“Much less is extra”, because the previous saying goes, and nowhere is that this extra apparently true than in fashionable TV and movie tradition.
It’s comprehensible that when audiences see an important movie or TV sequence, they need extra of it. They wish to see the characters they know and love and get to know them much more.
Equally, when a cinematic work is a superb monetary success, it’s equally apparent that executives will wish to mine that success for all it’s value.
It is subsequently no shock that an unholy alliance has been shaped between those that demand and people who provide, not artwork, however an countless stream of “content material”.
The obvious participant of this sport is Disney, which has relentlessly mined the Star Wars and Marvel franchises to the purpose of exhaustion.
Different much less egregious examples may be the most recent Gladiator movie. Gladiator was the right instance of a stand-alone movie with a self-contained story. No sequel was wanted. What subsequent? Casablanca 2?
One other instance may be the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, which have been spared the worst excesses of Disney, however nonetheless needed to endure the indignity of Amazon’s Rings of Energy sequence and a current anime movie.
It will be unfaithful to say that each one this in depth materials is horrible. It’s attainable to search out some gold among the many slop.
However the truth that fashionable tradition has come so far suggests an countless want for extra, and a shallowness of thought.
The issue shouldn’t be sequels, however the lack of an overarching story. Each the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the unique Star Wars trilogy (plus the prequels) instructed an overarching story that culminated with the ultimate defeat of evil.
On this respect, each tales finish in the identical manner that the Bible does. After the autumn of Sauron/the Emperor, there isn’t a want for something extra. Revelation ends the Bible with God and man lastly reconciled.
Think about if church leaders struggled to give you a sermon each week as a result of no new “content material” has been added to the Bible for practically 2,000 years. As a substitute, what they do is interact with what has been tried and examined over millennia.
To have the ability to learn, watch or look at a chunk for the hundredth time and to remove one thing new is probably what defines a chunk as being a masterpiece.
This is without doubt one of the causes the Bible has remained such a bedrock of our tradition over the centuries and what permits man-made works to be added to the pantheon of the greats.
So, resist the urge to eat the subsequent portion of slop earlier than transferring onto the subsequent factor, and take a while to understand and re-examine the nice movies, TV reveals, books, performs and artwork. Maybe if sufficient folks achieve this, then ultimately somebody will make a movie value going to the cinema for.
