Let me start by addressing the recent allegations surrounding James Cameron and Avatar. Two people have sued him claiming he stole their idea. If we remember in Part 1 I explained how unoriginal the story was. Well, apparently, these guys suing Cameron never saw Fern Gully. That's fair. Apparently, they haven't seen Dances with Wolves either. Or Disney's Pocahontas. Or learn the history lesson about the real version of Pocahontas of which the aforementioned film was based on. I don't understand how two of what I assume to be HACKS, without reading a written word, can even claim to have such unoriginal, overused stories in their stables. Suing one of the most unoriginal scripts of the decade for ripping your material off? Seriously?!
And we're back. I was saying that James Cameron's big, blue film mucked up Hollywood perception. Well, let's just be honest here. The truth is, it all started with other James Cameron films. Since Terminator 2, people have been fond of the big, slick blockbuster machine. True Lies perpetuated this even further. Of course, Cameron took it to a whole new level with Titanic, where he kept all the CGI and the hefty handed budget, but picked a love story. Of course, that was interrupted to sink the world's biggest ship, but you didn't see Arnold running around shouting one-liners, did you? Avatar just brought it to the next generation who missed out on Last Action Hero.
Cameron isn't the only one who is allowed fat stacks of money to make a movie. Steven Spielberg's last two films cost a total of $200 million (War Horse; $70 and Tin Tin $130). He earned the rights when he turned the $9 million film Jaws into a $470.6 million dollar return. Michael Bay loves to blow shit up. That costs money, but Avatar cost the most and it bled into our culture. After that, it became a space race for who could break the record next. Only Batman or good old Mr. Potter could ever come close, though. We've been in a recession, however, so raising costs and budgets isn't plausible. It's not smart.
I said in the beginning that Avatar's approach on home entertainment basically killed us as consumers. That movie made so much damn money that Fox decided to release the DVDs and Blu-rays in little slices. Instead of getting commentary and special features, the first round only contained the standard movie. Then, months later, you could buy the movie with the commentary and some extras. Then, after all that, they sold the movie in 3-D...but not with the special features. So suddenly, people had to buy three versions of the film to get the same as a standard 3-D sale (which really didn't exist two years ago). If you ask me, that's brutal in the harshest sense.
People have to take that, consumers have to take that because otherwise we twiddle our thumbs. Don't want to buy what we're selling? Don't watch. And we get abused like this while Hollywood houses complain that it has to be that way due to piracy. Piracy began because of money moves like that. No one wants to pay $30 to watch Tower Heist a month after it's released! No one should have to. Don't get me wrong, I buy films. I have hundreds of DVDs and Blu-rays, it's a sickness. I cave at every turn is the problem. I could buy a car with the money I've spent on movies.
Anyway, after that quick trick, 3-D TVs became the new "it" girl (though numbers are identical to last year) and you couldn't operate a 3-D Blu-ray without a special player and either of those without a special TV. All cost extra. Now, people have to pay extra not just to see I-Max ($17.50 for MI4, which was very worth it), but extra on top of that to see I-Max in 3-D. Next they'll come up with skipping the previews for a buck more. Better yet, Robert Rodriguez's 4-D scratch and sniffs will be included for $2.50 extra. I'll cry when that happens.
So, you can see how things have escilated over the past two years. Well, at least I hope you can see. It's not that things are bad, the industry is looking better with so many big named stars trying to make smaller, more personal and original films. Drive, Shame and Midnight in Paris, I'm looking at you. The problem is, we are but a few and die-hard Transformer fans are going to go to see those films no matter how many tacky, hacky regurgitated jokes plague that script. As long as this happens, Hollywood doesn't have to apologize (even though Michael Bay did after the second robot fiasco). Talk to your friends, tell them the truth. The Hangover II was just The Hangover with out the comedy.
Ty-T
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