Has Hollywood completely run out of original ideas? Or are we content to take what they hand us?
Never before has there been more remakes or classics “re-imagined” for modern American audiences. I have lost count of how many films falling into this category are already in some stage of production.
For example “we,” for a better word, rape foreign horror films and call them our own. Most of the time the transition to American cinema fails to bring the raw effect of the original forward due to trying to remain mainstream. Case in point, the Swedish hit Let The Right One In is being remade for American audiences. Are the subtitles too difficult to follow? Horror seems to be an overseas forte. How many times do you hear that a foreign county is remaking an American film? Zilch.
We are in such a cinematic drought that boardgames are being adapted into movies. Cannot wait to finish that Monopoly game? Never fear, it is coming to a theater near you. No longer will you have to say “You Sunk My Battleship!” Hollywood is on the way. I could go on and on about the boardgames to movies line-up, but why? Is it an attempt to cash in on the nostalgic games of old? Even Candyland is being readied.
Other countries are turning out some really great original films. Are we that consumed with playing it safe? Are we not cultured enough? In a recession, you would think originality would be the trump card. Not.
Hollywood is banking too much on the general public buying into gimmicks like 3D. Let’s make everything 3D! Even films as old as 1968’s Night Of The Living Dead are being “dimensionalized.” George Lucas still plans to release the Star Wars saga in 3D. Milk it, George.
I want to believe that we, the country that has spawned so many classics, have not fully succombed to the almight dollar. I expect more. No more rehashes and translations. I want to believe that our IQs have not fallen to the point of having to be spoon fed diluted recycled ideas. Send film students abroad like gourmet chefs if need be. Offer plentiful overseas study aboard scholarships with Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen cash and the results will be reflected in their work.
I still have hopes Hollywood will abandon this unoriginality trend but they are fading. We need new influential blood to remind us what true cinematic art is and what used to be. And we need it fast.
– Darrin Stock
