Films have always followed some kind of trend. Film noir was one of the dominant genres from the late 1930s to the end of the 1950s, screwball comedy from the 1930s to the 1940s, and westerns from the 1950s to the 1960s. Today’s movies have also followed a sort of trend: a trend of unoriginality. What makes movies entertaining is their ability to capture a series of specific moments while simultaneously telling a compelling story in a specific environment. The current state of cinema completely disregards this universal truth as it has become apparent that movies have transformed into a lucrative state of uncreativity where filmmakers put their self interests above the authenticity of their projects.
Reboots, sequels, and prequels. Disney, the largest film company in the entire industry, has been doing the best in terms of revenue and box office hits compared to all the other companies. It also takes the lead in their uncreativity. Disney has turned and is still turning numerous classics like Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Cinderella, and Mulan into awful and infamous live-action adaptations. The film producers take the original films and basically just make them look prettier. Plot wise, they’re not really changing anything, and this ruins the experience for the audience since they already know what will happen. Look at the live action remake of The Lion King. Bruh. Disney took a carbon copy of the original The Lion King and turned it into a nature documentary with dubbed voices. There is absolutely no emotion that can be seen in the characters since they are so realistic, which takes away from the value of this film as a project meant to revitalize a timeless classic. It’s obvious that Disney plans to continually use audiences’ nostalgia and love for genuine quality movies that they truly enjoyed for their own avaricious self-interests.
The unoriginality present in movies have also spread to their respective posters. From fantastic posters like Pulp Fiction, Scarface, Clockwork Orange to Walmart lunchbox art like Spider Man: Far From Home and Black Panther, posters have strayed away from the idea of captivating the audience’s attention so that most of them are quite repulsive.
Movie posters used to grab attention, either from the popping of the colors or from the fact that they just looked really cool. Although there are few gems, currently, most of them are uncut and unrefined. Common tropes in these posters are full-body and half-face shots. What makes these so uninteresting is that nothing about the movie is revealed. From the standpoint of a viewer that knows nothing about the movie, these posters would seem discouraging. Looking at these full-body or half-face shots of some Hollywood actors, no one would seem inclined to watch the movie, since no details of the movie are revealed in the art. No incentive to watch the film is made, and the likelihood that anyone will remember the poster is low.
The lack of creativity and authenticity that Hollywood faces due to the disheartening aspects of the film is a logical explanation for the fact that viewership in movies has not been as high as it used to.
Hollywood is all about money. No matter how unoriginal a movie is. There are a lot of remakes being scheduled to make, because those that were hits back in the day, could possibly “work” today. Many studios dismiss the hard-working, original, compelling, incredible stories from screenwriters who are trying to sell their work.
