The overcrowded summer of 2013 will likely be remembered more for its costly misfires — Sony’s “After Earth” and “White House Down,” Disney’s “The Lone Ranger,” Warner Bros./Legendary’s “Pacific Rim” and Universal’s new release “R.I.P.D.” — than for its predictable hits, which include “Iron Man 3,” “Man of Steel” and “Despicable Me 2.”
Steven Spielberg and George Lucas look awfully prescient with the predictions they made last month during a panel discussion at the USC School of Cinematic Arts.
“There’s eventually going to be a
big meltdown,” Spielberg forecast. “There’s going to be an implosion
where three or four or maybe even a half-dozen of these mega-budgeted movies go crashing into the ground, and that’s going to change the paradigm again.”
What the studios need to understand is that they can make a franchise-creating movie for less than $200 million if they tried. They have done it in the past and they will probably do it in the future. I'm pretty sure they could have made the Lone Ranger for the cost of Johnny Depp's salary and maybe $50 million more for Western sets and special effects. I mean the only real super-effects thing in Lone Ranger was in the last 30 minutes of the movie.
In fact they could have cut out 30 minutes or more of the Lone Ranger and it would have still been as good in my opinion. All of the Tonto back-story could have been cut. Also most of the scenes where the Lone Ranger and Tonto were chasing the bad guys through the Arizona desert were redundant. They also could have cut the part with the very old Tonto telling the boy the story and it would have been fine. They just kept eating peanuts without cracking the shells and it just became annoying. In fact the entire General Custer-esque character played by Barry Pepper could have been cut as well. I mean the movie had 2 train chases One could have been shortened and it would have been fine by me. I mean you are there to watch Depp ham it up as Tonto and see Armie Hammer playing the strait-man so all the extraneous stuff could have been cut.
In any case I will probably not be seeing the rest of those tent-pole flops for any reason. I thought After Earth, which had Will Smith talking in some strange voice, just looked like Lost World with futuristic stuff and Jayden Smith in a raccoon suit. White House Down is just Olympus Has Fallen with different actors. Pacific Rim looked cool but I'm not sure why you need $200 million to tell a story about monsters fighting robots. Finally, RIPD just looked like Men in Black but with Supernatural Cops instead of Interstellar Cops. There is one scene where some creature smashes a car armed with a gattling gun that just belonged in a low budget Sci-Fi Channel shlock-fest. What is shocking though is 2015 might be flop-fest of Biblical proportions:
In 2015, between May and August, the studios will release just as many — if not more — high-profile sequels, reboots and tentpoles.
It is expected to be one of the most pricey, loaded summers in decades,
with the likes of Disney-Marvel’s “The Avengers” sequel, Fox’s
“Independence Day 2,” Disney’s “Pirates of the Caribbean 5,” Sony’s “The Smurfs 3” and Paramount’s “Terminator.”
Okay, Avengers sounds good so I will see it site-unseen. I didn't like the first Independence Day (wait the aliens can be killed off with a computer virus?) so there is no way I'm watching a sequel. I haven't seen the last 2 Pirates so I won't be watching the 5th one. Smurfs is just awful and I'm not sure why they made a second one so no way I'm watching a third. And finally, the last Terminator was just so very bad so I will not be eager to see another one. I think 2015 will be the final meltdown that Lucas and Spielberg talked about.
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