Films becoming "products"?

[snyper101]

Is it me, or do films nowadays seem more like products more than movies? It seems that only auteurs and Pixar that actually give a toss about the films they're making. A few films that come to mind that are products are: Kung Fu Panda series, Final Destination series and all new slasher films.

does anyone agree? can anyone name any more film "products"?

 

[godofgamers]

Anything made by Disney nowadays. This includes what I'm given to understand is a movie about Hannah Montana.

 

[godofgamers]

Anything made by Disney nowadays. This includes what I'm given to understand is a movie about Hannah Montana.

 

[Kahunaburger]

Art has always been this way. People need to make a living, and the best way of doing that is providing goods and/or services for money. This just hasn't been a really good summer for movies.

 

[Woodsey]

You're just picking the lowest of the low, I don't really think there's an issue. There may be more of that than before, but you could put that down to the natural expansion of the film industry.

 

[Cpt_Oblivious]

Films have been products for years. Costume designers consult with toy designers to make sure there's some way to make more money from them. It mostly applies to kid's movies, but it happens.

 

[starwarsgeek]

Why do people feel the need to separate them? This is art because the director clearly cared about his movie. This one is simply entertainment because there's no grand point behind it all...it's fun, and nothing else. This one is a mere product, because the director doesn't try to have a point or even to make it fun...it's just there for the money.

They're all art; they're all entertainment; they're all products. You'll always have some that don't try to communicate a message and some that don't even care about the quality, but that doesn't mean they're something else entirely.

 

[siahsargus]

Kung Fu Panda had some pretty obscure references to Chinese mythology in it. However, I'm inclined to agree with you. On some basic level, many movies are made by companies instead of artists and are made for the money.

 

[snyper101]

Im not saying it's not art, what I mean is that most films feel like they're made by corporations than the directors. A movie made by a director who actually cares about what they're filming (i.e. Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese, Matthew Vaughn, Chris Nolan, Neil Blomkamp) is 10x better than a movie made by "the produces of Shrek" or at least i'm more inclined to see it rather than the latter

 

[FalloutJack]

While you can name movies that are, I can think of movies - recent or up-coming - that are not. Make no mistake, alot of shit gets the green light. But don't deny that there is some good stuff in the world.

 

[viranimus]

Films are products, products are film. Yes its well known that not only has hollywood ran out of ideas for films, theyre now running out of toys to turn into films

 

[likalaruku]

I stopped going to the theater more than twice a year after 2004; I was disappointed by everything I saw that wasn't Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings. I won 2 free tickets in 2008 & had the great misfortune to waste them on "Burn After Reading" & "The Women." I was deeply disappointed in Zombieland & I've hated Pixar from day 1.

My brain & tastes absolutely refuse to leave the early 90s. I'm praying that Hobo with a Shotgun is at least tolerable, as it's the only trailer I've seen that looks like it's worth paying to see.

The worst shit in theaters is the franchise stuff like X-Men, Batman, & Transformers where either continuity is not respected & the characters are Hollywoodized, or the real stars take a backseat to characters that have no business being there.

 

[Terminate421]

Dreamworks has two halves:

One that makes the "products":
Shrek 3, 4
Bee Movie
Monsters vs. Aliens

One that makes actual (Good) movies:
How to Train Your Dragon
Megamind

 

[Gralian]

Everything is a product. Every movie is a product. To think otherwise is naive. If you're asking whether films are becoming milked franchises, i'm afraid that has been the case for a while now and it's not going anywhere. We have it in the games industry too. Just look at all the new titles coming out. Pretty much all of them have a '2' or a '3' or are a sequel of some description. The reason this is so and why we get films like 'The Hangover 2' greenlighted is that producers need to pitch their idea to investors. Investors don't care two shits about risque ideas and big projects, they just want to be sure they'll see some juicy returns. So when a pitch starts with the phrase 'Our previous film / game / TV show of the same franchise sold well...' their ears start burning. We get sequels because they are safe for all involved.

 

[Acier]

Looks like someone took their film 101 class too seriously. Unless you're a fan of Stan Brakhage, I don't want to hear this whining.

You know how man paintings in museums are commissioned products because some patron had a lot of money? A pretty large portion. Please study art more before you make such a general, pretentious complaint.

 

[Dr Jones]

Art has always been this way. People need to make a living, and the best way of doing that is providing goods and/or services for money. This just hasn't been a really good summer for movies.

I agree 100%. Well put.

For every Transformers we will get an Inglourious Basterds... (Well that was a polarising movie, but i liked it. And it certanily weren't nearly as cash-in'ny)

 

[AlAaraaf74]

Movies nowadays seem to be made soley to make money and not for the love of film making. I want to be a screenwriter/director when I get older, but making original films the way I want to is an almost impossible feat.

 

[enzilewulf]

Wat?

Movies are movies.... Ummm.... I liked Kung Fu Panda. It was cute. Films these days are just as good as they were ten years ago to me. I really don't see a difference in Pixars films.

I am sick of super hero movies being made. Fuck get original ideas.

 

[Mechanix]

Yeah it's true a lot of movies are out there just for the money, but there's still plenty of movies out there that are actually trying to be good. We wouldn't have academy awards every year if there wasn't a good amount of quality out there.