All This and Heaven Too

I find it so odd that Hollywood is remaking POINT BREAK when they already did a decade ago. It was called THE FAST & THE FURIOUS. Remakes are getting so bad that I hope that the entire traditional system fails miserably and utterly. Some new style or genre is about to break out and redefine movies as we know it. Coppola predicted it in the 1970’s that some fat girl in Ohio was going to reinvent cinema and we’ll see the industry taken in by whatever this new trend is like it did in the late 60’s with the USC film school kids and again by the indies of the early 1990’s. I even saw a poster for a remake of ENDLESS LOVE. How desperate must the studio system be that even teen movies have to be remade? We have a creative endeavor being run by bankers and statisticians with no clue what people want.

What the audience does want remains subjective and perpetually changes. Things have skewed so far into the key demographic of 18-34 year old males that when a movie hits with an audience outside of that, they act surprised. A good movie will always be a good movie and find paying customers.

As much as I love comic book adaptations, they are starting to swell in number. I predict the mighty Marvel movie hit machine will have it’s first failing since INCREDIBLE HULK (2008) in this fall’s GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY. Even though the roots of the comic are from the 1970’s, the movie is based on a barely decade old storyline and characters.

One of the reasons most of the comic book adaptations have been successful thus far is the history. With the Avengers and all the movies leading up to it, you had the sentimentality of 5 decades of fans fueling the box office, not just the key demo. Some of these newer characters don’t have that subconscious and historical connection to the audience.

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY might not fail entirely, after all INCREDIBLE HULK was not a financial disaster, just not hugely profitable. I just don’t see it being a runaway hit. Combine that with the THOR 2 post credits scene looking strangely unappealing and it all looks like a dent in their armor at Marvel.

“So why d’you have to lie? I take it I’m your crutch. The pillow in your pillow case. It’s easier to touch”
– Damien Rice