Sequels/Prequels/Remakes and Creativity

Let's get down to business...(no not to defeat the Huns, though that would be more epic)...but to discuss media and movies today.

I am the first to admit how much I enjoy Disney, Pixar, Marvel, and any franchise films at times. But lately I have been a bit turned off by the amount of sequels, prequels, and live action remakes that have been flooding the theaters. From lists I have seen this trend is not scheduled to end anytime soon either.

One thing which is bothering me a lot right now is the lack of originality and new stories within movies and television shows today.


As I stated above I really do love many of the original movies and characters in them. For a few examples I will take Disney Princesses, Star Wars, and Marvel.

There are a lot of live action remakes being made nowadays by Disney and quite a few of them are in or will be in the Disney Princess realm. Cinderella is one that has come out with Beauty and the Beast and Mulan in the works now. As much as I enjoy these characters, especially Belle I wonder how much can be done to the story to make it interesting to see. There have been many retellings of these stories and it feels like Disney is just trying to build off the popularity of the story and characters to draw people into seeing something which will not in any way be NEW.

Star Wars, to be honest I am super excited at how they are taking this franchise and bringing it to life and expanding it for a new generation. I will probably be first in line to see each new movie when it comes out. Yet it is also one of those things which may be hard to keep creativity and uniqueness a part of. Building off an established universe there are many different ways to explore it. Yet it can get to the point where like Marvel the storylines become so dependent on building to the next movie that it may start to take away from the plot and individual character development.

With Marvel as I stated above there may be the point where the stories are so convoluted that it will be hard to tell a story in a movie well because you are trying to put too much into it. The first Avengers seemed to have a pretty good balance for all of the characters. While Civil War felt a little jumpy at times just trying to incorporate all of the characters and building interest in the new introductions backstories. Thus the buildup to the next movie. I know they are trying to work the same way the original comics work but it will be interesting to see if the movie form of media can compete with the written form.

All of these movies have their ups and downs. I still feel that there is a lack of original plot and stories in media today. Building off of a series which people love is all well and good. Also I know there are only so many types of stories/ways to tell them with original ideas. Yet I feel that remakes and reboots of shows and movies such as Ghostbusters, The Jungle Book, etc, is just a big money grab. This takes away from the possible creativity which might be going into making and creating something new rather then building off something already popular. If people like Walt Disney, Lucas, C.S.Lewis, Tolkien, and Rowlings had been content with this we wouldn't have many of these stories which we love today because no one cared to push that bar, take risks, and explore where no one had gone before.

None of these remakes and sequels would be being made if people did not want to see them though, so what besides nostalgia is the huge draw? Especially for remakes which we know pretty much how the story will go. I will definitely make the note that as far as retellings of stories which do it in a unique vision and new way I am completely for!!

Anyway, just a personal pet peeve that I have against movies and tv nowadays!

I would love to hear others thoughts on this. The examples that I used are pretty generic and are just a small portion of what I think about this to get people thinking.