Time to remake the movie industry

Elijah Babbitt, Section C Manager

It’s a quote often heard from many a disgruntled adult: “They don’t make ‘em like they used to.”

Applied to everything from cars to clothes and even to the media, it calls back to a time when everything made was made to stand out and to last, or at least what we imagine that time was like. But was it really?

Recent movie releases have included a slew of remakes and sequels, which some critics have cited as an indicator that the movie industry is headed downhill. The recent Power Rangers remake (released March 24, 2017), which earned only a 44% Rotten Tomatoes rating, does little to disprove this.

However, should this really be taken as a genuine example of the supposedly deteriorating movie industry, or just a sign that it may be heading in a different direction?

For example, the other recent release of note, the Beauty and the Beast remake earned a much more positive 71% on Rotten Tomatoes, and some of the sequels released is the past year, such as Finding Dory, Rogue One, and Captain America: Civil War, were also all very well received.

Still, there are other examples of sequels that went belly-up, and even more of re-imagined movies that did the same. Underworld: Blood Wars, Independence Day: Resurgence, Ice Age: Collision Course, and Allegiant all went the way of the dinosaur after their short-lived hype ran out.

Still, the question remains. Is the occasional diamond in the rough worth the trash that comes with it? Seeing as viewers both have the choice to not see a movie and easy access to recommendations, most people would say yes.

The point to take away from this is that while movie sequels have sometimes devolved into blatant cash-grabs, there are still many quality sequels being made. The best part is that they’re not hard to find when you can rely on others to tell you which are which.