We were looking at the latest film times online, planning our next trip and we are clearly now in Blockbuster season. Proven by the fact that we definitely look like heading out to see Captain America: Civil War, for our next choice.
But whilst there, we noticed tickets are now also available for X-Men: Apocalypse, which will highly likely be our next choice. We then felt a bit sad, because the last film we saw at the cinema was The Jungle Book.
Now don’t get me wrong, we loved the Jungle Book, but you can not hide the fact that it is a reboot of the animated classic. What made us sad however was that there seems to be a lack of new original blockbusters. Studios seem to be considering them to be a risky option.
Civil War is making box office records as we speak, Batman V Superman also made a ton of money despite poor reviews so you can understand why!
But thinking about it, most of our favourite blockbusters that we’ve enjoyed over the last couple of years, have been originals, Edge of Tomorrow; John Wick; Zootropolis; Krampus & Sicario. We also should include non-sequel, but still comic book films none the less, Guardians of the Galaxy & Deadpool.
Of course, we would be lying if we said we didn’t like any of the remakes; reboots or sequels.
Our blog has shown our love in the past for films such as The Force Awakens; The Muppets; Mad Max: Fury Road; Jurassic World; Dawn of The Planet of the Apes and the Hunger Games which has had us ever present for its 4 outings.
That is not to say we haven’t enjoyed the comic book hero films, the likes of Thor; Avengers; Iron Man and Ant-Man most recently, but we just haven’t come up feeling wowed, if anything we are a little bit tired of them. Most recently we chose Zootropolis over Batman V Superman which backs this up!
The Civil war film does look good, yet we already know more Marvel films are on the way. In fact, this very film sets up another new Spider-Man franchise.
We were happy enough with Sam Raimi’s version before Spidey became an Amazing Spider-Man so do we need another retelling?
Of course, we have stated that we can be impressed by the comic book heroes. Guardians of the Galaxy managed to feel new and fresh; Deadpool with its violence & language also felt different too, but both have already had sequels announced.
Will they continue to be as original? We have to admit to being guilty, by saying we will see them in the hope that they are.
So we looked at what we want to see coming up, that was something new and it was a very short list: Money Monster; The Secret Life of Pets; The Nice Guys and The Shallows seem to be our top choices.
Those new titles should also include Angry Birds; Warcraft; Me Before You and Suicide Squad yett they all have origins elsewhere.
Looking at the unoriginal titles we want to see, our list appears to be endless; Finding Dory; Alice Through the Looking Glass; Ghostbusters; Star Trek Beyond; The Conjuring 2 and Now You See Me 2 to name a few.
When I was younger, our summers were filled with exciting new and original films such as Gremlins; The Goonies; The Lost Boys; Back to the Future; Edward Scissorhands; The Terminator; True Lies; the Mask; Lethal Weapon; Speed and more, many have had a sequel, some more, but none to the extent we get now.
Growing up films like Halloween; Friday the 13th and Police Academy were ridiculed for having numbers like 5 or 6 in the title! Now it is the norm and we feel it’s a shame, the trouble is the characters and stories are what we love, so we’ll keep seeing them.
So come on Hollywood, gamble more, give us some more choice and characters, that is of course if you can get the stars and directors away from the comics!
How do you feel about the state of cinema today? Are comic book films, sequels and reboots taking over? What was the last best original film you saw? We would love to hear from you here at Barking Mad About Films
Never miss a BMAF blog. Receive email notifications when new posts are published by entering your email address in the subscription box on the top right-hand side of this page.
You can also like us on Facebook for more blogs, trailers and content www.facebook.com/barkingmadaboutfilms/