Online Editor James Smurthwaite is fed up of lazy and ignorant film making…
Films are a powerful medium. They can change the way people think, depicting forward thinking morals in an accessible format and some even have the budgets to push the limits of the technology that is available to humanity.
Unfortunately there is a lot of lazy film making out there, old tropes and tired stories that are recycled to make a quick buck.
Below are my pick of films that fall precisely into that category, and aren’t so much flogging a dead horse, more flogging the fertile ground where a horse has long since rotted away…
1. The Mummy Returns
How great was The Mummy?
Reinventing a classic horror villain for a modern audience, it brought action, suspense, romance and a dash of comedy together for a family classic.
A sequel was commissioned two years later, and with Brendan Fraser maintaining his role as a swashbuckling archaeologist, expectations were high.
The film followed in the same vein as the first, until the surprise introduction of Dwayne Johnson as The Scorpion King in the final battle scene. However, attempting to create a tour-de-force climax is somewhat marred when the villain looks like, well, this…
2 years prior to this The Matrix warped our idea of space time with computer animation, and 6 years before that Jurassic Park was filming dinosaurs that look good today.
With a budget of $98 million and the backing of Universal Pictures behind them, you would expect the animators to come up with a more believable villain, I’ve played Playstation 2 games which looked better.
Still, the film grossed over $200 million and The Scorpion King got his own prequel, maybe monsters with pigtails are scarier than I realise…
2. The Little Mermaid
Now, I know having a go at Disney is easy, but it’s also fun, so I’m going to do it anyway.
Ariel is a mermaid who is unfortunately dissatisfied with her life under the sea and her controlling father. One stormy night she rescues a Prince who has been thrown overboard and falls in love with him (‘cos, daddy issues). She is given a chance to meet him again, and possibly woo him, by the local octopus witch Ursula.
However, the only way she is able to do this is through changing herself entirely, to the extent of becoming another species (probably one that won’t rebel against a male role model), and by forfeiting her voice (who cares what women have to say anyway, right?).
Throw into the mix that Ariel is an overtly sexualised sixteen year old, and you have a pretty worrying cocktail of misogyny.
It’s not that other Disney Princess films are perfect, it’s just that this one seems uniquely troubling, especially conidering it’s only just over 20 years old.
3. Gravity
The rise of nerd culture, through shows such as Big Bang Theory and QI, alongside the highly publicised and ground breaking work happening at CERN, has led to an increased in scientific general knowledge.
So when Alfonso Cuaran set out to create an ‘intellegent science fiction film’ he should have made sure that the science he used was sound.
Despite its overwhelming commercial successes and impressive visuals, Gravity has been picked to pieces by cinema goers, critics and even the scientific community. Nigel De Grasse Tyson, an astrophysicist has taken his disgust to twitter, tweeting, “Mysteries of #Gravity: Why we enjoy a SciFi film set in make-believe space more than we enjoy actual people set in real space.”
Worst of all is the revelation that Cuaran knew of the inaccuracies but chose to leave them in anyway, describing them as,”irrelevant for the fiction we were trying to tell”
Still, it’s hotly tipped as an Oscar contender, so maybe that lazy attitude’s enough for the academy nowadays?
4. 28 Days Later
I feel almost guilty putting this in the list. Hands down, 28 Days is one of my favourite films, and the reason its in this list is not even Danny Boyle’s fault.
Soon after filming for 28 Days was finished, the 9/11 attacks happened in New York. The film was released shortly after the first anniversary of 9/11, in November 2002 and, as such, tensions were still high in regards to man made atrocities.
Image Credit: British Film Council
It was the above scene that caused the controversy. Boyle said that he based the scene on pictures of earthquakes in China, as well as the atrocities in Rwanda and Sierra Leone.
Gritty realism was the strength on which the film rode, the SARS outbreak caused real fears of pandemic disease in a modern world, and the empty street scenes and piled bodies were hauntingly reminiscent of global war zones.
In light of 9/11, Boyle claimed he would not have shot the scenes had he filmed 28 Days after the attacks, but unfortunately the damage had been done.
What other films do you think were just not appropriate for being released in their time? Let us know on Facebook, Twitter or by commenting below
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