I hate the phrase "You are taking it too seriously."
Take it out of your lexicon. Because even if something is not meant to be taken seriously(Read: Shoot Em Up, Snakes on a Plane) they are still good and have tongue planted firmly in cheek.
Popcorn movies are crap like Avatar, The Last Airbender, Transformers 2.
So as of this writing, the top box office for the year were:
1 Toy Story 3
2 Alice in Wonderland (2010)
3 Iron Man 2
4 The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
5 Inception
6 Despicable Me
7 Shrek Forever After
8 How to Train Your Dragon
9 The Karate Kid
10 Clash of the Titans (2010)
11 Grown Ups
12 The Last Airbender
13 Shutter Island
14 Salt
15 The Other Guys
16 Valentine's Day
17 Robin Hood
18 The Expendables
19 Date Night
20 Sex and the City 2
21 The Book of Eli
22 Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
23 Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief
24 Dear John
25 Eat Pray Love
26 The A-Team
27 Knight & Day
28 Dinner for Schmucks
29 The Bounty Hunter
30 Diary of a Wimpy Kid
Now that's the top 30 movies this year so far.
So lets pull out the movies in there that are original and not critically panned.
5 Inception
6 Despicable Me
8 How to Train Your Dragon
13 Shutter Island
14 Salt
18 The Expendables
21 The Book of Eli
Now of those, Salt, Expendables, and book of Eli I thought were crap. But overall critics were divided on them, so I'll give them for this purpose.
That's umm.... well...That's really disappointing. In total, in the top 100 films thus far this year I counted 8 films that were original, I considered good.
In whole, of the top 100 films this year, include ones based on previous work(remake, adaptation, sequel, prequel) I found 20 movies to be good or watchable. 20. 1 in 5 movies that made more than a million dollars are worth watching. Why?
Because studios know you do the same thing they are doing. Your budget is tight, like everyone else, so you only put money into things you think are worth your time. Remakes, Sequels, adaptations. These are the things you want to see, so you see them. You don't risk yourself on original work. And if you do it's because its from someone acclaimed and known to be good.
We cause this to happen.
That's not true.
The economy caused this to happen.
But it's still an issue. We need to not do this. This is a problem.
Movies like Buried, Cyrus, Scott Pilgrim, Kick-Ass. the true gems of the year, get otherwise ignored because they aren't appealing to a wide audience. And this isn't new. Look at 2005. Serenity was easily the best movie that year. It came to much critical acclaim and many who had never seen the work it was based on thought it was great. I've never shown it to someone and NOT had them think it's great, including some very non geeks.But how much did this movie make? 10 million dollars. It crashed, and it crashed hard. I know because I saw it six times. five of those times was opening weekend. I've seen Scott Pilgrim twice. And it wasn't enough, Scott fell to the same problem. Scott Pilgrim is this year's Serenity. But it's falling has already been shown. Now what really hurts is that a great film like Buried will get ignored because people don't think it will be good. We get so much bad to mediocre films 4 out of 5, that we don't want to take a risk against something that doesn't look like it will be good. This isn't the good ol' days where I went to go see a terrible movie called Awake simply because there was nothing else to see that week. We don't live in a time of Seeing things because we can anymore. But back to point, studios see that you only go to 2 out of 5 films, maybe less. you only see on average, 5 films in theaters a year. They want to grab one of those five slots with their big movie. So I urge you that you, before going to the movies, consult either my site or a site like Rotten Tomatoes(better, both). I want you to see what the critics say. I want you to look at critics and find one you keep agreeing with. And then look for when the recommend a movie you thought didn't look like your style or you haven't heard of that they rave about. Like I am with Buried. I want you to do this and use one of your 5 movies on something outside of the box. To be honest, I'd prefer you wait on some of the bigger things like the remake of Nightmare on Elm street for hte home video release. That movie is already going to make money and there is no imperative to see it in theaters. But something like Buried demands to be seen in theaters and could use the support. Go out of your way for the next year, and only pay to see good movies. Help send a message to movie makers that we don't want recycled trash. We want this years District 9. We want this years Buried. We want amazing adaptions like The Dark Knight and Scott Pilgrim. Tell them with your dollar. Don't let the advertising trick you into seeing something. Let the critics, who've seen the film, tell you how it is. I thought Wall Street 2 looked like it could have been good, I was wrong. You need to just let it happen.
So see Buried, see Let Me in, see Red(well those last two after I've reviewed them and can say if they are good). Catch films like Drag Me to Hell and Let the Right One In. Films that do something for their genre. Look at Zombieland, now I am wail on it from time to time, but consider this: The movie was called a success.
So if I leave you with something it's this, just because its popular doesn't make it good. Too often what is considered financially successful is often watered down, lowest common denominator film and isn't worth your time and effort.
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