We’re all feeling sequel fatigue – but Hollywood’s giving us Shrek 5
We’re all feeling sequel fatigue – but Hollywood’s giving us Shrek 5
Original films these days are just croutons in a Hollywood buzzword salad: sequels and prequels, existing IPs and brands and reboots and remakes
Streaming has meant it has never been easier for Hollywood to measure the power of nostalgia. They watch what we’re watching and rewatching and it means they bring back, to varying degrees of success: The Matrix, Scream, Top Gun, Indiana Jones, Mad Max, Hocus Pocus, Legally Blonde, Ghostbusters, Home Alone, Blade Runner, Kung Fu Panda, Jurassic Park, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Beetlejuice and many, many more. At this very moment, Twisters, Kung Fu Panda 4, Despicable Me 4, and Furiosa are in cinemas. In the very near future we are getting more Alien films, more Frozens, more Lord of the Rings, a Mufasa origin story, even more attempts at making Snow White, Jurassic Park and Fantastic Four movies, a bewildering number of Avatar films and, somehow, another Tron. Occasionally, an Ice Age film suddenly appears like a jump scare.
Hollywood is not nimble at the best of times, let alone when dealing with a backlog caused by the pandemic then two industry-halting strikes. Right now, it is on the ropes, in a fight with foes they created. They created a landscape in which no films end any more because they’re all The Empire Strikes Back in a never-ending story – which has eroded goodwill among casual moviegoers, who were asked too often to watch TV shows or read comics just to understand what is happening in a film. An investment banker’s approach to film-making that has left us hungry for more original, mid-budget films when they’ve put all their money in intellectual properties (IPs). And an overreliance on franchises that are loved for being familiar, not because they are strong enough to warrant more instalments.
Some will argue that sequel or franchise fatigue is not really a thing, in that it is immediately disproved when a hit like Bad Boys: Ride or Die comes along. But it’s hard not to feel fatigued when original films are just croutons in a Hollywood buzzword salad: made entirely of sequels and prequels and existing IPs and brands and reboots and remakes. Some of their decisions have even started feeling a bit insulting. Did we seem like we wanted a Pop-Tarts origin story? We didn’t mean to.
Ok let's be real here, we are fedd up on shitty remakes and sequels without actual story. Schreck still has much potential and when done right it can be a very good movie.
Yeah, Shrek is one of the few series that can pull off a grotesque number of sequels, all because the setting is a comedic, dark parody of fairy tales
Absolutely
Yeah I thought I was tired of Shrek, and then I watched Puss in Boots. The animation alone made it worth watching, but the analysis of mortality, existential dread, and friendship? Amazing.
Went to see Inside Out 2 last night, which is itself a sequel. There were 4 previews before the movie: Mufasa, a Lion King sequel; Transformers One, a Transformers sequel; Moana 2; and a Lego Pharrell Williams movie. Previews for 3 more sequels.
Movies nowadays aren’t made to tell a good story anymore, they exist to build franchises, sell celebrities and to maximize profits.
at this moment the critic guy for our local news is going through all the new stuff including season, sequels, and whatnot. This piece plays every day and there is almost so much and im always just yuck. I think this is why I have moved more toward video games and just tooling around onlline in my personal post covid era.
Think we may need a bot to post this to all the Lemmy movie Cs, it is annoying that there are so many remakes but there's also been so many brand new movie ideas and directors coming out in 2023 and 2024, go see those movies to show the studios what they need to make instead of 8 people posting Hollywood has no ideas anymore.
Ones off the top of my head to see right now, The Bikeriders, Kinds of Kindness, Longlegs and Thelma.
Now on streaming: Monkey Man, I saw the TV Glow, and Hit Man.
Ones off the top of my head to see right now, The Bikeriders, Kinds of Kindness, Longlegs and Thelma.
I saw In A Violent Nature last week which was worth a watch (possibly not a rewatch any time soon). Sting was the non-sequel before that. I'm hoping to catch Kalki 2898 AD tomorrow and Kill at some point. I'm really looking forward to Longlegs.
However, I've also recently seen A Quiet Place: Day One and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, both sequels, both very good. So I wouldn't rule sequels out.
I'm off to see MaXXXine tonight which I don't have high hopes for as I thought Pearl was pointless. However, I am prepared to be surprised.
Definitely not knocking all sequels, just most of the comments in this thread and over on movies@lemmy.world are all about Hollywood only making sequels anymore. I do want to see Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, Maxxxine and Quiet Place: Day One as well. Going to see either Maxxxine or Kinds of Kindness this weekend and hopefully Longlegs after that. Sequels can be done right and be great and lots have been done to prove that but seems that's all people pay attention to now days while complaining that's all that gets made apparently.
Some will argue that sequel or franchise fatigue is not really a thing, in that it is immediately disproved when a hit like Bad Boys: Ride or Die comes along. But it’s hard not to feel fatigued when original films are just croutons in a Hollywood buzzword salad: made entirely of sequels and prequels and existing IPs and brands and reboots and remakes.
So basically the evidence suggests it isn't a actually a thing, but you're going to continue to imply it is?
The whole article just reeks of projection. The writer feels something, and insists the rest of the world feels it too, to spite the evidence to the contrary.
I also don't get what they're trying to imply by saying original films are "just croutons in a buzzword salad". I mean...yeah? What year is this? Does this writer believe this is a fresh take? Original films share the space with franchises and adapted IPs, that has been the case for decades now, and people have been complaining about it for just as long.
But so what? Original films are getting made all the time, and really good ones at that, you just have to stop giving a shit what Disney or Warner Brothers are doing and seek them out.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Apply this idea to Hollywood, and its paralysing aversion to taking risk, and you end up in our current situation: cinemas clogged with safe, so-so sequels no one really asked for.
How many years have we had a Past Lives, The Zone of Interest, Anatomy of a Fall, Poor Things, Oppenheimer and The Holdovers?
They watch what we’re watching and rewatching and it means they bring back, to varying degrees of success: The Matrix, Scream, Top Gun, Indiana Jones, Mad Max, Hocus Pocus, Legally Blonde, Ghostbusters, Home Alone, Blade Runner, Kung Fu Panda, Jurassic Park, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Beetlejuice and many, many more.
An investment banker’s approach to film-making that has left us hungry for more original, mid-budget films when they’ve put all their money in intellectual properties (IPs).
Some will argue that sequel or franchise fatigue is not really a thing, in that it is immediately disproved when a hit like Bad Boys: Ride or Die comes along.
But it’s hard not to feel fatigued when original films are just croutons in a Hollywood buzzword salad: made entirely of sequels and prequels and existing IPs and brands and reboots and remakes.
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