Blockbusted - Rise Of The Planet Of The Reboot

Blockbusted - Rise Of The Planet Of The Reboot

I love a blockbuster. One of those films that you just have to see at the cinema because it's so massive and, well, cinematic that your TV at home just wouldn't do it justice. I remember being a kid and being in awe of the sheer size of the films that came out. When I was 12, Jurassic Park came out and was so huge I remember it being difficult for my mother to get tickets. It was also something new and original; something that hadn't been seen before and I remember it being more than just a big new film, but that it had a cultural impact. Had you seen it yet? You almost weren't a proper person if you hadn't.

Well fast forward several years and I think we've lost something in the live action blockbuster. With very few notable exceptions there is a serious lack of originality in the big scale tentpole movie. Yes, box office records are broken year in year out, yes there are some great films made, but films from new ideas? Few and far between (yes, I know Jurassic Park was based on a Michael Crichton novel, but so was The Andromeda Strain, and you don't hear anyone talking about that). Studios, it seems have become so interested in sure things that they have forgotten how to take risks. Granted, if $200m is going into making a film, I would want to see some serious return, too but there's being risk averse and then there's being just plain cowardly.

I'm drawing out some pretty strict boundaries here to make my point. For example, the Harry Potter, LOTR, Twilight and Hunger Games movies (and to a lesser extent Divergent and Maze Runner) are based on popular books and carry with them huge amounts of cultural currency; people will go see them no matter what. I'm also discounting most superhero films. With the exception of a few surprise successes, these films are based on popular media and have as ready-made an audience as Harry Potter. I'm also discounting the odd drama that makes huge amounts of money. For example, the likes of Argo or American Sniper are not what I would call blockbusters, despite their huge success. Were they not so culturally relevant at the time of release, they would probably not have been so successful, critically well received as they were. They are intended as dramas rather than crowd-pleasers.

So I took a look at the most successful live action films of the last few years (info taken from www.the-numbers.com) and from 2010 onwards, the vast majority of successful films have come from pre-existing properties, sequels of the aforementioned films which are already in the zeitgeist through popularity in other media. In terms of truly original products, 2010's Avatar (James Cameron) is the stand out example (I know I'm pushing it a bit by saying it's live action, and anyone who's seen Pocahontas might argue that it's not original at all). And what do studios do now that they have a massive hit on their hands? Invest in finding the next big new idea? Don't be silly. They have greenlit several sequels to Avatar, due in the next few years.

Comic book films are an interesting example. Once seen as nerdy and niche, they are now absolutely the mainstream thanks to the success of Avengers and Batman franchises. But even they started small, Marvel dipping their toe with Blade (Stephen Norrington, 1998) before adapting bigger properties in Spider-Man and X-Men. These were risks at the time, and one could argue that Marvel took a big risk with their current 'MCU' crossover series. Iron Man was not a widely known character but in throwing a lot of money at the property with a less-than-A-list director in John Faveru and a former star in Robert Downer Jr., they took risks and it paid off. One could argue that subsequent successes of Captain America and Thor have largely fed off and built on the cultural impact of Iron Man. Now, I'm a comic book reader (there, I said it) and I had never heard of Guardians Of The Galaxy before James Gunn's 2014 adaptation. This could be taken in two ways: that the studio took a risk with an unknown property and an idiosyncratic director, or that it's a safe bet, attracting punters vicariously following the success of The Avengers. Nevertheless, it made more money than Man Of Steel and is a lot more fun. Now, though, you can hear barrels being scraped for caped characters to use because producers can smell more money. Shazam, anyone? I reckon it'll be the new Ghost Rider...

Looking at the last few years, only really Oz The Great and Powerful, Ted and Malificent have breached top ten lists littered with comic and literary adaptations, sequels and films based on theme park rides. Ted, being an adult-oriented comedy rather than a made-for-the-multiplex blockbuster, is a surprising inclusion but then again so was The Hangover (2009) and they spectacularly failed to recapture the magic with their safe-bet sequels to that. The others have done well to turn over as much business as they have but don't forget they too are follow-ups and variations on pre-existing films.

2012 is a great example of studios using the safe bet model with varying results. Some great films were made, but also some turkeys which did less business than expected. Take the top grossing films: Avengers Assemble (comic/sequel), The Dark Knight Rises (comic/sequel), The Hunger Games (popular adaptation), Skyfall (series), The Hobbit (series/popular adaptation), Twilight: Breaking Dawn (sequel/popular adaptation), The Amazing Spider-Man (comic), and then Ted. After that we have prestige films such as Lincoln and Les Miserables, which attract a broad mix of audience. It's pleasing to see that Django Unchained did so well but it's not an original film either (although I doubt many people went to see it on the strength of the 1966 Franco Nero original). True blockbuster fare such as Snow White And The Huntsman, Prometheus and The Bourne Legacy all did less well than studios expected and the less said about John Carter the better. And none of those films came from original ideas. Further down the chart of 2012's box office, it's pleasing to see originals such as Looper (Rian Johnson) and Chronicle (Josh Trank) do decent amounts of business but both were dark enough to dry up beneath the $100m mark. Ho hum.

So where do we stand now? Looking at the most popular films of 2015 (before either Bond or Star Wars is released), the highest grossing film that isn't a sequel or drawn directly from other popular media is American Sniper (Yeah, its based on a book but not in the same popularity league as Harry Potter or 50 Shades). Avengers, Jurassic World, Pitch Perfect 2, Ant-Man, Fast & Furious 7 and Mad Max; all sequels, series and 'reboots'. I actually quite like to see studios fail when they try this: The Lone Ranger was both an attempt to cash in on the Pirates popularity (director and star) and an old TV series. While no means bad, it didn't exactly tear up any trees. This year saw Terminator: Genisys be both awful and rightly unpopular and Josh Trank's Fantastic Four blighted by apparent studio interference and die on its arse. Original ideas such as Tomorrowland and Jupiter Ascending enjoyed varying degrees of success; for the Wachowskis, The Matrix must seem like a very long time ago. Perhaps studios have simply backed the wrong horses there.

There is talent out there and it should be encouraged to flourish. I will defend Christopher Nolan's work to anyone and his recent non-Batman films have been fine efforts (The Prestige, Inception and Interstellar). Some of the directors hired to take over major franchises have cut their teeth on some brilliant original work: Colin Trevorrow (Safety Not Guaranteed), Gareth Edwards (Monsters), James Gunn (Super), Rian Johnson and Josh Trank have all been trusted enough to helm some seriously big names (Trusted? maybe not Trank...) but I would argue that they should be encouraged to pursue their own ideas and not simply tethered juggernaut sequels. If they don't do something soon, we'll be stuck with horrible remake after horrible remake (Robocop, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and ...Ghostbusters). Mark my words, it'll be Indiana Jones and Back To The Future next, and then we'll all be sorry...