MovieChat Forums > General Discussion > Bad writing thought

Bad writing thought

posted a year ago by Anotherday (6865)
8 replies | jump to latest

There's a lot of reboots, remakes, sequels and prequels mining nostalgia to make a buck.

The writer's are generally around my age and I think the reason for this, beyond corporate hedging of budgets, is due to my generation getting a lot of great films, TV, and characters in our childhood. We benefitted from the cartoons of our parents, had our own cartoons, saw a boom in SCI FI movie effects, and didn't have the internet to distract. It was a time when VHS allowed a lot of decent low to mid range budget movies. The cartoons benefitted from toy sales. Movies were expensive and the physical limitations of practical effects meant that filmmakers had to put serious thought behind their shots because the cost and time of remaking the scene was expensive and difficult.

We saw a lot of great movies that captured our attention... but we didn't create like they did. We imitated, and adapted the same properties with less skill and attention to detail. We also grew up in comfortable times with less struggle. So our understanding of hardship was dulled. On top of that, viewers changed because of more access to information and ideas. When we were kids. You had to go to a library to look something up and it depended on what the library had access to. Now, we all have access to everything in the palm of our hands.

So what do we get? Remakes of childhood series. An audience that can know everything prior to the film coming out. CGI reducing the need to perfect a scene prior to shooting. A lack of hardship which dulled our sense of story and struggle. An overused sense of vulgar humor. It was edgy back then but common now. And a toy industry that focuses on 19-35 year olds as most younger people are invested in games.

Where is the better storytelling?

I personally think it's in horror, video games, and low budget films. But that's just an opinion.

Any thoughts in the matter?

[–] Otter (24464) a year ago

I'm SO not going to go into old-person mode and whine about young people today and how they don't appreciate anything that isn't part of current pop culture. Even if young people are saying it about themselves.

Instead, I'm going to point out that Hollywood actually *wants* writers who think that way, because they are absolutely, positively, looking for "pre-sold properties". That is, stories that have a large, pre-existing fandoms, such books or comics with huge fandoms, old TV shows that are still rerun, movies that were popular when today's adults were kids, and anything under the Marvel brand. They think they're reducing financial risk by putting out products that have pre-existing audiences, instead they're boring audiences away, because all the remakes suck.

[–] capuchin (2659) a year ago

I think Otter is entirely right about 'pre-sold properties' being considered less of a risk by investors. There's an inbuilt audience or fandom and it's even easier to sell to younger people who weren't part of it because it's tantamount to a brand.

So you get something like Tim Burton's recent "Wednesday" doing good numbers and appealing to young people who weren't alive in the 90s to see the two films, let alone in the 60s when the TV series aired. Wednesday Addams is probably better known to the core audience of "Wednesday" as a meme or gif, or a character they know from pop culture.

However, would the show have been a success if it didn't have the Addams Family connection? Possibly. But it's more of a risk. Mainstream audiences are very risk-averse these days, so studios respond accordingly. And it becomes a vicious cycle.

I think, however, there's another aspect to this, which you touch on here:

And a toy industry that focuses on 19-35 year olds

Over the last few decades, pop culture has become a one-size-fits-all phenomenon, with no clear delineation between adult and adolescent interests, so the same stuff can be sold to what used to be two separate markets.

Why don't you find many mid-budget adult dramas in cinemas any more? Because the adults are at home watching The Mandalorian on Disney+. They only have themselves to blame really.

Finally, I think whole books will one day be written -- if they haven't been already -- about why our era has become quite so stultified by nostalgia and escapism. It's a curious and complex sociological phenomenon that I think would take a sharper mind than mine to fully untangle.

[–] Keelai (31867) a year ago

Corporations don't want to risk money on something new. That is the reason for the constant reboots, sequels and spinoffs. When people become bored and sales come down, the industry will have to write new material.

[–] Hellen68 (1) a year ago

[deleted]

[–] db20db (16206) a year ago

Of course! I remember seeing The Rock (Duane Johnson) in an interview a while back where he said that movie franchises is where the money is and "it's just good business." Too many things in life are, 'All About the Benjamins.'

[–] MartyDeniro (4043) a year ago

As everyone else has said, it's simple aversion to risk. And in most cases, the writers are just hired guns to develop something from that existing IP -- top-down, not writer-up. As far as the generational thing goes, it has become more and more common for the original creatives, the older set, to take that route as well, and retread their own material (see Ridley Scott going back to Alien and now Gladiator). Every age understands financing and safer bets.

Also, the better storytelling has been on "peak tv" for years, where writers are often the showrunners.

[–] BillHicksFan (10100) a year ago

Similar to music and doing re-makes. "If it was a hit, you are halfway there", but that's cynical to me.

I was always hoping people on low-budget would make some great movies and upload them ontoYouTube, and were so great, that word-of-mouth would be so strong, people would post them on this site.

I haven't watched a movie, and it's mostly because after watching thousands, I want unique and great.

[–] ShogunofYonkers (71640) a year ago

I don’t mind reboots or sequels so much but I hear you.
Luckily there are plenty of no budget film makers that still do their thing and to hell with the box office, a lot of indies go DTV.

I’m also a big fan of the Star Wars and Superhero movies, but I’ll make time to watch tiny budget, interesting movies too.
Low budget movies can be pretty great.