
Nostalgia is ruling Hollywood: Is it a good sign for the industry?
Nostalgia is something that has been striking us gamers and movie lovers lately. For some reason, it is tied to a feeling or a way something made us feel back when we were younger. It takes us back to those summers in the 80’s and 90’s.
We also have fond memories of watching movies with friends at home or cinemas.
If you are a 90’s kid, you may remember watching one of the first video game movies that made it big: Street Fighter. And boy, we were disappointed. We have yet to find a kind who actually liked that movie, but the truth is when we think about that abomination we only think about how much fun we had watching it, and it cracks a smile in our face.
Now, we also need to be honest and say that nostalgia is good in small bursts. We can’t live from nostalgia, just because we are different from what we were back then.
It is very hard to trigger that same feeling with new movies just because it brings different memories for all of us. We are, fortunately, not made equal.
With this introduction, we have a better view of the current state of the movie industry. Pretty much, production companies are wrapping their heads around consumers. Trying to figure out what franchise they can bring back to life, to then butcher it.
Movie fans are always between the same juxtaposition: big TV or visit to the cinema. Being TV prices so accessible and new generations losing interest in movies to focus on YouTube and series, movie studios are trying to re-capture their public with the same franchises over and over again, and even bringing back old ones.
Jurassic Park
This was revolutionary back in 1993. It was the first movie to bring dinosaurs to life and triggered a Dino-hysteria among the young ones. The franchise expanded across six movies, including the latest one called Dominion.
The movies are decreasing in quality with each release and, while yet enjoyable, they were never able to top the original.
Since the launched of the first film, Jurassic Park didn’t just stay in the big screen, but it also landed in different sectors. Video games, merchandising, theme parks and, nowadays, even for the adult entertainment. Nowadays, you can enjoy gambling sites around the world. It doesn’t only allow to play the classic fruit slots, classic poker or the best online roulette with real money in India or USA, besides having the different variations of this and a variation of bonuses. Thus, Jurassic Park has known how to involve in this world and it has its own slot games to be played anywhere.
The Matrix
Doesn’t matter if you take the blue or red pill. This one is a hard pill to swallow.
Purists believe that the revolutionary Matrix from 1999 is the best and prefer to disregard the sequels from 2003 and never see them as a trilogy. Others think the second and third instalment are good enough to close the story, and most of the public is OK with the Animatrix series.
Well, this time they’ve decided to bring Neo back from the dead (literally) with a fourth movie that no one asked for, and no one liked (except for paid trolls who love giving 10 point scores on every review website there is).
The movie makes absolutely no sense and, if you look closer, it feels more like a joke to WB from director Lana.
Rocky
Rocky is a classic that puts Stallone on the map. Rocky I to V vary in quality and they all have mixed reviews with IV being the best among fans. But they had to keep pushing. They released Rocky VI, which was an OK movie, featuring an aged Rocky Balboa trying to return to the ring yet again.
But the icing on the cake are the Creed series, which we may say it’s a spinoff, but not really.
Rocky is training Apollo Creed’s son to follow his dad’s footsteps. The third movie is soon to be released and it will complete the story.
Conclusion
It’s taking movie studios way too much to figure out what viewers want. They keep milking the same franchises over and over, they are not taking risks. It seems like they’ve forgotten what made them popular in the first place: Creativity.
Real movie fans want new and interesting ideas as much as sequels, even more.
We don’t want to keep living in the past. We can create new memories that may cause nostalgia (in small doses) twenty years from now.
With so many things wanting our attention, such as social media, YouTube and streaming shows, they should try harder and not try to play safe. Otherwise, they won’t survive the next decade.