Our teenagers today should be happy that they have become so heavily branded they no longer have much of a choice over how they spend their money. If it is built, they will come. They want to have a good time and they don’t particularly care how that good time is had. If you go by the critics, this is fairly devastating news — look at how bad the number one movie supposedly was. The movie the critics liked is doing fine with $10 million and will gain in numbers moving into Oscar season. Oscar Island is alive and well, preserving and protecting movies that can still be defined as movies.
But seriously, what is there left to say? The only good news is that Lucy, an entirely original, non-branded sci-fi action movie is hanging in there, headed towards $100 million. The rest is a shitsmear. But hey, bought and paid for by powerful corporations with clever ad teams to make sure that when kids head to the multiplex to find that which is familiar to them, they will find that which the corporations have made familiar to them. Original ideas are SCARY. Quality takes a backseat to that which we know. McDonald’s makes roughly $30 billion annually. You think these people are fucking around? They are not fucking around. For some reason, this seems more bleak than usual – perhaps because the beautiful juxtaposition of Boyhood – a quality film about boys – and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles what most of our boys actually ARE – is a tad depressing. But I guess there is no point in being a snob about it. It is what it is. Can I just say that I can’t wait for the Oscar movies to start rolling out.