Adaptationism (editorial)

This is the Dawning of the Age of Adaptationism…



Through history; art has gone through many movements such as impressionism, cubism, surrealism, etc., and it seems that film had gone through some as well like noir or expressionism and then it really hasn’t had any major movements since then…until now. Folks, I am officially dubbing this current and not so obvious movement of film as Adaptationism. What adaptationism entails is that at least 80 percent of the movies coming out today, especially, in Hollywood, are adapted from other things. For example numerous films today are adapted from Children’s’ fantasy novels, comic books, television shows, videogames, or they are a sequel to a film, thus adapted from the first, or even a remake, therefore, adapted from the original.

Now don’t get me wrong people I am not complaining 100 percent here, because I fall in with the crowd and am thoroughly entertained by some of this. My issue with it, and the reason I am naming the movement, is because it seems Hollywood has lost its way. They are doing films for pure money and not the love of doing films anymore. These are all made as just plain old fan pleasers. It’s disgraceful!! It’s disgusting!! Do something original for G-d’s sake please!!!

Perhaps it is just the fact that I am still sour from recent movies, or just that now I am older and look at movies with a wealth of knowledge, or it could even be that for once in my life I am right. A few years ago when the comic book adaptation revolution started taking hold, I thought I bet this will be awesome; however, obviously I was wrong. Majority of the comic book movies have royally stunk and the good ones are few and far between or they are directed by people who actually care about the film itself. Prime example would be the new Batman movies. They are amazing and blow the roof off Batman Forever and Batman and Robin. The Hellboy movies have been decent if you are into Hellboy and that could be because they have the creator there helping out. This could also explain why the Sin City movies are great. I am not entirely sure that my theory on the creator being there is true only because the master himself; Stan Lee, has been helping on all the Marvel movies and they are not all making the cut. The changes he has brought to Spider-man all made the third installment into garbage, same goes for X-men. Let us remember the first Hulk, Daredevil, Elektra, Ghost Rider, etc. None of these were that great, in fact they stunk. They were only made for the money and that is why they have surfaced into silver screen existence. It truly is shameful, people. Now with Marvel being bought out by Disney it continues to justify my position on Hollywood’s money grubbers.

In the case of remakes and sequels it may be worse. There have been seldom decent remakes in the past few years. Tim Burton has tried his hands at the remake business a couple of times; once with his flop of the Planet of the Apes, and then again with his surprisingly enjoyable Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Some do not call that a remake due to it being different and more closely related to the book than the first movie. The master director, Spielberg, himself is even guilty of garbage. War of the Worlds was one of the worst films I have ever seen and then Spielberg continues with his line of bad films by joining forces again with Lucas to bring out the 19 year long disappointment known as Indy 4. Then there was also the third version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers and now there is the Journey to the Center of the Earth!! What is going on?! They were classics before because they were so amazing then and it should stay that way!! Does no one have an appreciation for the way things were before? It seems as though with film that history truly is doomed to repeat. Sequels are what really get my goat. By saying sequels I am including prequels as well since they too are based off of the original story. One of the masters in film making had made the biggest mistake by creating prequels for his movies; namely, Star Wars. The new trilogy is actually not liked near as much as the old by the true Star Wars fans, however I get more into that in my reviews of them. Disney continues to pump out sequel after sequel and now DreamWorks animation is following their footsteps. I just sit here in disbelief with how these directors, writers, producers, actors, anyone in Hollywood can sit there and let this garbage continue to happen. Complete and utter rubbish!!

Attention Hollywood you guys need to wake up and smell the coffee and I am not talking about your five dollar grande caramel macchiato, but the actual real stuff called LIFE! Film is not all about nickels and dimes, people, it was originally created as a form of art and it should remain that way. I actually want to congratulate those out there who continue to do film for what it was made for and that even includes M. Night Shyamalan, whose work I do not like, but it is still original to a degree. Michel Gondry, the Coen Brothers, all Independent filmmakers, PIXAR, you guys know where it’s at, and how things should be made. The other original stuff coming out nowadays are comedies and although they can be stupid and not recognized by the academy as good films they are still original and do not fall into Adaptationism. One of my friends, Baggy, gave this movement a different name; “The Bowel Movement.” I couldn’t agree with him more. I also am not alone in my views as another friend, Dave C., showed me an article on IGN written by Brian Linder. He said “Anyone who's been following the movie business lately will know that studios have become fairly gun-shy when it comes to greenlighting new original projects. Instead, they're leaning heavily on established concepts from other mediums like comics, TV, and games -- the idea being that if a narrative's brand is already part of the collective consciousness, then there's less risk involved.” He was writing about the rumored and possible idea of a Guitar Hero movie (go here http://movies.ign.com/articles/885/885557p1.html).

All I am trying to say in this article is that we should not forget our roots. Never forget where you came from and why you are doing the things you are doing. Film is an art form which is also a money maker, not the other way around. Has Capitalism grown so much that we must monopolize every industry? Art is subjective, thus, open to interpretation, and it seems that interpretation nowadays is all about the cash. Create films that make people cry, laugh, and be scared but create them to evoke emotion and not anger, disappointment, and an empty wallet. While a lot of these adapted films are cool and fun to see most of them are just money making flops that take up silver screen space. Hollywood, you need to get it into gear because if one fan’s faith is dwindling on your abilities to make good films, then you can pretty much guarantee that there are others whose are too. Good luck Hollywood…