Movie companies are playing it a little too safe lately. They are working with mainly sequels, prequels, and spin-offs. These can be very helpful in getting money, but recently I haven't seen them working to well.
Last weekend, there was all four Indiana Jones films shown on USA Network. Now I'm going to start off by saying that, against popular opinion, I liked the fourth one, but that doesn't mean it was a good film. I liked the film for how over the top with "action"which caused the writing to flail around like it had just washed up on shore. Having said that, I would like to point out that the way I picture them coming up with the idea by writing an action packed movie and then asking themselves, "How can we squeeze every cent out of this movie?" After that they pitched the movie to execs who gave the green light, with the concession that they put Indy's name on it.
Another thing that annoys me about it, is that they forced the Indiana into the movie. There was one spot that I felt this was specifically apparent. The scene where Indy and Mary start sinking in quicksand and Mud goes to get a snake to pull them out. Now, without having seen the first three films you probably had no idea what is happening in this scene because all you see is Indy repulsed by a snake and they never bring back his snake fear, its like they rounded that base and never looked back. It seems like they wanted to fit an Indy moment into an inherently un-Indy film. The whole first part of the movie with all that's happening in America was necessary to the film itself but was, again, un-Indy of the movie.
Now that I've said that we can get into the actual post about sequels, prequels, and spin-offs of famous movies. For that type of movie to be successful there has to be two things 1) a team of film makers that understands the premise and subtleties of the previous movie(s) to make the new one feel like there wasn't a 19 year gap between the two, and 2) a movie franchise that is still relevant to the audience of today. In my mind there are only two exceptions to that, and those are if the movie was bad when it first came out
(e.g. Batman), or if it was never really famous when it came out (e.g. The Green Hornet).* I also wonder if in some of the worse sequels, prequels, and spin-offs are that way because the franchise is being forced into a movie that it isn't compatible with it.
*Sorry to anyone who liked those movies, also I wasn't a big fan of the new Green Hornet, but it was the first one that came to mind.
Now sequels, prequels, and spin-offs are proven to drum up sales, but if you do them wrong you can lose that franchise forever, and who wants that.
What Do You Think?
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