Cinema

[Zarniwoop]

Well we went to the Cinema last night to watch "Ant-Man", as that was only film on the list that we felt might be worth spending the £21 to go watch   

The film itself was pretty decent, a lot funnier than I thought it might be, there was a decent story there and the obligatory credit snippits were interesting.

I have to say though that I am now getting very jaded with the whole Super-Hero movie take-over of the cinemas. There seems to be a constant barrage of these films all linked and extending the Marvel-verse but at the expense of original films. The other problem  is that some of these films feel like feeders into the larger story without having enough content on their own to make a great film.

This constant price gauging to go watch stuff on the big screen is making me not want to go there any more and just wait to hire the film or stream it when it arrives on one of the streaming services.
Worse, at least in my local cinema, you are bombarded with join our monthly unlimited scheme. Great that over £16 a month EACH person, for us that is over £32 well I could buy a couple of Blu-Ray's a month for that price and watch as many times as I like when I like.....

Something needs to change in the Cinema model, the experience does not warrant the charges they make especially if you buy the food and drink there as well!!!.

[Snakes in the Tiki Lounge]

I just want to respond to one small part of the above there.
At the expense of original films?

Ant-Man isn't a sequel or a remake. It's a brand new franchise that just happens to share a cinematic universe. What's more, it's not even the same genre of film as the rest of the marvel films, being pretty much a full blown heist movie. There's certainly a lot of superhero movies these days, but there's no mystery as to why. Marvel are doing a legitimately good job with them and have yet to have a real flop. They've put lessons they learned in the comic business into practice and are doing something we haven't really seen before.

Chances are that the project will eventually collapse under it's own weight, but in the meantime they're cleaning up and to be honest, fairly so. DC desperately trying to follow suit whilst also trying to look so very different will only add to that feeling of over-saturation, which could bring the inevitable crash of the genre sooner.

I must agree though, it's really starting to get expensive to go see movies. It's to the point where if you plan on seeing two a month, you're crazy not to have that unlimited card. The food being overpriced is nothing new though, that was already a thing when I was a tiny person and it's only in recent years that I've felt flush enough to occasionally buy a hot-dog or some ice-cream rather than simply going without or bringing my own snacks.

[Zarniwoop]

What I am alluding to using the term "Original" is not that Ant man is not a stand alone film but that rather it is yet another super-hero film.

By original I mean putting talent and money into a project without a sure-fire success, doing something outside of the normal run-of-the-mill hollywood fare. The problem really is that this huge blockbuster films from Marvel and co are artificially driving up the costs with regards fees for the all the talent as well as the supporting staff. With all these multi-threaded films they are going to be asking for larger fees for being tied to these longer contracts.

This then means that either the smaller productions are priced out of being able to afford the box office grabbing actors or having to put themselves on indefinite hold until they are free or having to go with fresh new talent which may then not draw the crowds needed to recoup their investment.

This is not entirely the fault of the Marvel era, it has been going down this particular rabbit hole for a while especially with the sequel/reboot mania that seems to make the bean counters happy if not the audiences.

I'm not sure what the answers are here I just miss going to the cinema on a regular, affordable basis, to see a film on spec not because it was a huge blockbuster with a big star but because the story sounded interesting. I also miss the old style trailers which actually teased about the film rather than showing a 3 min montage of all the best bits ruining the plot in a lot of cases...

Please don't misunderstand me here, it's not that I dislike or do not want the big blockbusters but there should be room in the mainstream cinemas for the smaller up-coming producers and the big hollywood studios should remember their roots once in a while and take those risks.

Case in point is the Independent crowd funded film "Iron Sky" that was a pretty decent film which was innovative, original and quite funny. Sadly the distribution to Cinema was handled badly, not by the producers but by the companies they used. I'm sure given a proper run at the big screen it would have done well but it was hard to find a screening, especially in the UK, in fact the one I booked to see was even cancelled without telling me so they transferred to another film. It's frustrating to think that for all their hard work it was only the die hard fans/followers etc that got too see it on the rare screen debut or by buying the Blu-Ray/DVD. This is where the modern era of cinema is letting down it's grass roots and sniffling new innovative film-makers.

Still I am sure my minor protests will not change the thinking or the power of the mighty box-office $ so I'll just have to reminisce about the gold 'ole days
 

[Snakes in the Tiki Lounge]

Yeah, I get you.

Really might be worth taking a look at that Unlimited Card. With a flat monthly fee thing, you can afford to take a chance on more of the smaller films that might or might not be any good, least that's the theory time and energy allowing.