Up until a couple of years ago, it seemed that Hollywood would never run out of new ideas. Yes, there was the occasional book turned into a movie, but at least that was a story nobody had seen on the big screen before. This all changed, though, and now it feels like every single film coming out of Tinseltown has been made at least once before. I know Hollywood is packed with green liberals, but this shouldn’t be a reason for recycling every last story that has ever existed. So why are there hardly any exciting new projects released by Hollywood studios anymore? Honestly, I can’t answer that, but it really does bug me since I used to love going to the movies.
When I was younger, my Saturday afternoon ritual was going to the cinema. Sometimes I went to see the same film two, three, or in the case of Titanic, even four times. Nowadays, I never think of doing this anymore. One reason is that seeing a movie has gotten super expensive over the last couple of years. Yet the other, more important reason definitely is that there is really nothing new playing anymore. First all the old horror classics of the 1970s and 1980s were remade; then they turned TV shows into films. After this they made tons of sequels of the same old film and now they’re booting comedies that had long been wrapped, like the new Bridget Jones movie or the Zoolander sequel released last year.
At the end of the day, you really wonder if every screenwriter in Hollywood is too lazy or just too busy spending their millions to actually think of creative new scripts. Especially considering that this is not only happening with the cinema, but also TV shows. I’m the first to admit that I was thrilled about the reboot of The X-Files. Yet the outcome was more than a letdown. This was their chance to finish the show on a high note after the lame season without David Duchovny back in 2002. Yet they actually managed to tarnish the series by kind of making a parody out of it. This is exactly why I loathe remakes, reboots, prequels, and sequels. Most of the time, they take something awesome or even perfect, like The Lion King, American Pie, or Halloween and turn it into a disaster that makes you want to pretend that you’ve never even seen it.
I know I shouldn’t give up on Hollywood just yet, and if you’re also sick of remakes and a seemingly endless amount of sequels, neither should you. Because who knows, maybe there will be an awesome ten-IMDb-stars-out-of-ten movie released real soon that’s neither a remake nor a reboot, not based on a book and hopefully not even based on a true story. Just a great film brought to life by the mind of an inventive screenwriter.
Author & Picture: Alisa Lechky