Skip to main content

Quality Over Originality

We sometimes hear complains that Hollywood has no originality and is pumping out nothing but sequels, reboots, remakes, and movies based on outside properties (like comic books and books).
I hope we can rise above assuming that non-original movies are inherently a bad thing.
Mad Max: Fury Road was a soft reboot.
The Empire Strikes Back was a sequel.
Jurassic Park, The Prestige, Blade Runner, Jaws, The Shining, Fight Club, and The Martian were based on books.
The Dark Knight and Logan were sequels AND based on specific comic book arcs (Batman: The Long Halloween and Old Man Logan).
Ocean's Eleven was a remake (not to say it was one of the best movies ever made, but it certainly has a lot of quality to it).
Deadpool was a comic book movie and a spin-off.
If some of the best best movies ever made can be sequels, reboots, remakes, and movies based on outside properties, maybe lack of originality isn't inherently a bad thing.
Obviously, there are lots of really bad sequels, remakes, and movies based on outside properties. But there have also been a lot of really bad originals and a lot of really good non-original movies.
So I don't care about whether the movie is an original. I care about whether the movie is good.


--

Wow. That was a LOT of italics.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Are There Any Cheat Codes For Mutual?

My friend Nate Tucker recently asked "How do you improve your Mutual game?" Other friends asked "Are there any cheat codes?" and "How do you lower the difficulty level?" The Konami code only gives your character +5 Charisma, & it only works once. But there are some more organic ways to improve your characters' stats: With enough XP, you can tweak your profile in a way that will generate better scenarios and allow you to play with better players, but those sometimes cause harder boss-battles (If you thought the DTR at Level 11 was difficult, look at what happens at the Water Temple on Level 32). The most effective way to increase XP (along with developing skill trees and increasing travel distances) is unlocking new dialogue trees for your character and the other characters around you. A lot of players treat the other characters as NPCs, which leaves them with a very limited dialogue tree, usually set to either Small Talk or Jerk. You can unlock s...

How to Make a Good Mormon Movie

Have you ever seen a movie made by a Mormon and thought "I'm glad that movie was so clean and inspirational. It's a refreshing change of pace from Hollywood". Have you ever got home from that movie and realized "Wait a minute. The only thing that movie had going for it was that it was clean and inspirational. I guess that's all I was looking for, but if it were a normal Hollywood movie I forked out $10 to see, I would have thought it was awful." That's the case with basically every Mormon movie I watch. It's clean and inspirational, but it's really missing the quality I expect out of a normal movie. In my experience, Mormon movies are generally worse movies than movies made by someone who isn't Mormon. Now,  I'm not talking about a clean movie, or an entertaining movie, or an uplifting movie. I'm talking about a movie that uses the tools of storytelling and the tools of filmmaking to present a good story, well told. I'm talk...

Of Course They're Similar Plots - You Were Too Vague!

When you're describing the similarity between two plots, the more general you are, the less credible you are. Here's a general sketch of the worst versions of "every story is the same" or "these two stories are remarkably similar": "A character who is uncomfortable with his/her life is has a situation that forces him/her to reluctantly go on an adventure (possibly involving 1-2 companions who are total opposites of him/her) in order to get something (s)he really wants. Along  the way, (s)he encounters a lot of obstacles, has conflict with other characters, gets taken to his/her lowest point, and changes as a person. He/She finally gets the opportunity to return to his/her old life and either chooses to refuse it and continue in his/her new life or go back to his old life as a changed character." It technically describe virtually every plotline, but it's so vague that it shouldn't make anyone surprised about how similar the plotlines are. No...