What was your reaction when you heard about animated family films like The Emoji Movie and The Angry Birds Movie? What about arguably unnecessary sequels and remakes like Ride Along 2, Ghostbusters and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story? You may have enjoyed some of these movies, and I am not claiming that they were all bad, but I believe that these movies demonstrate a severe lack of creativity in the American film industry.
For instance, the aforementioned Emoji and Angry Birds movie’s took topics that were popular among young people and attempted to bank on that fame and fortune from the game rather than trying something new. This strategy is not popular among critics and viewers alike, and both of those movies will likely be forgotten within the decade.
Additionally, sequels like Ride Along 2 and Rogue One chose to continue popular franchises in unnecessary ways rather than risking a new idea. I haven’t seen Ride Along 2, but its flaws are best summed up by Whatculture.com critic Sam Hill when he writes “Nothing about it, save for its impressive box office success (it made a whopping $154 million on a budget of just $25 million), presents it as a film deserving of a sequel”. I did see Rogue One, and I felt it added very little of value to the Star Wars story and universe. I left the theater with little memory or regard for the characters or their deaths. The movie really only fixed the plot hole of why the Death Star was so easy to destroy in the original Star Wars trilogy. The movie felt like it was made purely for money and with less energy or importance than the new trilogy.
Finally, remakes of popular movies and franchises like Ghostbusters and The Amazing Spider-Man did little of anything to improve the original stories. Ghostbusters took a dearly loved classic comedy and remade it into an unfunny disaster. The Amazing Spider-Man on the other hand took a franchise that had only recently been concluded and remade it for the sole purpose of making money, adding nothing of value to the Spiderman universe.
Finally the release of numerous Marvel and DC comic book adaptations which vary wildly in amount of success show the industry’s fear of trying new ideas. Executives prefer to put money behind adaptations of comics as obscure as Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant-Man, and Suicide Squad rather than risking a new and inventive idea which may not drive audiences to the theatres as predictably as another comic book adaptation.
The sad part of this is that whether Hollywood tries to be creative or not, people go in masses to see the movies. No matter my opinion on the creation of Rogue One, I felt obliged to see it, only because of the Star Wars name and the importance that the name holds in society. I believe that Hollywood should try to protect the legacy of beloved franchises and films by preserving the originals and not misusing IPs to make money.
