The Moviepocalypse

What is the moviepocalypse you ask? According to a famed webshow host, the Movie Preview Critic, it is considered to be the end of good movies and creative spirit. It's basically the sole reason why we hear dozens of people on the internet community, from youtube to 4chan, complaining about movies/summer blockbusters based on already-existing source material (books, TV shows, cartoons, etc.) and remakes/reboots/sequels and demand Hollywood to make pure original films/summer blockbusters like Inception. More information about the moviepocalypse can also be found from this link: http://themoviepreviewcritic.com/html/the_moviepocalypse.html

Do you think the Movie Preview Critic has a point? Is this the end of cinema as we know it? Keep in mind that he's been warning about this event for more than 5 years now, so does this suppose moviepocalypse is all a false alarm?

There's a large difference between wanting original movies and wanting summer blockbusters and that's what the movie industry recognizes. Making an original movie is risky because there's no guarantee that people will even want to see it, and even then there's a lot less money to be made since there are little to no tie-ins that can be marketed alongside the movie. With a reboot you can often get a special re-release of the original and tons of people will buy the book if there's an adaptation, and in the end it's all about what rakes in the most money.

That being said, I blame movie-goers just as much as the industry. Everybody whines about how originality is dying and whine whine whine but when there's an original movie out these people are nowhere near it. Will there be a Moviepocalypse? There won't be if people close their mouths and open their wallets.

So? Movies are almost always based on another source of media. Totally original films are really few and far between. Anyways, there's a pretty good lineup of movies coming out this summer that I'm very anxious to see - Great Gatsby, After Earth, Man of Steel, Pacific Rim, Elysium, etc. Let 4Chan complain.

All I'm really looking forward to is Star Trek 2 and to a lesser extent, the next Hobbit.

Don't forget A LOT of movies were based on novels. For example, in the 1920's, it was the monster era where they made monsters from different novels like Dracula, Frankenstein & The Werewolf into movies and now they're cult classics. Today we still have a load of of books that are yet to be made into motion pictures. Probably because of all the remakes and huge commercials of bad movies are always on TV and the good ones are left in the dark since they're not getting enough commercials.

LilJz1234 said:

Don't forget A LOT of movies were based on novels. For example, in the 1920's, it was the monster era where they made monsters from different novels like Dracula, Frankenstein & The Werewolf into movies and now they're cult classics. Today we still have a load of of books that are yet to be made into motion pictures. Probably because of all the remakes and huge commercials of bad movies are always on TV and the good ones are left in the dark since they're not getting enough commercials.

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There was a Werewolf novel? I only know the Wolfman, which wasn't based on any existing source material unlike Dracula and Frankenstein. It's probably because movie cooperates solely depend on box office results and statistics to find out what kind of movies the audience as a whole truly like, and they concluded that the audience like bad movies, which brings me another question, are the current audience to blame for the oncoming moviepocalypse? They were the main reason why the latest adaption of I Am Legend removed the original ending that stood close to the original story with the same ending as the previous adaption The Omega Man.

Pinkie-Dawn said:

It's probably because movie cooperates solely depend on box office results and statistics to find out what kind of movies the audience as a whole truly like, and they concluded that the audience like bad movies, which brings me another question, are the current audience to blame for the oncoming moviepocalypse?

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That's purely opinion, though, isn't it? It's not like everybody in the movie industry sat down together one day and said "These people love crap so let's intentionally make bad movies so they'll give us their money!" That implies that there is no such thing as a good movie anymore because the industry is purposely restraining itself to pander to the common idiot. That's just simply not true and sounds more like a conspiracy theory than a fact. One man's bad movie is another man's favorite.

Sweets Witch said:

That's purely opinion, though, isn't it? It's not like everybody in the movie industry sat down together one day and said "These people love crap so let's intentionally make bad movies so they'll give us their money!" That implies that there is no such thing as a good movie anymore because the industry is purposely restraining itself to pander to the common idiot. That's just simply not true and sounds more like a conspiracy theory than a fact. One man's bad movie is another man's favorite.

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I gotta totally agree with that. My example is ... wait for it, the 'Rush Hour' Movies. Everyone in my class that I talk to about them film they just do not like them at all. But me I love them, I think they are great. That's just life unfortunately. You might love a film but there will always be someone who doesn't see eye to eye with you.

No movie is intentionally made badly for the sake of it being bad. Not even slapstick movies such as the Scary Movie franchise or the 'non-scary' parallels of such, such as Date Movie. I'm confident that the purpose said movies are terrible are because they're supposed to be chocked full of dry and, often times, sexually fueled humor. It's not supposed to be a good movie, it's supposed to wring a quick chuckle out of the audience every few scenes.

Original movies are few and far between for the very reason someone stated already - they're a huge risk because the demographic for a movie based on nothing as opposed to an adapted alternative is going to be much smaller in almost every case. Of course, holes like that are covered by substituting an original plot with well-known actors, as is apparent with Inception's Leonardo DiCaprio. 'I've never heard of this, but such and such is in it, so it might be worth the $4 matinee!'

I guess one could look at this way, but one could also look at is as people are taking their good, original ideas and making them into books, comics, television shows, and other media first. I mean, you don't need a who studio backing you up with producers, directors, writers, and so on if you're writing a book and working on a comic. Movies are in a lot of ways the slowest vessels for getting a story told to an audience even if the final product is fairly short and easy to digest.

So I think there are still original ideas, but people are just not rushing to the movies with them. I'm sure if the process of making movies was easier you'd see more people experimenting with them.

Sweets Witch said:

That's purely opinion, though, isn't it? It's not like everybody in the movie industry sat down together one day and said "These people love crap so let's intentionally make bad movies so they'll give us their money!" That implies that there is no such thing as a good movie anymore because the industry is purposely restraining itself to pander to the common idiot. That's just simply not true and sounds more like a conspiracy theory than a fact. One man's bad movie is another man's favorite.

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It was thought up by a friend of mine, who I use to chat with on MSN. He believes the reason why there's so many bad movies in recent years is because the majority of people are becoming the lowest common denominator, who can't fully appreciate movies with complex storytelling, so Hollywood was forced to restrain themselves to please them in order to grab their cash.

Anyway, here's yet another webshow host who believes originality is dying in cinema (in the first couple of minutes of course): http://blip.tv/animation-lookback/top-10-worst-films-based-on-a-cartoon-1-2-6250012

Antemortem said:

No movie is intentionally made badly for the sake of it being bad.

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Oh???????

Like Scarf, I don't think that originality is dying, I just believe that the originality is being crafted into other media. Logistically, it does make sense. Rather than channeling untold amounts of money into a film that might not even get it's money back, the cost of hiring famous actors to support the movie being a huge drain on finances itself, rather than trying to deal with the impossibly slow movie-making business, it is easier to either turn your originality into a book or a TV show.
I would certainly consider the option of turning my magnum opus into a televison starring the likes of Jessica Lange and what not, as opposed to a movie.

There are still really great movies being made; it's just a case of doing a bit of digging to find them out. So while there's no moviepocalypse any time soon on the horizon, there might be a movie-shortage if Hollywood's current business model of tent pole pictures continues for the foreseeable future.