I get your point, but it falls back into the same problem of nostalgia marketing. When we are so easily manipulated because the movie is part of a franchise, we only support the same franchises. When we look at movies as a franchise, we lose sight of the individual films which allows disney to continue making more crap. I refuse to do this.
Let them go, stop giving them money and look around. There's a lot of new filmmakers and stories being made. They're just buried or looking for funding. As a horror fan, I've seen what happens when art becomes a product (friday, nightmare, Halloweenetc...). It sucks. But, theres always new surprises and stories. We just have to seek it out. Eventually, you find movies like Trick R' Treat, Behing the mask, Henry: Portrait of a serial Killer, equillibrium, don't breath, Saw 1 (another victim of franchising), etc.
Star wars ended, but the matrix was amazing and not noticed until after theaters. Lord of The Rings was Given to a b-grade director who made gore flicks. He made one movie in 3 parts. It was an epic film experiment.
There's hope, one just has to open his/her eyes.
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arflexit (2376)
5 years ago
Your point is valid, but you have to remember moving on involves dropping investment into a universe. there is a human tendency to get caught up in 'sunk costs' where the amount of resources dedicated to an investment is used as justification to continuing adding more resources. It takes time to build a familiarity and comfort with a story/universe. Rather than moving on to something new most would rather stay and enjoy the one they know. Filmmaking is changing in the modern era; the ability of television to match the production quality of film has made it so in terms of story telling a 2 hour movie can't compete with a 10 hour series.
What you talk about is fine for watching one off films such as the ones you mentioned, but there are different forms of watching film. The type when we want an epic long duration adventure, such as Lord of the Rings and Star Wars, and the type we watch for a quick 90 minutes ride. Major Hollywood production is leaning away from the latter because there is not as much money in it. And at the same time all of the franchises (which hollywood is pushing more and more) and all going into the toilets (terminator, Jurassic Park, Star Wars, The Hobbit films, what else). This is why Amazon and Netflix are where I think the better 1 off movies are being made now, but this means less theater experiences.
The Matrix became a franchise and I think was not a very good one outside the first. Lord of the Rings almost happened by accident. I watch about 10 hours documentary on the making of the film and so many things had to go wrong for it to go so right. But both the matrix and lord of the rings are around 20 years old. What good franchise films have been produced since then. The only one that competes in terms of quality is Marvel, but that was treated more like a Television series with the Avengers films being like the 'season finales' and that is why it worked so well. Now everyone is trying to mimic that formula and failing.
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[deleted]
5 years ago
As I read your comment, all I see is the franchise being your main draw. To me, this is sad. Great movies dont need multiple movies to be a good story. Most marvel movies stand on their own without the franchise. A lot of DC movies fail because they rely too heavily on making a franchise. Lord of the Rings was not a franchise, but one movie released in 3 parts. Star Wars has been failing because they're focused on making a franchise instead of separate movies that stand on their own. Its like divergent or the hinger games. When you know there isn't a conclusion until 5 movies later, why bother going to the thester. May as well wait for it to be online and binge at that rate.
Perhaps that's the biggest fail. Too much focus on making a franchise instead of one entertaining movie at a time. But then sgain, marvel spoiled modern audiences. Now everyone is looking for that big film franchise fix. Too bad modern audiences couldn't learn from Friday the 13th, Saw, or paranormal activity. In the end, they were more about selling the name than making a good movie.
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arflexit (2376)
5 years ago
Perhaps I was not clear. Franchise films are by far not my favorite, in fact in my top 10 favorite movies you will notice either no franchise films exist on it, or they were single films that launch a franchise later: Such as Alien or Jurassic Park.
I love films like Gladiator, John Carpenter's The Thing and Big Trouble in Little China, The princess bride and so many other great 'one off' films. But as I said, Franchise films are a little different. Most would not watch Lord of the Rings in one sitting and would need to watch it over multiple days, same with Star Wars and most other franchise films. But a single film does not have the same amount of screen time as a franchise or television series, so there is less time to become invested into it. You watch different movies for different reasons, one of my favorite recent movies was The Nice Guys. That was a solid film.
I agree movie producers trying to compete with television and Marvel is taking movie making in the wrong direction. Everyone is trying to force a Cinematic universe and for the most part it is not working. But I do not think there is anything inheritance wrong with trying to produce a franchise as long as the films are solid, like with MCU. The problem is since there is more money to be made in franchises everyone is trying to do them now. which does suck because I like both.
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