Cinema Might Have a Problem

I was perusing the socials yesterday, after having watched the Avenger's Doomsday trailer, and the comments really told an interesting story. There were the usual "super hero fatigue" comments, comments that showed a lack of understanding of the source material (which is fine), the usual cries of "Hollywood has lost its creativity" and the condemnation of using AI for aspects of the film (not sure if this is true). While most of this isn't new, my reaction to each one is.

Lack of Creativity

I get the feelings behind the statement that "Hollywood has lost the plot, or lost its creativity", the bottom line is that these are businesses and as such their product (films) are tailored to the folks buying. With that being said, if you looked hard enough you could always find solid, creative, unique films coming out from studios like A24. There was art to find, if you looked around.

But now things are bit less clear on that. The newest film from A24 is based on a 4chan post. It's difficult for me to actually write that. It makes me physically ill.

This isn't an attack or judgement on the folks who made "The Backrooms". It's an indictment on the soul of A24. This was a money play, not an art play. And look it worked, the younger adults who grew up on that culture turned up. It's successful.

It's made 385 million on a 10 million budget. That's great I guess.

It's just... this is the studio that brought us Moonlight in 2016. A film that stood for something, risked a lot and affected the world. It's art, and that art was enormously successful. It made 66 million on a budget between 1 - 4 million.

You can create art and make money. You just need to have the appetite for risk and a discerning eye. I think the first requirement is the one that is killing things for the art side of cinema, sadly.

And for our comic book fair, its not any better.

The Fatigue

For the longest time I would ignore a lot of the condemnation, for various reasons really. I am a comic book fan, have been since I was 7 years old, so I don't really get "super hero fatigue".

With that being said, Superman was mediocre and inoffensive, but not truly great. I haven't seen Supergirl yet, so I will reserve judgement, but things aren't looking good on that front either.

As for Marvel, their recent track record has been incredibly spotty. I thought Thunderbolts was great, ambitious and took us down narrative routes that were compelling and risky. Not perfect, but at least they tried something and landed a lot of it.

Now we have Doomsday, which seems to admit that Marvel can't continue being creative, so they are recycling actors and events to create spectacle, over story.

I hope I'm wrong, but bringing back Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans, this soon after satisfying, earned endings to their stories, feels like desperation, not a calculated plot point. I mean bringing back the Russo Brothers, feels the same.

"This worked before, lets do it again to right the ship".

Look, I won't ever have "super hero fatigue" I love the stories, what they stand for and communicate. Do I wish there were less of them, and the quality of each one higher? Absolutely.

But if I could have one kick ass DC Comics movie, one kick ass Marvel Comics movie and at least one kick ass indie comic movie a year, I would be a very, very happy old man. The problem is that we aren't really getting that and probably won't ever again.

I don't know if it's my age, or what but it's all just leaving me rather cold and a lot grumpy. I hope releases like Dune and The Odyssey will rekindle studio's desire to make art again, but I just don't know if it will.