6) Superheroes: Shut up and take our money
Over the last decade, superheroes seem to have taken over the world (Irony Man…tee hee). In particular Marvel, and by Marvel, I mean Disney, and by Disney, I mean our new overlords. Anyhow, this childhood crucial conglomerate has monopolised the summer blockbuster department with formulaic comic book drivel to keep us coming back. Having said this, Marvel and DC are attempting to diversify with the likes of Black Panther and Wonder Woman smashing the box office (proving it’s not just straight white men who can save the day, it’s all sorts of straight people). If only they would allow their storylines to take the same leap of faith. It’s not just people with the surname “Man” harbouring limited plotlines either. Hollywood comedies are seemingly running out of ideas quicker than you can say sequelisation. How many times can Kevin Hart be in the same film? My guess is at least a few more regardless of how homophobic yester-kevin was.
7) Reliant on remakes
Play it again Sam! And again! And again! Ad nauseum. Why on Earth do we need to be constantly reminded of Spider-Man’s origin story? Or Batman’s for that matter? Also, how many girls need to have dragon tattoos in such a short space of time? Too many! Two Jungle Books? And now Disney are beefing up all of their past animations (I can confirm that The Lion King trailer may have given me a cineboner), but still, fresh, new, exciting, original drama seems to be coming out of our small screens with more ferocity than its silver cousin (The Man in the High Castle, Marvellous Mrs. Maisel, The Newsroom to name a few).
8) Film Star Turncoats
Gone are the days of the two exclusive clubs of screen actor. The often bombastic and deified Film thespian, and the hard-up, down on their luck TV actor/part time waiter. With global mega-fox George Clooney paving the way with his supple transition from his humble beginnings at ER onto the big screen, actors have now reached a time where they are able to flip-flop breezily between TV and Film, with stars like Tim Roth, Cillian Murphy, Tom Hardy, Half of the Game of Thrones cast, Bryan Cranston, Benedict Cumberbatch and probably a thousand others branching out into hit TV shows alongside their (occasional) award winning films. This gap certainly appears to have been bridged.
9) A Risky Business
“Art without risk, is just a dispassionate list of things you already know.” “Quotation marks make things look clever and official.” Look, this is just my opinion, but it screams to me that movie studios are no longer interested in trying anything different that could possibly fail, leaving creative power with a selection of empty suits with dollar signs for eyes. On the other hand, we have HBO, Netflix, Amazon and even Hulu to a degree providing us with genuinely original ideas and shows that aren’t afraid to leave creative control up to…you know…the creative people. When this happens, we get a TV show that kills off one of the main protagonists in season one. MADNESS. But now we’re all irreversibly hooked on Game of Thrones and no one cares about Fifty Shades anymore…I assume they’ve discovered porn.
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