How Film Has Changed

[Chloe Davies]

Whether you go to the cinema every week or once a year, there's no denying that films make a brilliant escape (unless it's the Woman In Black. Awesome movie, but if it were real, that would be bad). But how much have they changed over the years? A lot. Many things have changed; the quality of special effects, the development of CGI, 3D, and there's a whole new generation of actors. But I've also noticed that films are becoming less and less original.

There are a lot of movies from the last year or so that are book adaptations, or superhero movies, which is great until you realise that the few films that weren't adapted from books aren't good any more. It's like Hollywood has run out of ideas for entertaining, original films now and are just taking ideas from books and are forcing sequels to happen, just so they can make money. Some of you might think I'm being melodramatic, and I probably am, but I am a huge film fan and I can't remember the last movie I watched that was original.

This is the worst possible time for Hollywood to start making more bad movies, we are in difficult times and we need an escape. On the other hand, I suppose all the bad films make the good ones seem more enjoyable when they come along (like The Avengers or The Dark Knight Rises, which I haven't seen yet but I know it'll be good because...Gary Oldman, seriously).

Another thing about films now is 3D. Ordinary ticket prices are expensive enough, but 3D tickets cost even more and it doesn't even do anything for the film. And in the wise words of the genius known as Christopher Nolan, “I never meet anybody who actually likes the format, and it's always a source of great concern to me when you're charging a higher price for something that nobody seems to really say they have any great love for". I know it's becoming a bit cliché, but it's true and you know it.

Over the last few decades, society has adapted to movies. Yesterday I watched 'A Clockwork Orange' (Malcom McDowell's performance as Alex is as incredible as Heath Ledger's as The Joker) and I was thinking about how 40 years ago this movie was banned because people found it so controversial, yet only the other day it was on ITV. It's almost like it's not controversial and shocking any more, because times have changed and in the 1970s people couldn't even begin to comprehend why this film was made. And now, 'A Clockwork Orange' is viewed by many people as a classic. Maybe this generation is messed up. Whatever, I enjoyed it.

Some things have changed for the better though, like CGI. If you watch Jaws, it's an awesome movie but as everyone likes to constantly point out, the shark just doesn't look real because they didn't have advanced technology when it was made. Now we have amazing CGI, and motion-capture which still allows actors to do what they're paid for. I personally don't like it when too much CGI is used in a film, but it has been developed a lot over the years and it looks so real now. Just look at Avatar.

I think in some ways Hollywood is starting to disappoint but there is still hope from legendary directors like Christopher Nolan (let's face it, he's never made a bad movie and they're all beautiful masterpieces). There could also be more development with visual effects and, who knows, faith may be restored when Edgar Wright makes The World's End.

So, what do you think? Has the industry changed for the better? What's your favourite film of all time and why?

And...

[Tòmachan ~blogs admin ~]

original film

 

 Avatar?

 

Really Verty? Ya might as well call it space pocahontas. 

[Mathew Gibbons (Gaiash)]

The answer to your question Ivy Ashe-O'Brien is simple: Money. People know that a pre existing fanbase means a larger audience. This isn't limited to franchises, sequels and adaptations but to directors and even film companies. A big part in the success of Avatar was that it is "James Cameron's Avatar" and while they've made very few sequels Pixar are iconic enough that each new project gets a lot of attention and interest (the same being the case for Studio Ghibli who have no sequels unless you count The Cat Returns as one).

[Sunnyt]

As a few other people have mentioned, movies based on books aren't exactly a new thing. Nearly all of Kubrick's films were based on books, some of them hugely popular books like The Shining. All of Hitchcock's movies were based on books, plays and short stories. Psycho was a direct response to a French movie, Les Diaboliques (both from adaptations of  books), kind of a professional spat over the scariest movie. The Godfather, Gone with the Wind, and the aforementioned Jaws were all based on books. This is not the basis for unoriginal Hollywood films, though I do feel that the slavish interpretations of some recent blockbuster books is too focused on pandering to the fans of the book rather than doing something really interesting with the source material (hate to say it but Hunger Games falls into this category for me).

Also, re-launches aren't new either, Hitchcock remade his own Man Who Knew Too Much once he got big in Hollywood. Scarface has been made three times since the 30's.

Lastly, I wanted to point at that the lack of special effects and the unrealistic looking shark were actually part of why Jaws is such a great film. They knew the shark looked horrible, it was incredibly difficult to get it to work the way they wanted, so they decided to show it as little as possible. This created a tremendous sense of suspense, if they had CGI who knows how it would have ended up.

[Ivy O'Brien]

Vertigo_One: If there are, as you say, a lot of original films coming out of Hollywood ("Ruby Sparks" springs to mind), why do you think it is that the adaptations are given more attention.  Shouldn't "Dark Knight Rises" be able to sell itself?  Why are production companies pumping more money into adaptations, instead of trying to get film to stand on its own as a worthwhile medium?

[Mathew Gibbons (Gaiash)]

I dont think adaptations are a sign of hollywood running out of ideas because many classics are adaptations. Jurassic Park, The Princess Bride and most of Disney's classic animated films are all based on books. The only thing that has changed is now more people are aware of the source material before seeing the film.

[Vertigo_One [Ops Mod]]

You can't think of the last original film you watched, yet you cited Christopher Nolan?

*cough*inception*cough*

How about Avatar? Or Vantage Point? Or Source Code? Or Moon? Those are just the one's I've come up with off the top of my head right now. Give me some more time, I'm sure I could come up with more.

You're making a mistake. It's not that Hollywood has run out of ideas. Its that the bigger films are the ones tapping into existing franchises, because they are getting a bigger audiance. The original films can't compete in terms of attention, but they are still there. Look up things like "Sound of her voice" or "Ultrasonic" for new original films. Or how about "Brave"? That's based on a completely new story, no previous franchise of any kind.

This is a comment I've heard from a lot of film bloggers, but I just don't see it. The truth is that there are original films coming out of Hollywood right now. They just arn't getting the same kind of attention as the big remakes/adaptations etc.

[Clover]

There's a good reason for book to film adaptations and rebooted franchises - the movie industry is a business and businesses need to make money. By tapping into markets that are already popular (book fans/previous fans of original films) it is more likely that a film won't flop.

[Chloe Davies]

I really like Indie films, sometimes it's nice to get away from all that CGI stuff and to just watch life. There are some great Indie films that should have been more popular that were really good.

[Chloe Davies]

Yeah, I think sometimes CGI kind of steals the show a bit and distracts you from the actual movie, like Avatar (which I haven't seen but I've only heard people talk about how amazing the CGI is). Star Wars was pretty awesome :D A Clockwork Orange is a messed up movie, although I liked the controversy and as someone who's really into psychology and stuff I found it quite interesting. Really messed up though.

[Chloe Davies]

I love Bambi too :) I agree, cheesy CGI is entertaining, especially in old films when it couldn't really be helped