[Weekly Update] July 3rd, 2022 (Patreon)

Writing this in the middle of my vacation still. Hopefully summer is treating everyone well!

CHANNEL UPDATE

If you haven't watch it, our Patreon Bonus video went live last week. It's about why I think Jurassic Park worked so well, while Jurassic World falls short of its potential.

Jurassic Park is such an amazing example of "everything is bigger when you are a child". That movie has a surprisingly small cast, with a lot of the shots are filmed inside studio sets. But the scale feels so big because Spielberg is so good at making us feel like a child.

Anyway, our next video will go live on July 7th, about a film called Gallants (2010), aka Tiger & Dragon Reloaded. The video will spoil the whole thing. Not that spoiler matters much to the film, but I still suggest giving it a watch, simply because it is a good movie.

Lastly, we also have a video on Ringu coming up. After that, I think I'll start by covering a film Wong Jing made just to spite Jackie Chan, and then move on to the Mothra Trilogy (finally).

MEDIA TALK

It's Fourth of July, meaning people are heading to theme parks. And when we talk about theme parks, movie theme parks are often on the top of list. That would be Disneyland & Universal Studio.

We all know modern Hollywood is about IP chasing (rather than classic star system which India still uses, or the director dominated era of 1960s and 1970s). But it's one thing to know about the IP market, it's a whole other thing to see it in action.

I think many viewers of our channel would agree with us that the Jurassic World trilogy is pretty bad. But from a business perspective, Jurassic World is highly successful. It has its theme park rides in USH. And I think we are all sick and tired of seeing Jurassic World action figures, lunchboxes, blankets, and everything. Even if the movies aren't very good, it is still doing fine in the box office.

The same goes to the Transformers franchise, and the MCU franchise, of course.

Disney is famous for being protective of the IPs. Beyond the lawyer joke, Disney also once created artificial scarcity with their Disney vault release strategy. Their classic animations were always released in limited quantities. The newer trend of remaking these old classics is likely just another way to keep their IPs alive, stopping it from falling into obscurity. In other words, the new Aladin isn't there to be its own movie, but a movie to advertise the old, animated movie.

All this comes down to, is that the "movie business" of Hollywood really isn't that much about the movie. While the medium remains a core pillar that supports everything else, Hollywood is as much a movie producer, as Pokemon is a gaming franchise.

And in the same way core gamers find Pokemon to be a stagnant series lacking in ambition, cinephiles like me generally have the same distaste towards Hollywood blockbusters.

And that is the update for this week. I guess, at the end of the day, I'm just not the type of person Hollywood is appealing to. Nearly all of the IPs are aiming at kids, which is why USH also has a Secret Life of Pets area, despite the film not being that famous or well liked.

But what do you think? Does this crazy film+toy+park business bothers you?

In any case, I'll see you in a few days with a new video!