After essentially finishing the Fast and Furious Franchise and watching the new Spider-Man joint a while ago, an arthouse stan has a try at decoding the enduring popularity of the blockbuster beast that keeps on rolling and taking big bucks at the box office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m not necessarily against the franchise model. Sure, there are big franchises I\u2019m definitely not a fan of. Looking at you, Fast and Furious. And you, Star Wars. I wasn\u2019t always cynical about the Marvel machine. After a while, when decent quality content gets recycled over and over again, it just turns rotten. You may see the occasional anomaly in that debris, but generally it\u2019s just more of the same. The recent Spiderman joint had some nice relief from the norm with a few decent emotional beats, but it was still plagued with inconsequential fight scenes and lots of \u2018ooh, it\u2019s [insert character name]. But anyway, I\u2019ll try and fit my sizable noggin into some kind of invisible empathy helmet of sorts to have some ruminations about why this stuff keeps drawing in the crowds. (\u256d\u0cb0_\u2022\u0301)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Group Experience<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yes, as I carry around my walking stick and do a fake impression of having a sore back, I too remember the days when it was a big deal to go and see Marvel films with friends. It was like an event. You had to get your backside firmly planted on your seat as soon as possible to avoid potential spoilers being blurted out from those who had watched it already. You can\u2019t really compare that experience to watching the joint on your own. And that feeling\u2019s similar in a more universal sense if you\u2019re watching the film in a packed cinema. Whenever you have an audience that\u2019s reacting alongside you, that always creates good vibes. As long as they\u2019re not causing too much of a rabble, mind you. By that I mean having long audible conversations during the film, looking at their phone, chucking food around and, perhaps the most irritating of cardinal sins, kicking the seat in front of them. Yes, I still remember you, irritating 10-year-old from the Hans Zimmer concert. You don\u2019t live in my head rent free, that\u2019s for sure. I will find you, and I will\u2026anyway. Don\u2019t abuse other paying customers, that\u2019s what I\u2019m trying to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Familiarity<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some people just don\u2019t like going out of their comfort zone. Some people don\u2019t like experiencing something new. Something challenging. Something different. At the end of the day, some people just like watching the same thing. Sure, there might be a few new characters here and there, but everything\u2019s largely the same. The good guys win, the bad guy loses, a character might die here and there, but they\u2019ll almost certainly come back. No jeopardy, just nice, easy watching. And then it becomes like a similar vibe to collecting toys. \u2018Hey, it\u2019s [character name] from that movie!\u2019 \u2018Hey, it\u2019s that item from that film! Easter eggs, yay!\u2019 And everything just becomes a slightly monotonous soup bowl of slop. Yep, that\u2019s the description I\u2019m going to go for. And in case you can\u2019t tell, I\u2019m not a huge fan of it. Marvel\u2019s creation of the multiverse just created a whole new (soup?) can of worms in that regard. \u2018Hey, now, we can bring back this character from this film and bring back multiple versions of this character using previous actors and-\u2018 Oof. Stop. Get some help. Yeah, it was kind of cool seeing Toby Maguire and Andrew Garfield collab for a bit with the current Spidey guy in No Way Home, but it just feels a tad hollow after a while. There\u2019s nothing wrong with trying something new every so often. Sure, there\u2019s that added financial risk attached, but come on. try. The ongoing sequel soup gets tasteless pretty quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rewatching<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The franchise film also encourages multiple viewings, partly because of this idea of generations passing their love down to the next ones, which is nice in principle. But it also gets a bit stale. Why not introduce the next young peeps to other independent films? Let the flavours dance on their palette, as Nelson Muntz says? There\u2019s nothing wrong with broadening appeal. Sure, maybe it wasn\u2019t the greatest idea to introduce certain films to my good self well before the age rating specified by the BBFC, but hey, having two older siblings has its perks. Those films didn\u2019t encourage me to commit any dastardly crimes like the media shouts about them doing sometimes, so all\u2019s well that ends well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Short Attention Spans<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A major thing that franchises like The Fast and Furious and Marvel are known for is that mindless action stuff. I\u2019m talking fast edits, minimal plot and no consequential violence. Sure, multiple buildings can be destroyed at once by huge superpowered beings, but it\u2019s all good. No blood or gore or anything, which means they\u2019re just fine and dandy. That nice little 12A rating is all nice and secure, ensuring that as many tykes can view this fast moving, narratively hollow joint and come back and enjoy the same thing again. The fact that some TV shows are deliberately making content with heavy exposition in mind of appealing to folks who are going to be staring down at their phone for most of the experience is just all kinds of depressing. Why can\u2019t you just sit down and watch a brief 90-minute film where Mads Mikelsen says absolutely nothing and the surrounding characters hardly say anything and you have to really focus and derive meaning from visuals and sound, huh? I can watch Valhalla Rising and have a jolly good time, so why can\u2019t you, punk? Work on yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
( \u2022\u0300\u2919\u2022\u0301 )<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After essentially finishing the Fast and Furious Franchise and watching the new Spider-Man joint a while ago, an arthouse stan has a try at decoding the enduring popularity of the blockbuster beast that keeps on rolling and taking big bucks at the box office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2064"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2064\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2066,"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2064\/revisions\/2066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}