. That happens.

The craze for comic book movies will eat itself soon, and blockbusters will go another way. Then, everyone will get sick of that too, and the cycle will begin again.

SVG

I don't know- it seems unfair to judge the whole film industry by summer movies. Summer movies, for the past while at least, seem to be made primarily for teenage boys (and that's fine but not to everyone's taste). May, June, July, August is wall-to-wall superheroes and then December, January, February is chockablock with Oscar bait. It's so polarised! If things were mixed-up more throughout the year it mightn't seem so bad.

I must admit I can understand that summer feeling of franchise fatigue (I'm secretly hoping The Avengers is a total disaster and there are no superhero films for a decade) but there are still lots of films I'm looking forward to; Drive, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, We Need to Talk about Kevin, to name a few; it's just that I'll have to wait til winter to see them.

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Will Battleship buck the trend of safe and characterless blockbusters?

Though, maybe things are that bad when Battleship is your only hope.

don ramo

what a studio exec looks for,

may

ironman 2 got the summer of to rather unspectacular start, it pulled in a decent BO receipt but probably came in below studio expectations, and it was follwed up by a poor robin hood, shrek 4, and sex and the city 2, and the month was rounded off with prince of persia, which was suppose to be a tentpole but came in at just over $330million not even double its budget,

and in 2011 the summer kicked off with thor which made 3 times its budget back at the box office just like ironman 2 in 2010, it was followed up by bridesmaids, pirates of the carribean 4 and the hangover 2, which all made over 4 times there budgets back at the BO,

winner 2011

june

2010 started off rather bad with get him to the greek, killers and marmaduke bombing big time at the BO, the A team came in with a few buckets of cash to help the studios before the big hitters of the karate kid, toy story 3 and twilight eclipse relieved the studio execs blood pressure, i think tom cruise was in there somewhere also

2011 x-men started of a rather poor june making a bit over twice its budget back at the BO and it was followed up by the rather poor super 8 and green lantern, mr poppers penguins and bad teacher done some damage control before the summer tentpole that is tranformers 3 helped out to pick up some shattered execs egos,

winner 2010

july

2010 the goods were provided by despicable me, predators and inception, helping out the less fortunate last airbender, socerers apprentice, salt, charlie st clair and dinner for smucks,

2011 so far whats looking poor is larry crowe, zookeeper and winnie the pooh, harry potter is soon to become another billion dollar film for the studio, capatin america can swing either way as can cowboys and aliens,

looking like 2011


so 2010 1 billion dollar film, 2011 2.9 billion dollar films, the studios think there doing things right so far, more money means more of the same, and untill the accountants say other wise thats what to expect,

my opinion is that the quality of films in 2010 and 2011 are about the same, for every decent film theres 5 bad,

Sad Professor

It’s been a crappy summer. Thor was fun but mindless, X-Men First Class was okay but soulless, Harry Potter was more of the same and POTC was pure garbage. I didn’t bother with Transformers, and I’ve no interest in Captain America. I’m kinda hopeful for Cowboys & Aliens and Super 8 though. All I can say is thank god I live in Dublin and have access to a greater selection of films, otherwise I think I’d be pretty despondent at this stage. I know it’s the summer and I don’t have a problem with comic book movies and the like, but a bit more variety would be nice.

johnny_ultimate

It's a shame all in all, because it's nice to have at least one mainstream film to enjoy in any year. Inception or Toy Story 3 last year, Star Trek / Up the year before etc... Kung Fu Panda 2 was decent enough, but again lacking the element of surprise that defined the first (still wonderfully animated, though).

I was kinda hoping Cowboys and Aliens would be decent too, but feedback from the States has been mediocre (a tidy 50 on metacritic as of right now). Say what you will about him, but Christopher Nolan's absence really leaves a big gap in the release schedule. There seems to be at least one big Hollywood film released a week at this rate, and not a keeper amongst 'em. Damn shame.

I don't think that the state of cinema is as bad as people like to make out. Sure there are dozens of mediocre and unoriginal films being made but there are also so many great films out there, you just have to look the little bit harder.

Recently The Tree of life has gotten an unprecedented wide opening for a film of its ilk, that said we only got it in Galway this past week. A few months back people were expecting ToL to go direct to DVD in Ireland but it's had a healthy theatrical life thus far and will over the coming month or two be seen in numerous places outside Dublin.

Stake Land which came out a few months back remains one of the high points of the year. A bleak, low budget horror which created a sense of unrelenting dread that no film in recent memory has came close to matching.

In the coming months we have a number of interesting films opening including Oliver Sherman, The Future, Another Earth, Bellflower. There are dozens more and while none of them will get a fraction of the coverage or screenings afforded to the latest Harry Potter they will at least be an alternate to the cookie cutter fare of many big budget films.

johnny_ultimate

I'm not saying that cinema is in a bad state at all, there's been many films this year that are already personal favourites. There's stuff to look forward to - but barely anything without a modest budget or in a foreign language. And TBH there's always a place for competent blockbusters amongst the artier fare. That's what has been distinctly lacking this summer: it's just lots of noise.

johnny_ultimate

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

I'm not saying that cinema is in a bad state at all, there's been many films this year that are already personal favourites. There's stuff to look forward to - but barely anything without a modest budget or in a foreign language. And TBH there's always a place for competent blockbusters amongst the artier fare. That's what has been distinctly lacking this summer: it's just lots of noise.

I agree but I think a lot of people seem to write off cinema as a whole far too quickly. I haven't been to the cinema as much as I would have liked this summer though tbh that's because there's not been a lot I wanted to see. Living in Galway and access to anything other than blockbusters is hard, at one stage 6 or 8 screens in one cinema were dedicated to Potter and the Guard.

Thor started the summer off well, it was 2 hours of fun which didn't take its self seriously. Transformers was pure unadulterated blockbuster fun, trash with a forgettable first half but a finale which more than made up for it. The Guard, well the Guard was mediocre beyond belief. Unoriginal, not very funny and were it set anywhere else would most likely have been savaged by both critics and viewers alike.

I'm looking forward to Captain America and then Super 8 and Cowboys and Aliens but the latter two I'll gladly wait for Blu Ray.

I caught half an hour of Armageddon during the week and it stands up remarkably well when compared to modern day blockbuster fare. I expected to cringe my way through it but found myself really enjoying it, sure it's silly as hell but it's a lot of fun, has a great cast and a script which is both humorous and serious in equal measure. Studios need to go back a decade to a time when they wouldn't announce a release date for a film months before the script was finished.

mikemac

I'm still not understanding the different release dates between the USA and Europe

The Blind Side is a well known film, Sandra Bullock won an Oscar for it

Released in November in the States and it was 4-5 months before we got it in Europe. Any wonder these films get torrented??? I started a thread in American football forum with over 30 replies when it got released, none of knew how long it was going to take to get to Europe.

I would have paid, I would have bought the DVD and I'm not alone, there were many in the American football forum the same
We want to pay for a film and have to wait four months after the USA, get outta here!

With the internet nowadays simultaneous worldwide releases are the way to go, so why do the executives not do this?

krudler

mikemac wrote: »

I'm still not understanding the different release dates between the USA and Europe

The Blind Side is a well known film, Sandra Bullock won an Oscar for it

Released in November in the States and it was 4-5 months before we got it in Europe. Any wonder these films get torrented??? I started a thread in American football forum with over 30 replies when it got released, none of knew how long it was going to take to get to Europe.

I would have paid, I would have bought the DVD and I'm not alone, there were many in the American football forum the same
We want to pay for a film and have to wait four months after the USA, get outta here!

With the internet nowadays simultaneous worldwide releases are the way to go, so why do the executives not do this?

sure look at Super 8, came out in June in the states and it still isnt out here. Pixars movies usually get released months later as well, I think Up came out in may/june over there and we didnt get it until october?