Has anyone else reached the point of wondering who’s going to be the next big director to start bashing big franchise movies? Roland Emmerich appears to have that next spot on lock as he’s made it clear how he feels about Marvel, DC, and even Star Wars. The funny thing is that he has this strange idea that they don’t do anything original or brilliant any longer, when the disaster movie genre, which has been played over and over, has made him a very well-known name. Without trying to cast stones, too late I guess, one could say that there are few original-minded directors left in Hollywood these days, but the fact is that Emmerich and several others have been watching box office numbers for comic book movies soar to ridiculous heights and apparently don’t feel that this is worthy of cinema in one way or another. In a very big way, it’s like watching a child wonder why the lemonade stand down the block is doing so much better than theirs and then coming up with a reason in their own head to justify their bitterness.
Let’s be fair, the MCU, DC, and Star Wars have taken a big part of the Hollywood pie since, well, they’re huge, drawn-out universes with a host of characters that can and have driven their own stories. Emmerich appears to forget that fans tend to like the familiar and known just as much as they like the new and exciting, and whether he likes it or not, each franchise is still rolling out a few ideas now and then that do fit this description. Are they perfect movies or shows? No, not really, not even close in some instances. Do they capture a person’s attention and keep it? Depending on the movie or show, absolutely. Is Emmerich a great director whose movies are exciting? That kind of depends on which movie you’re talking about, but more or less, the answer is yes. So why is it that Emmerich felt the need to join the growing list of individuals that have been bashing big franchise movies?
Well, we all have opinions, and we’re all entitled to them to be fair, and Roland has made his point rather clearly. Whether people agree with it or not doesn’t really matter, since if he’s of the mind that he doesn’t like these movies and uses them to fall asleep then so be it, that’s what he thinks. As far as the idea that these movies are taking up a lot of space without originality it might be time for Roland to remind himself that ‘life isn’t fair’, a universal fact that can be applied pretty much anywhere, and is one of the founding tenets of humanity. In cinema, it’s a core concept that usually gets overlooked and fallen back on more than once, and yet many upon many people don’t get the fact that life is about as fair as you make it most times. In this case Roland’s list of disaster movies kind of makes it clear that he has a very specific genre that he likes to stick to and a mindset that he doesn’t often deviate from.
That’s not a bad thing really, since everyone has their strengths, and playing up to them is how people get somewhere in life. But taking the time to make a complaint or even comment on how things don’t appear to be shaking out the way a person wants is a reason why there are a couple dozen or more articles out there right now trying to explain Roland’s stance on this matter. The director has made himself heard loud and clear, and now everyone else is going to stand up and make their own opinion heard, whether they’re for or against his point of view. This is what debate looks like, and in a way, it’s far healthier than many since getting to have your opinion and realizing that others will have theirs, without any serious conflict, is how things need to be done. What’s kind of funny is that as big as the MCU, DC, and Star Wars are, there are still plenty of people that happen to love disaster movies and are willing to flock to the theaters to see them.
This is what makes one laugh when thinking about Emmerich’s stance on this, since thinking that his net worth or his reputation is being harmed by the big franchises at all is kind of ridiculous, especially since in the movies, things always go in cycles, and it doesn’t matter if the big franchises are taking up a great deal of space. People are going to make the decision of which movie they want to see based on the trailer, the reputation of the director, and many other factors that will sway them one way or another. Calling out the big franchises for taking up too much space is just sour grapes from an individual that might not feel his movies are getting the attention he wants.
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