A few things to get out of the way, firstly this is my own taste, if you like bang bang bang and forced Marvel humour in your new releases that’s you, but I most certainly do not. I also acknowledge that blockbuster entertainment is supposed to appeal to the masses.
That said, I look at the summer slate, particularly the month of July, and am saddened. Where is the originality, where is the effort to make good films that would last the test of time, rather than just easy sequels and reboots, where is the excitement. Looking at the cinematic slate for July, it just seems as though Hollywood is in a race to the bottom for low effort stinkers that the masses may still put up with.
Coming in on opposing sides you have the Superhero genre which itself cannot accept that it is dead. On the one side you have the 5th iteration of Superman, which looks not only like they don’t understand the character, despite posting all those Instagram shots reading comics, as Clarke, would rather make whoopie with Lois than save the city. Added to this is the fact that the film will clearly continue James Gunn’s track record of goofy humour, and has more animal abuse in it. Unoriginal, goofy, doesn’t understand the character.
Then on the other side you have the Fantastic Four the 3rd iteration of that IP, with most of the characters unrecognisable, a girl boss Sue Storm obsessed with gender politics, a soft and effeminate Johnny Storm, Pedro Pascal playing a scientist etc. What’s more this film will continue to push Marvel’s unwanted Multiverse Saga that increasingly no one other than Kevin Fiege wants. Unoriginal, does not get the characters, continues a saga no one wants continued.
Proceeding both of these threats to cinema, is yet another Jurassic World film. Turns out the big finale where they got the old and new cast together was not the finale everyone thought it was going to be. Now we are back fighting yet more dinosaurs which do not in any way have even the slightest bit in common with actual dinosaurs anymore, so for all those people who say oh I just watch them because I like dinosaurs you might as well say you just like bland CGI monstrosities that look a similar shape to dinosaurs. Unoriginal, repetitive and dull.
Coming out in the rest of the month you have a legacy sequel to I Know What You Did Last Summer which was barely strong enough to hold a sequel let alone a sequel decades later. You can bring back all the nighties stars you want it won’t make anyone care about this, this is not Scream. Scream had an enduring popularity, and the Summer films were always a bargain bucket version of them. Unoriginal, unasked for, and desperate. As well as that you also have the third or fourth reboot of the Smurfs as they just can’t let any IP go. The fact kids have not enjoyed or gone to see the other iterations of the Smurfs should clearly give the studio executives pause but no this is going to be the one right, it has to be. Even more desperate, even more unoriginal.
In that short list of 5 of July’s big releases did you notice that not even one was an original film, did you notice how they were all sequels, spin offs, or reboots, most of which were unasked for. When Hollywood sits there and wonders why folks aren’t going to the cinema like they used to, this is why.
They need to let IPs end, they need to understand that some IPs just are not relevant anymore and they need to spend money on original projects.
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