Tom Jolliffe on Hollywood’s fascination with the shared cinematic universe…
Marketing, labelling, packaging. It’s everywhere. In cinematic terms it’s more important than ever. Everything is governed by men with clipboards. Or the modern equivalent. I suppose it’s all tablets now. I’m a cave dwelling Cro-Magnon man, so I wouldn’t know but there’s an inherent need to have terms. What used to be “franchise” building is now “Universe” building. Franchise sounds too clinical. Too much like a money printing exercise. Universe implies creative expression I suppose. The desire to build a world which will just so happen to give studios the ability to home a number of films as opposed to just one.
Does the term “universe” mean that studios are focusing less on bottom line and more on creativity? Well…no. In fact the coining of this term which seems to have rapidly spread is probably an indicator that things are worse than ever. The universe concept has really been kickstarted by Marvel. The more recent phase has seen a world established which dozens of characters inhabit. They can all lead their own film. They also have the added luxury of popping up in another character’s film, introducing themselves and essentially pre-selling their stand alone film. In some regards it’s a little cynical. The sort of maniacal plot for world domination that Monty Burns might come up with. On the other hand it’s clever, and that’s made more clear by the box office returns. The key though, is that Marvel make their movies fun. They may all be much of a muchness, but they please crowds.
The trouble comes sometimes when studios (or weighty directors) get too preoccupied with opening out a universe. Ridley Scott wants to keep revisiting the Alien world he initially built nearly 40 years. Prometheus was supposed to spawn a new trilogy that was only faintly connected with Alien, but its own beast. In the end the film was painfully flawed and relied too much on fan service Alien references. An aborted Alien 5 then paved the way for Alien: Covenant, which then saw Ridley return focus more predominantly toward the Alien franchise (sorry…Universe). However the film then kept diving back to expand on mythology from Prometheus. In the end it couldn’t decide whether it wanted to be an Alien film or a Prometheus. Despite the connective strand, they’re two different beasts. Yet still, Scott has a notion that he can make 5-6 (or however many he said he could conceivably do) more Alien films. What he’s not doing however, is fully focusing his attention on the movie in front of him. Covenant was wildly unfocused with a dreadful script and far too much indulgence. That lack of identity also effected the box office. Ultimately it has put his wish for more return visits at risk, and indeed, even if he’s able to go back there, one more flop would be curtains.
James Cameron currently has his own Universe fascination. It started back with a little film you might remember called Avatar. It became the highest grossing film ever. That said, critically the response was mixed. The year of its release was almost a different cinematic generation. Things have changed a lot since 2009. For a film that has grossed more than any other it has managed to become quickly irrelevant. Are audiences that bothered about another Avatar? Not really. Further, Cameron always envisioned a franchise. We’re due another four Avatar films but it has taken too long. The next one will not arrive until 2020 (longer if it gets pushed back again). There’s no question Cameron will look to do something groundbreaking with the special effects as he did with the first and its use of 3D but to take 11 years from first to second is too long. The world has since become obsessed with comic book heroes, whilst original material continues to struggle. Likewise, for all the initial hype surrounding Avatar, what was delivered was a somewhat uninspired retelling of Pocahontas. As opposed to focusing on a bigger picture of 3-4 films that he wants to make, Cameron needs to ensure the next one is on point. He needs to make sure that Avatar 2 works as a self contained film. That it works in its own right.
There’s not just Avatar, Cameron is also looking to oversee another attempt at rebooting the Terminator franchise when the rights return to him. They’ve attempted to launch a new trilogy twice now and failed dismally. Salvation offered nothing interesting in a future war tale that was nothing like fans wanted to see. It wasn’t a John Connor centric war movie that you would have figured they’d do, yet the uncomfortably extended role of Connor (down to the inclusion of Christian Bale) felt crow-barred in to a story that was intended to focus on the new (and utterly bland) character of Marcus and a young Kyle Reese. It didn’t work. All it did was pave the way for what audiences would have expected to be a more interesting film. To some extent this happened in the third film. For almost its entirety it was a pale imitation of the second. Then suddenly there’s a denouement that is actually pretty effective. The realisation that Judgement Day was inevitable. Inescapable. The trouble is, it was essentially a good ending that could have been a great beginning to a far better film. A film that ultimately didn’t happen.
Then we have Terminator: Genisys. Conceived as a brand new trilogy that could usher out the Schwarzenegger age, into a new younger and trendier universe. Again, their opening gambit was crammed full of ideas with no logical cohesion. They also attempted the lowest common denominator style of entertainment. It was like someone broke into the Marvel offices and stole the original brainstormed template for Universe success written on scraps of notepad, but failed to find the final drafted blueprints. What they did was as basically as possible, photocopy elements that worked with Marvel, regardless of whether it fit a Terminator film, or the cast they ended up with. This belief that throwing everything at the screen in a jovial fashion, opening up ideas that can spread to several other films (maybe even spinoffs), will make your film inherently watchable. It didn’t. It was a mess. A mix of wanting to move in a new direction, but an inability to leave the older (infinitely superior) films behind. Aside from directly copying moments from the first film, which serve to remind us how great it was, T-Gen offered nothing but a messy, lazy and overly complicated film which aside from being salvaged by Chinese box office, was an unmitigated disaster.
The recent Tom Cruise misfire, The Mummy, was the same. Again, so focused on creating a “Dark universe” and relaunching a line up of classic monsters for cinematic audiences, the producers failed to pay enough attention on the opening gambit. Everything about the film was a misjudgement. It was a studio focus grouped idea of what makes a successful blockbuster. It even made the Brendan Fraser film look imaginative and energetic in comparison. So what works in a film? Easy laconic humour? Okay. Wry smirks? Yep. Wall to wall action scenes? I suppose. Who’s a successful star? Tom Cruise? Right. Lets take all of that and put it into a film about a demonic Mummy. It’s all these elements that didn’t seem to fit the universe they intended to open, whilst everything is lazily handled like the minimal amount of effort is okay because it’s an inevitability that audiences will stick with them through vampires, werewolves, Hipsters and whatever demonic beings they can make movies about.
There’s far too much focus now on what comes next rather than the film that is there in front of the film-makers at that given time. Every franchise now seems to want a spinoff. We’ve already seen one Star Wars diversion into a story that didn’t really need telling. It was quite shockingly overrated and to be honest I felt Rogue One sits itself down somewhere in between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith in terms of quality. It suffered from many of the same afflictions, from dull characters, wooden acting, and using fan service as a crutch. It would be too easy to point to George Lucas as the forefather of the cinematic Universe. Granted he probably was to an extent (unless you count Bond, but that is slightly different) but Lucas as far as modern cinema goes has now become irrelevant.
The Fast and Furious franchise has extended its life far beyond expected when the original (a sub-par Point Break redux) came out to box office glory. When Dwayne Johnson boarded, things picked up. However prior to the 7th instalment, it became apparent a new trilogy of films was planned. Again, they were looking further ahead than the next film at hand. The tragic end to Paul Walker’s life obviously threw a spanner into the works. Regardless, the seventh came out, the 8th has come out this year and a 9th is a certainty. Hell, this thing will hit double figures and they’re already envisioning the prospect of taking things to space (wry throwaway suggestion or not, eventually, space will be all that’s left). The last two films have felt a bit routine. Fate of the Furious took stupid to whole new levels, but lacked the imagination of the 5th and 6th. These films have always been rife with throwaway characters and forgettable plot strands, so the fact that the last film required its audience to have to think back to a couple of films prior to remember plot points and character arcs was a tall order. These things had long since been lost from the memory banks.
This is what happens if your universe gains success and you get 8 films in though. You get lazy. In the most automatic piloted way imaginable, these Diesel powered movies are coasting along in third gear. There’s nothing interesting, engaging. They’re just fun. Maybe they’ve always just been that, but the formula peaked two movies back and too many half hearted sequels will eventually see people get bored. Even this franchise is teasing the potential of a spinoff because two characters happened to have a slither of charisma that the other cast members lacked. Stick Hobbs and Shaw in their own film as headliners? Dull as dishwater probably. They’re good as strong support, boosting scenes, but they’re too lacking in dimension to engage as leads in a pared down spinoff.
Studios playing the assumption game are taking a big gamble. For many it’s now not paying off. Studios seem intent on mirroring Marvel, but even they appear to be moving into a phase of more diverse choices (potentially). They still take dangerous liberties with their stock. How many films have teased Thanos now before we’ll finally see him? How many times will a character pop up to essentially try and forcibly steal the audience away from the film they’re watching to the enticing prospect of a standalone to come. There’s an air of cynicism about the whole thing, whether it’s Spider-Man invading Captain America and Iron Man’s film to sell his own upcoming reboot (in which Iron Man returned the favour in said film) or something else. It is working for Marvel. All those copying their formula are struggling to match it and as mentioned, some are failing dismally.
I would like to see stronger focus from the major studios in crafting better blockbusters. Marvel have earned enough crust to carry on doing as they are. They have what they’re doing nailed down for now (but evolution will still be a necessity). It’s more the Terminators and Aliens of the modern age that need a serious kick. Furthermore, studios may hopefully see that audiences can engage well with films which are well made and interesting such as Get Out or Baby Driver. Maybe we don’t want another Terminator reboot. Don’t merely attempt to lazily pinch money from our wallets. Strap us into the seat and engage us, challenge us, entertain us, but respect our intelligence and not merely the ticket money, and certainly don’t assume we’ll have a crisp 20 pound note already put aside to purchase a ticket for the next one a couple of years down the line.
Tom Jolliffe
