The year 2017 is the year of sequels and reboots. The other day I was leaving the movie theater and as I was walking past all of the coming soon posters I realized that the majority of movies that are coming out this year are sequels or reboots. To be honest I’m sick of movie sequels and reboots. Filmmaking use to be about innovations in storytelling. Now the film industry has gone from an innovative art form to a money-making machine. When quantity is put over quality creativity and the story suffer. How many movies about fast cars and alien robots can we watch before we get tired of it?
It recent years the film industry has fallen into a pattern of releasing films with the same characters and stories. We have seen five different takes on Batman in 25 years, eight Fast and Furious films in 20 years, and three different portrayals of Spider-Man in 15 years. The film industry is spending all of this money on rehashing the same movies over and over again. They choose to do this because they know people like them and it’s easy money. There are other characters and stories that are waiting for their time to be brought to the big screen.
Also, sequels rarely are as successful as the original or they or don’t live up its prestige. Sometimes they are an exact replica of the original or in other cases, they are completely different from the original and would have done better off as their own movies. In some cases, a sequel can even ruin a whole franchise or the popularity of the original film. The film industry needs to realize just because a movie is a success doesn’t mean it needs to have a sequel. When you make a movie solely for the money the story suffers. A movie without a good story never does well no matter how much money you put into it.
I recently went to see La La Land starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone. I thought it was a great movie and one of the reasons why was because it was so different. It was a modern and original take on an old movie genre which is so different from any movies I’ve seen in the last five years. This money-making system of a film industry has smothered creativity. The films we all know and love and refer to as classics are classics because they were innovative. Not to say that original films are not being made but it’s very rare to hear about them. Independent films don’t get much publicity because the film industry doesn’t want to put money into something that’s not guaranteed to be a success.
Filmmaking is for entertainment but it’s also a tool for storytelling. I realize there is a large population that enjoys these action packed films will multiple sequels. However, I feel that there needs to be a balance. We need to shed more light on originality and use our money to fund quality entertainment. As a film lover and student, I want to see the focus of the film industry to shift from money making back to storytelling and art because I’m really sick of sequels.
