I’m not a film studies person, but to me, nostalgia seems to occur in a twenty-year displacement. The 1980s talked about how groovy the 60's were; the 90's had “That ‘70s Show”; then the 2000 brought us 80's nostalgia with blockbuster films of giant robots and mutant turtles. And now we’re in the late 2010's, with “Independence Day: Resurgence,” “Terminator: Genysis,” and “Jurassic World” invading the silver screen with 90's sentimentality. But with the 00's, there also came the reboot, and so it poses an interesting question about how we will look back on the early 21st century in terms of this nostalgia idea. The previous films mentioned are all tailored to be soft or hard reboots of their respective franchises, relying on nostalgia and little else to accomplish this franchise-and-money-over-story objective.
Furthermore, Hollywood is so running out of ideas that it is now jumping on the superhero bandwagon that is becoming (and some would argue legitimately that it has already become) a fad, something of a bubble that is bound to burst long before studios’ plans for future superhero films reach their conclusion. Indeed, given the seemingly endless plans for Marvel and DC cinematic ventures, would 2020's and 3'0s nostalgia even be worth the effort, considering how long-lasting the superhero film seems to be nowadays?
The reboot, toyed with in 2005’s “Superman Returns” and grasped wholeheartedly with 2006’s “Batman Begins,” has too become something of a reactionary move by Hollywood in the face of all this seeming necessity to cash in on geek culture that has now become mainstream. The idea of a film being built on fan-service and self-indulgence used to be considered poor taste: just look at “Spider-Man 3,” for example. But now, it is assumed by studios that everyone knows and understands the comic book worlds, and this comes from an assumption that that knowledge is predicated on nostalgia. Thus, the reboot, the thing that operates as nostalgia incarnate and also as a means to spawn a franchise. Will reboots of the reboot become a thing in 2030? Because if that’s where we’re headed, I think we need to rethink our understanding of what makes storytelling and film great.
Nostalgia can only carry us so far; action can only carry us so far. And frankly, no matter how fun the Marvel films are, the novelty of a franchise being in existence can only carry us so far before people realize that there’s very little story being told, very few ideas being presented (“Winter Soldier” notwithstanding), little intellectual thought being promoted. Certainly, loving to hate the Marvel Cinematic Universe on the Internet is about as original as hating on Michael Bay on the Internet. But I think there’s some legitimacy to the idea that the bubble will burst. And given the careful thought given to how these intricate universes will play out, it kind of astounds me that few people in Hollywood are recognizing that this bubble will have to burst and they’ll need to come up with other material to write.
A good story can come from anywhere, that’s been demonstrated time and again in the film industry, in novels, videogames, and so forth. But that’s not what I’m seeing here with the reboot. I’m not seeing a writer consider seriously if there are more ideas to be explored in this particular property. I’m seeing dollar signs and pretentious and insulting pandering to an audience who themselves understand that their love for this phenomenon is itself displaced in time, that no one really wants a revival of, say, “Kim Possible” because that was a show of its time (and frankly still holds up well today, anyway). I’m seeing studios who want to milk everything out of a once-story-driven film until it’s nothing more than a lifeless husk lurching on year after year, unaware that it’s already dead.
And I can’t imagine what a creature like that might look like.
Further Reading
"What the Marvel Cinematic Universe Tells Us About Star Power"
"10 Problems With The Marvel Cinematic Universe Nobody Seems To Acknowledge"
"When Will Hollywood Stop All the Remakes, Reboots and Sequels?"
"The Big Problems With a Cinematic Universe"
"Review: Recycled ‘Jungle Book’ Puts a Real Boy in a Forest of Pixels"
