Andrew Crighton
Editor-in-Chief
I may be one of a few in this category, but I believe that the vast majority of movies that have been made in the past five years are just terrible. For a while I wasn’t able to figure out why I thought that, but after feeling disappointed walking out of a theater too many times to count, I think I’ve come up with a few reasons.
First off, everything has to be sequel ready. Especially with the rise of the superhero genre, if a movie has the possibility of turning a profit than it has to be ready for a second installment.
There is nothing inherently wrong with sequels; but the problem arises when a movie turns into a franchise that has to last for as long as we will pay money to see the next movie.
I am totally on board if a director or writer wants to dive deeper into the story behind characters or how they developed due to the plot of the last movie.
When it is just the same movie three or four times over, with only slight differences is when I start to take offence. Was the fifth Transformers movie really any different than the four previous? No. What about the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Aren’t they really all the same movie over and over; I sure think so.
The other problem with these never ending movie cycles, is that because there is going to be a follow up to each and every installment, nothing of consequence ever happens.
How can we ever feel dread for the main character when they are supposed to be in a life threatening situation on screen when the studio has announced the next three movies four years in advance? The only time some big character change happens in the story is because an actor got tired of the series or character, so the character has to be written out.
A secondary problem is that this compulsive need to make sequels has found its way into movies that really don’t need them. What the hell is Daddy’s Home 2 and A Bad Mom’s Christmas going to do different than the first ones? Maybe the Hangover trilogy can tell us.
I don’t know if this trend is due to consumers just wanting more of the same, if studio executives think that’s what we want or if writers have just run out of original ideas.
The second question I have for everyone that makes movies is, why does everyone have to be so young?
I know the logical reasons, but it still gets under my skin. Yes, new characters have to be young because young people are more attractive, they are closer to the age of the target audience so they identify with them and it means that they have a longer lifetime for the never ending franchise machines.
But why do they have to look so damn young. Even when the actors are in the middle of their life, the characters they play are stylized to look so much younger.
When I am watching a movie and I see someone who looks way too young to have lived the life of the character they are portraying, it breaks me out of the movie and makes me think about it. That is no small feat for a hot medium like a movie theater, and is a sign of a bad movie.
I’ve found that this trend usually happens with villainous characters.
For example, I believe that Kylo Ren and General Hux from The Force Awakens appear just way too inexperienced to be the people they are supposed to be.
Hux is intended to be the new Grand Moff Tarkin character, but am I supposed to believe that someone who looks a few years older than myself is basically the CEO of what is for all intents and purposes the galactic empire?
As for Kylo Ren, the character is between the ages of 29 and 30, but the position he holds does not seem to warrant the type of person that has rage tantrums and long, flowing locks of hair. He does not look the part of the ‘scourge of the galaxy’.
Anakin was actually 22-23 years old when he became Darth Vader, the right hand of the strongest Sith in the galaxy. The character worked though, because he was more machine than man. The writers and designers weren’t trying to make him the embodiment of death and hatred, and sexy. You can have one or the other Hollywood, they just don’t mix well.
I don’t believe it is too much to ask for characters that look the part they are supposed to be, but perhaps I am wrong, and just a nerd raging at the details that nobody really cares about.
But maybe you should dig around in those details, the devil’s in there don’t ya know.
