Multi-Layered corporate greed makes no sense

Who needed this? Isn't there enough Gar-b1tch (say it out loud if you don't get it) in the world?

This kind of project proves so many scary things at once, it's actually chilling.

First, they don't have any original ideas, so they have to look back at 'earlier successes'. So they find these old so-called IPs, and decide to make yet-another-movie about them to make more money.

The tragedy is, there are SO MANY really good ideas, stories, characters and on and on in the world. I have seen them. If someone did it respectfully and lovingly, I think it would be possible to make either a cartoon, a computer-rendered or live action version of, for example (just one, tiny example) the old 'Secret Wars' (1984, if I remember) comic saga. It's not perfect, but it's about 80 000 times more interesting than even some good movies in the 1990s, let alone more modern times.

So they take a look back, see an old, successful IP, like Garfield, and decide to make a movie out of that. They decide to craft it meticulously to the highest standard..

..oh, sorry.

They decide to make as much money as easily and lazily as possible, so they churn out as run-of-the-mill turd as cheaply as they can, and we have this kind of atrocities.

Garfield isn't particularly engaging, deep or even very good comic even at its best. It's somewhat entertaining, mildly funny, slightly amusing, has some potential for inspiration, and all that - at its peak (1978-1982), I mean.

However, this friggin' thing isn't even Garfield-at-its-worst when it comes to the comics or even the old specials, or even the 'Garfield and Friends' TV cartoon.

What really aggrataves me, is that they don't even AIM to do a good job. The least they could do is try to be faithful to the source material, try to make it as amazing as they possibly can, try to craft it as well as they can.

Instead, the motivation is greed, so they won't. That's the two-punch insult. No original material, no effort when blatantly exploiting some old material.

I wish Jim Davis hadn't been such a sellout, I can guarantee that if Bill Watterson decided to make a computer-rendered Calvin&Hobbes, there would be some serious effort put into it, because he has actual integrity.

There are, of course, multiple problems with even trying to change formats - from movie to a video game or vice versa, from comic to cartoon to big screen or the other direction.. it's always going to lose something in translation. I once saw a supposedly adequate conversion of a good movie into a comic, and the comic missed key scenes and made a pig's breakfast of it, and it was really frustrating to experience.

On the other hand, sometimes, it CAN be done, and done well. Look at Fight Club - it's actually better than the book. The Neverending Story is also, and 101 Dalmatians is somewhat better than the book, but I got more out of the Disney book that was made afterwards of all kinds of movies, but it could be nostalgia.

In any case, this movie is the epitome of a perfect example of this multi-layered corporate greed, where first layer is lack of original stories, and second layer is cannibalizing the story you are exploiting, all for money and power.

I wish there was a group of people that was motivated by the need, desire, urge to tell some story they find particularly compelling. Then money would be just a tool to get it done, profit wouldn't even enter their thinking.

One can hope, can't one.. but the Universe is vast..