With news of JP4 getting a release date and title ("Jurassic World"), I held my breath and counted to 10, not in excitement but to calm down and center myself before making any rash emotional decisions either positive or negative.
Having been scorned so badly from the last movie to be this big of a deal to and then witnessing subsequent horror that became star wars episode one, I would have little faith in JW delivery upon it's expectations. In recent times maybe my level of cynicism has maybe approached levels of being unfair to anything and everything that I just don't like the idea of, had I been judging movies far too harshly? Was Transformers: ROTF really as god awful and void of any artistic merit as I had felt? Yes it was the movie is the epitome of the cancer that is eating away in Hollywood.
However this reaction was not my reaction. Over the past 15 years or so I have met every major release news with a cynical "that will be shit" attitude, however thanks to 2013, I have been offered be a glimmer of hope.
2013 is on it's surface just a standard year for movies, the big blockbusters, sequels, spin offs, re-makes and new lower budget gems.
During 2013 we have witnessed countless formulaic, by the numbers, what work for one will work for us movies FLOP! This summer feels like the summer of 1997, copy cats (Mortal Instruments), franchise killers (Percy Jackson- franchise was already on life support), movies that feel 15 years old (R.I.P.D) and pointless sequels (Kick-Ass 2) have delivered serious disasters critically and at the box office.
So 2013 it's not the producers or studios that have given me hope, it's us the movie going public.
For too long we have been pumping $1b into movies like Transformers: ROTF, and the studios have been patting themselves on the back and lapping up the lush profits from the fertile cash farm which we were becoming.
For too long studio executives have seen box office gross and not quality when it comes to the projects they fund and the bombs that they pump far too much money into (John Carter, Lone Ranger to mention two), these $300m movies were delivering financial results that were way in excess what their actual artistic merit.
On a panel recently 1984 was named as one of the best years ever for motion picture, so let's look at this milestone year. Ghostbusters, original content movie decent budget and great cast of talented comedic actors, part of the SNL true golden generation, it had a great premise, special FX that were ground breaking for the time, yet it wasn't the FX that lead the film, the characters and story line took us on the journey with Venkman, Spengler, Zeddemore and Stantz, and the FX were there to enhance the story telling not replace it. Yet don't be fooled by 1984s claim to the thrown, Terminator and Dune do not count as at the time The Terminator was a minor success and only grew on VHS and Dune although now a cult sci-fi go to movie (or one of those movies that pretentious idiots thinks makes them look like cinema royalty if they name drop it in a conversation) was considered a flop. Movies have always been a mixed bag in the year of release, some are instant hits who's appeal is their run in theaters with no real residual re watch value (Avengers- oh yeah I went there!), movies that are released to moderate success then end up in the DVD pile next to the TV as they are frequently re visited (District 9) or the true classics that shine forever (Jaws, Jurassic Park, Star Wars). It just seem that movies used to be made randomly by many different creatives from all different backgrounds and B_movies could become A movies with a visionary and a budget, lower budget films could compete, and studios seemed to share the money around more projects, as opposed to that one giant cliche riddled by the numbers formula for success which still is a massive gamble (Van Helsing, The Lone Ranger)
This year I hope rejuvenates Hollywood into making movies and not just toy commercials. I am hoping that seeing the errors of sinking $300m into a project opens the door for money spreading thinner across original ideas. I love adaptations, but doesn't mean everything should be adapted! JP was amazing didn't need to see Congo!
However the sad part will be that some attempt to deliver original content have met unfavorable box office results as well. I honestly think 2013 should serve as a wake up call to Hollywood producers that the rules are once again changing and that people want good character/plot driven movies and Michael Bay will not keep getting away with $1b transformers movies, his luck will run out.
So with 2015 the year of BTTF I hope to see JW and SW:epVII redefine cinema and what a movie experience is like the originals and not just more bog standard tripe! Vote with your ticket stubs and keep letting movies no matter how big hemorrhage money for the big boys (Disney, I'm mainly looking at you) if you keep supporting blindly Michael Bays Transformers quality of movie then what hope do we have to ever seen JW or SW:epVII
actually bring back of childhoods and more importantly, think about the children, our lives were enriched in a way that we will probably never truly be able to honestly rate thanks to the great movies we grew up on, what are the children of recent times holding onto when we have Han Solo, Indiana Jones, Reeves Superman, Goonies, Gizmo etc they have Twilight and a Wizard who's not even very good at magic!
- Steve (Guest blogger)
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