Matthew Lee takes a look back at the summer blockbusters of 2015…
Last year, Forbes reported that last summer’s box office was down by a whopping $1.223 billion. Hollywood executives were undoubtedly shitting themselves. This was significantly more problematic considering last year’s summer held a number great critical surprises; Guardians of the Galaxy was a fun, big budget B-movie superhero bonanza with Troma filmmaker James Gunn at the director’s helm, X-Men: Days of Future Past saw Bryan Singer return to familiar ground to help the X-Men franchise meet with the former spectacle-glory of X-Men: II, Captain America: Winter Soldier allowed Marvel to delve into contemporary political matters, notably government surveillance, and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes continued to expand this rebooted franchise with spectacle, grandeur, and intelligence. None of the aforementioned films managed to surpass the $1-billion mark they undoubtedly desired. The only film to do so was the abysmal Transformers: Age of Extinction. In short, 2014 was a year less on financial success and more on qualitative blockbuster filmmaking.
This year saw four films, Jurassic World, Furious 7, Avengers: Age of Ultron and Minions surpass the $1-billion mark, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens will likely follow suit this coming Christmas. This article has admittedly begun its focus on the banality of box office takings. The reason for this is to highlight the persistent battle between financial and critical success, for this year’s summer blockbuster has been dull and disappointing (for the most part).
While Jupiter Ascending was released in the unorthodox month of February (honestly, who at Warner Bros. is responsible for funding and distributing the Wachowskis’ projects?), it did have various facets that one can read it as a microcosm for what 2015’s summer blockbuster would be received as.
Originality Terrifies People
Jupiter Ascending was a fairly poor film. With every character speaking in expository dialogue, and visuals/set pieces ripped (or homage, depending how forgiving you are) from other movies, this was a chore of movie to sit through. Its only redeeming quality was the oddly camp performance from Eddie Redmayne (an insane performance that could’ve ‘Norbit-ed’ his Oscar). Nonetheless, it was a film that was not an adaptation or a remake/reboot, and people simply didn’t know how to take it, it bombed.
This issue would be undeservedly repeated with Tomorrowland. Brad Bird’s optimistic futurama-style movie calling for technological innovations, with a contemporary Earth-destroying cynicism appeared to be too jarring for audiences. The film’s thematic objectives for a positive future negated the public consciousness’ dark desire for an apocalypse (Kat Kourbeti notes this has become an obsession), which partly led to a negative backlash. This pre-teen joyous adventure with an important climactic message simply didn’t mesh with audience expectations, and it too failed both financially and critically.
Additionally, and more disconcertingly, it appears mass audiences shine away from originality in execution as Mad Max: Fury Road would prove. This universally loved film, (from those who actually saw it) and easily this year’s best summer blockbuster, received praise for its emphasis on prosthetic special effects, its simplified narrative, and its focus on spectacle. The backlash was to say the least pathetic; Meninists threatened to boycott the film for they dubbed it as ‘feminist propaganda’.
Alongside these three early entries preceding the blockbuster avalanche was Furious 7, which not only grossed over $1-billion and would later become the fifth highest grossing film of all time (that’s just depressing), but it wasn’t even that good. It appears car crashes, scantily clad women, and a few one-liners are all that’s required get people flocking to see this film. So when summer came along, we were subjected to an array of problems.
Gender is Still an Issue
It’s no secret Hollywood still pertains to male, Anglophonic, and heteronormative values in its character design. This ongoing discussion is found practically everywhere online, so if you’re interested, click here. For the purposes of this year’s summer blockbuster I shall note two films in particular, which were allegedly good, that had such questionable portrayals – Jurassic World and Ant-Man.
Jurassic World has Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) a rigid, humorless, cold, career driven, manager of the titular park. When the narrative begins, the film’s rhetoric is to reduce her to maternal responsibility, and for her joyless persona to be invigorated by the alpha male (the film literally calls him that) Owen (Chris Pratt). The maternal roles Claire must abide by are explicitly conveyed during a telephone conversation – her sister Karen (Judy Greer) calls her during a divorce hearing to check-in, and then proceeds to cry over the lack of bonding Claire has over not-her children. Consequently, she finds her maternal instincts (somewhat) surface, and thanks to Owen’s overt masculinity she finds some excitement beyond managing a park of living dinosaurs (what terribly dull life choices she had made).
Ant-Man goes a step further and insultingly believes assault is synonymous with strength and independence. Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) can kick ass, is reliable, and understands the powers of the Pym Particles, yet much of the narrative’s focus is to train Scott Lang (Paul Rudd). The film desperately wishes to negate this glaring issue through her father Hank Pym’s (Michael Douglas) shoehorned back story involving the lost her mother/his wife to the suit’s power. Furthermore, the romance between Hope and Scott is, well, flimsy, awkwardly placed, and strangely ignored.
The former film was praised by many, and went on to become the third highest grossing film of all time, as well as an array of box office records, whereas Mad Max: Fury Road trailed behind. This contrast also cemented that…
CGI will remain Dominant
Colin Trevorrow noted in an interview that he did utilise some practical effects for the film, highlighting certain (e)motions cannot be captured via CGI. This sounds very romantic for the art of the visual medium, but the film’s opening shot of baby Velociraptor and the genetically engineered Indominous hatchling’s peeking out of their eggs was definitely CGI. Also, the official trailer gives away this is all CGI. Jurassic World wasn’t the only the film to use CGI as a short cut.
The abysmal Fantastic Four understandably used CGI for the superpowers – nobody would fault a superhero film for doing that – but it would also use this tool as a short cut when it came to exterior shots of the alternate dimension, Planet Zero. George Miller, Colin Trevorrow and others use the natural landscapes to create their fantastical universes. What was the reason for Fantastic Four’s location shooting schedule? Tax incentives. It’ll be naïve to assume this is the only case where a film production chose a location for such financial purposes, but if one is going to do so, it might be noteworthy to animate something on the green screen with grandeur i.e. follow these concept designs. The quick-fix schematics to rely heavily on CGI are a detriment to awe-inspiring stunt work and baron landscapes as seen in Mad Max: Fury Road.
Fantastic Four also highlighted…
The Arrogance of Superhero Producers
Both Fantastic Four and Ant-Man did poorly at the box office (for the latter, it was more the studios’ recent standards), and rightly so. They are both bland outings that encountered production problems, and both rigidly followed the superhero formula when their original filmmakers (Josh Trank and Edgar Wright respectively) had other visions. Furthermore, despite their mediocrity, the former has already been greenlit for a sequel, and the latter’s grand narrative arc within the MCU is unhindered.
Avengers: Age of Ultron seemed unscathed at the box office, yet it too was a fairly bland film. Everyone knows the purpose is solely to set up Phase Three, yet they did nothing too new, interesting or original with the prospect.
If there is anything one wishes to take away from this summer, it’s this…
Simplicity/Mediocrity Reigns
Besides the phenomenal stunt work in Mad Max: Fury Road and Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation from its leading actors, it would appear most were happy for the aforementioned CGI to reign. However, I wish to highlight something a little more worrying that I believe may carry itself over to next year’s blockbuster.
For all its faults, Terminator: Genisys was not a total failure; it followed the time-travel/reboot formula that was hugely popular for last year’s X-Men: Days of Future Past, in its hope to rid of the prior two dire Terminator films. Because of its dense narrative, glaring plot holes (time-travel films are generally riddled with this), and blatant fan-bait (because, of course, Jurassic World was nuanced in its meta-references) people were switched off. But, unlike many of the others at this year’s summer blockbuster, it at least tried. It tried to expand the universe from its predecessor, and easily the third best Terminator film of its given franchise.
Verdict (TL; DR)
It was undoubtedly a very disappointing year where banality reigned. Despite audiences claiming they wanted less CGI and more originality, it appears the box office figures don’t add up. The fact we live in a world where Furious 7 can gross highly and receive critical praise, it would appear we’re simply not ready to move on. Any films that attempt to do anything different are either scrapped by the studios (Fantastic Four, Ant-Man), rely on other sources for inspiration (Jupiter Ascending), simply go too far against the grain of public and popular consciousness (Tomorrowland), or underperform at the box office (Mad Max: Fury Road).
The result highlights people will remain where we’re most comfortable – Terminator must always suck, despite what’s provided; Jurassic World is good, because it ensured we remembered Jurassic Park; Mission Impossible films are always good, despite nobody ever remembering the damn plot; Marvel produced films are good, regardless; and men and women must remain in their predisposed roles. This summer had no major game-changers, and it would appear we’re moving backwards, not forwards.
Matthew Lee
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng&v=qvTY7eXXIMg
