The Lack of Originality Out There Has Gotten Annoying

[SkyNet]

i saw Gothika on friday night. Before the movie they had a few ads... and after each ad played i said to the person i was with... That Looks like this mixed with that. And i was just thinking... WHERE THE FUCK ARE THE ORIGINAL IDEAS???

First we had MIRACLE which stars Kurt Russel as a coach who wont give up on his misfit Hockey team, and the team wont work together, until the coach comes and brings them together. Hmmm sounds an awful lot like Remember The Titans, only they threw in a little Mighty Ducks to you know.. throw us off!

Next we had some movie starring Ashley Judd and Samuel L. Jackson ( i think it was Ashley Judd at least) but this movies premise was: Female kick ass cop who is now hunting down a killer who is profiling her.... OMG i really want to see this.. oh wait, ill just pull out my copy of The Watcher or Se7en or any other Cop Vs Murderer flick ever made!

There were 2 more trailers, one of which i cant remember. The other trailer looked REALLY original, until the title was revealed to be Dawn Of The Dead (which was ok with me, because that movie deserves a remake, and this one looks pretty kick ass)


As an aspiring Screenwriter and Director, seeing shit like this annoys the fuck out of me. I write and have a few scripts that are fuckin original as all hell, and it just irks me that shit can be rehashed a million times in maybe 2 or 3 different ways, but people like myself with original ideas out the ass... cant get a fucking break!

[Tuukka]

I'm sure people will give you a break. Just write a killer script and it will be bought. I can give you adresses where you can send it. Hollywood is always looking for the new great idea. Unfortunately only very few writers can write good, original scrips. that's why we see so many derivative movies.

Most movies have always been generic and cliched. Nothing new under the sun. It just depends on what kind of movies you go to see.

If I ever go to see Gothica, I'm expecting a derivative, dumb, but hopefully entertaining film with stylish cinematography. If I expect to see something original, I think I will see 21 Grams instead. Or Big Fish. Or Bubba Ho-Tep. Or City Of God. Or some other of the countless of wildly original and inventive movies that are playing cinemas right now, or coming soon.

So the point is, it has always been like this, right from the beginning of movies. It will always be like this.

A good example is that the "original" movies you mentioned as sources to these newer movies were derivative by themselves. Remember The Titans? Mighty Ducks? Watcher? Dawn Of The Dead? Those were IMHO pretty derivative movies. Seven had a lot of originality, but played many familiar cliches as well.

[Lynn Minmei]

A funny little side-note, SkyNet, Miracle is based on a true story...A true original story.

[TheDeadWalk]

Is it a lack of creativity? Or just over 100 years of Cinema is starting to remind us of other films?

Mafia films will remind us of Goodfellas/Godfather

Slashers will remind us of Halloween/F13

Zombies will remind us of Romero...

Aliens will remind us of Alien...

Kids bungling sports teams will remind us of "Popular and happy sports team film X"

And so it will continue to go...

[The Rain Dog]

Hollywood is a business first and foremost.

That business is run by suits who want to see the largest return on their investment as possible.

That means taking no risks whatsoever.

Originality is a risk.

Hence the dirth of sequals, re-makes and team-ups we're being subjected to over and over.

And it's only gona get worse kids.

RD:rolleyes: :mad: :(

[phelonious]

This is fricking eerie. Out of the three or four trailers that fronted Gothika. They didn't even bother, to stir the mix. Two of the trailers were blazen remakes.

Denzel Washington's: MAN ON FIRE.

But then who fondly remembers the original with Scott Glen and Jade Malle?

And the second one, the title slips my mind, but they're going to add a hip hop beat to CAN'T BUY ME LOVE with Patrick Dempesy and Amanda Peterson. Damn.

[flowrchild]

Originally posted by SkyNet
i saw Gothika on friday night.

No wonder that provoked the age old "originality in hollywood is dead" rant. There was not an original or unique moment in that entire film. Everything in it reminded me of another movie where each broached topic was handled a billion times more effectively than in this drivel.

While we're on the subject--- one of the trailers I saw before this work-of-art was "Love Don't Cost A Thing." Essentially the movie looks exactly like a black version of "Can't Buy Me Love".

And if that's not lame enough with the regurgitating of 80s movies, it's named after a freaking J-LO tune!

[SkyNet]

OH YA.. that was the other trailer.. Love Dont Cost A Thing... that movie looks soooo fucking stupid. thats the type of movie id get pissed off at if it made money the BO!!

As for Gothika.. i wasnt expecting anything super duper out of it... just a few jumps and scares.. and it delivered those... i called the ending an hour b4 it happened!

[Beeblebrox]

Originally posted by TheDeadWalk
[B]Mafia films will remind us of Goodfellas/Godfather

Slashers will remind us of Halloween/F13

Zombies will remind us of Romero...

Aliens will remind us of Alien...

Kids bungling sports teams will remind us of "Popular and happy sports team film X"

And so it will continue to go...

Not only will it remind us of those movies, we WANT it to remind of the movies we've seen that we love.

The reason executives tend to favor sequels over original ideas is because audiences tend to favor sequels over original ideas. Like executives, audiences have a finite amount of money to spend and they want to make sure they get something out of it. So between a sequel to the Matrix or Spider-man and some movie with no stars and an off-the-wall story they know little about, they'll pick Spider-man 2.

So before you blame everything on the suits, you should ask yourself which movie had more threads dedicated to it by the movie lovers at this site, X-Men 2 or Whale Rider.

[Slim]

These days you pretty much know what kind of movie you're going to see beforehand. Most of the time it's entirely derivative or formulaic or as some writer/directors would like to think, simply paying "homage" to a lot of movies. The lack of originality used to bother me, but not anymore. Now I expect most thrillers to be predictable, comedies to use the same old gags, and sequels made just to further milk a franchise.

The lack of originality has not gotten annoying. It's old news. The boxoffice success and occasional glorifying of rehashes is what pisses me off.

[HeavyK]

If you want originality you'll have to go for independant films. Hollywood lost all it's good ideas many years ago. To Hollywood the only thing that matters is money. If a new great idea for a movie comes around but it's not known whether it will make 100 million bucks at the box office, they won't make it; or they'll change it to the old refried crap that we've all seen over and over again because they know it will sell.

[Jon Lyrik]

The problem is that manistream Hollywood has never released a goofy, off-the-wall film on 3,500 screens. They play it too safe, but the public still flocks like cattle to the next worn thread of a film.

So who knows how the public would react to an odd but well-made film released all over the place?

[TheDeadWalk]

Originally posted by Jon Lyrik
The problem is that manistream Hollywood has never released a goofy, off-the-wall film on 3,500 screens.

Two words: Cabin Fever.

I don't know about good or not, but it sure was a goofy, off-the-wall film, and was released nationwide.