I remember the days when the announcement of a movie adaptation of things I loved was a positive thing. I didn’t need the live action version. Animated was fine. The theatrical film was the BIG story, the one too big for the small screen. Or a sequel to a movie I already liked. People loved hearing that Star Wars was getting a third movie, or a new trilogy that filled in the lore officially. We didn’t know if it would be good but if they worked hard on it, and we knew the right people were involved or returning, we had high hopes.
Hope has gone to die in today’s Hollywood.
Not for lack of trying. I see people so sure that THIS movie will be where they get it, right, where they realized their mistakes from before and this time they’re going to make what the fans want, something true to the source material. And then they’re disappointed again when the new movie or streaming show is just as bad as the last one, still pushing some agenda above the story whether it’s sociopolitical or just someone pushing their own tastes into something they clearly hate and taking out what the fans love because they’re so sure they’ll like “my” version better…and then throw a fit when they don’t.
I wish I could be excited for things like I used to, but I can’t. I’ve been hurt too many times and I can easily point to all the problems…problems I don’t see changing anytime soon.
This article was inspired by a video talking about how excited the host was for James Gunn’s Superman by James Gunn because of all the comics stated as his influence for the movies, like Superman For All Seasons, All-Star Superman, Superman: Secret Origins, and others. Even if the rumor that came out earlier this week turns out to be false, there are other red flags. We have too many heroes showing up for Superman’s first story in a new continuity, his history of making wacky characters like Suicide Squad and Guardians Of The Galaxy (though I will give him points for making those stories GOOD), putting his dog (or at least the breed, not the dog himself) in place of Krypto, and the fact that Tom Taylor’s Supergirl story, the one where she goes off to another planet on her birthday to find one she can legally get drunk on, are also influences. Influences don’t impress me when you remember Zac Snyder’s influence with Batman V Superman was The Dark Knight Returns. I don’t even enjoy that story and I still don’t think the movie measures up to the comic. I can’t even be happy to hear how David Corenswet is a fan and wants to play the role after hearing the same thing from Henry Cavill, who still thinks Snyder’s Superman was him being Superman.
It also makes me sad when people say “this was such a disaster that surely they’ve learned their lesson and the next one will be better”. Disney alone tells you they’re not with every live-action demake they put out. From Aladdin to The Lion King, from Beauty & The Beast to Snow White, it’s clear that Disney still hates their animated legacy since actors and live-action directors in a fit of ego, personal bias, and elitist media snobbery forced the Academy Awards to shove cartoons into it’s own category to keep it from ever challenging “them” for Best Picture. We have Lilo & Stitch getting a live-action version and for some reason folks are sure THIS time they’ve got it.
How do you even make this live-action on a streaming budget and not make it look terrible?
Meanwhile Disney+ announced a live-action, adult-focused (meaning bad language, sex, and violence plus probably a bunch of modern day California perspectives) for GARGOYLES! So a show made for older kids is going to leave those kids behind when they get action shows in live action or animation then younger kids. Sucks to be them, I guess, because adults want everything they like to be for them so they don’t have to be ashamed of watching something with good writing, animation, and characters. The pansies. Did it need to be live-action? No, but they want to join Netflix in ruining “kiddie crap cartooooonz” by making a live-action version that lacks the heart and soul of what made them good. If you think they wouldn’t consider a live-action Gravity Falls after it’s recent resurgence in public attention you are clearly not paying attention. If you think the Last Airbender franchise is being ruined with movies and streaming shows, wait until you see what’s coming.
The problem is the people in charge still think what they want is superior. The studios don’t care, and they keep listening to the wrong people. These people hate comics, hate cartoons, hate science fiction and fantasy both separately and together, and hate the fans for not bowing to their “superior” tastes. The studios refuse to take a risk because they’ve gotten so big that they’ve forgotten what brought the company to the heights they’ve achieved in American and world culture, in part because it happened before they came along and to them they are the greater and more important people. Anyone with a pull more towards the cause du jour rather than storytelling is only one problem. Nobody called Joker or its sequel “woke” but Todd Phillips openly stated he made it because he hates “comic book movies” and wanted to show his taste in movies was better than superhero fans. Marvel Studios hires people who purposefully ignore the source material and just use the branding of characters they never created and don’t care about to get their stories out there, leading to Ms. Marvel and Echo having the wrong abilities and overpowered girlbosses who would be just as boring if they were overpowered boybosses. Why do you think people make fun of Steven Segal’s later works? He’s an overpowered boyboss who clearly doesn’t have the energy and skill he once did because he got old and overweight but still mows down dudes like Viola Davis does in her latest movie. Either way you aren’t getting a good adaptation because they literally tell you how much they don’t care or outright hate you.
And no, the release of Revenge Of The Sith doing better than any DisneyFilm Star Wars production isn’t going to change their minds, either. Disney and the former 20th Century Fox division see the anniversary and see a chance to make a little extra money even though the movie has been on home video and available on TV, on demand, and streaming for years. Kathleen Kennedy still wants to make “the Force is female” the law while Dave Filoni just wants his “daughters” in the forefront instead of Kennedy’s. Meanwhile, Bob Iger continues to look the other way so he can play with celebrities and hold all the power and influence. Shareholders clearly weren’t paying attention to what’s been happening at Disney and blew a chance to restrain the board by listening to a video using a voiceover of Ludwig Von Drake over footage from when Disney actually cared about animation. To the showrunners they want to make what they want to make and the heck with the money. That kind of ego has been around since before I was born in Hollywood, but now nothing is really restraining them for a host of reasons (mostly political as creators are “cast” based on things other than their creative talent–or lack thereof) and nobody realizes why they’re losing money. So even saying “if it lost money they’d change direction” is inaccurate because they are and they clearly aren’t trying to pivot. The businessmen aren’t paying attention and the inmates are running the asylum.
“Daddy says I’m the most important character in the franchise, not Anakin’s punk kids!”
Then when it fails it’s the fans’ fault. They didn’t go because they were racists/sexists/homophobes who didn’t want to see a trans black woman in a movie. The truth that the movie was ONLY about them being a trans black woman and was done in a way even actual trans black women were offended or just plain bored will never cross their mind because they live in a deluded world where they want to be the saviors of culture by rewriting it while maintaining every stereotype in the book is reality. We use to call that racist/sexist/bigoted.
So instead of getting excited when something I like is getting a sequel or an homage or a reboot with a fresh take that could have been interesting under better creative teams, I don’t get excited. I am not a brand loyalist, I’m loyal to what I used to like about the brand because that’s why I became a fan of it in the first place. When it’s absent, so am I. Hollywood has to convince me that the next product is good and if not a direct adaptation then at least is true to the spirit of what I love about those franchises. Until that happen, I and many other fans will continue to be wary until the movie hits theaters or the show hits streaming (because they don’t make the good stuff for TV anymore). We will be overjoyed to be wrong and to sing the praises of something when it turns out to be good after all. History has shown how right we are to be skeptical because they keep screwing it up, so we’re prepared for the pain to hurt less by being ready for the next damage to our favorite characters and genres.
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