10 Great Movies That Accidentally Made Cinema Worse
10 Great Movies That Accidentally Made Cinema Worse
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00:00Brilliant movies can genuinely change lives, but sometimes they can also have an unfortunate,
00:06unintended negative side effect on the whole industry.
00:10Perhaps a film's success sends the wrong message to Hollywood about what audiences
00:14actually want, or inspires a whole generation of filmmakers to rip off its stylistic and
00:19narrative achievements in massively inferior fashion.
00:23Whatever the reason though, I'm Josh from WhatCulture.com, and these are 10 Great Movies
00:28That Accidentally Made Cinema Worse.
00:3110.
00:32Star Wars The Force Awakens Popularized Cynical Legacy Sequels
00:36After suffering through the wildly uneven Star Wars prequels, The Force Awakens sure
00:41was a welcome return to form.
00:43A safe and familiar, yet thoroughly entertaining space opera which affectingly united beloved
00:48legacy characters with a new cast of appealing heroes.
00:52But The Force Awakens' mammoth commercial success basically kickstarted the legacy sequel
00:57as we know it today.
00:59You know, the nostalgia-soaked entries into flagging franchises that basically just replay
01:04the hits, while shuffling the legacy cast into supporting roles as younger actors try
01:09to carry the starring load.
01:12While these types of movies can work, they more often than not feel like crass commercial
01:17exercises intended to distend dying or creatively bankrupt IP.
01:23Again, legacy sequels can work when they come from a place of genuine heart and creativity,
01:29but too often they simply rake over stories and character types that we've already seen
01:34while showering us in member berries.
01:37With the pandemic further heightening the risk factor of truly original blockbusters,
01:41expect to see Hollywood regurgitating the past even more aggressively in the years to
01:46come.
01:479.
01:48The Avengers Made Cinematic Universes The Next Big Thing
01:51There's no denying the impressiveness of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a blockbuster
01:56franchise achievement, building a massive world of meaningfully interconnected films.
02:01It all began, as you probably know, with 2008's Iron Man, but the first MCU film to truly
02:07prove how satisfying a shared universe can be was 2012's Avengers, which brought the
02:12prior solo movies together into a fantastically epic superhero team-up.
02:18Its massive box office success and the MCU's continued dominance has caused every major
02:24movie studio to chase its coattails ever since, attempting to spin off every property that
02:29they own into its own lucrative cinematic universe.
02:338.
02:34The Bourne Supremacy Taught A Generation Of Action Directors About Shaky Camp
02:39The Bourne Supremacy is a remarkable sequel to The Bourne Identity, and one elevated significantly
02:44by Paul Greengrass' intense and kinetic direction.
02:48Throughout the film, Greengrass extensively utilised intentional shaky cam work during
02:53action sequences in order to heighten the chaotic realism of what we were seeing, giving
02:58it a full documentary vibe which, for a time, did feel refreshingly unique.
03:03But in the years that followed, countless inferior filmmakers also used shaky cam cinematography,
03:09yet without Greengrass' shrewd understanding of visual language.
03:14The Bourne Supremacy's precise editing ensured that we always knew the spatial geography
03:19of any given moment, no matter how much camera shake there was, yet for many action directors
03:23the style just emboldened them to shoot tons of mediocre, scarcely comprehensible coverage
03:29and splice it all together with quick cuts in the editing room.
03:327.
03:33Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Made Two-Part Blockbusters Acceptable
03:37Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows wasn't the first ever movie to split itself in two,
03:42but it was the one to popularise the practice at a blockbuster level.
03:46In an attempt to squeeze a little extra cash out of customers, the final Harry Potter book
03:50was divided into two movies, and while many fans will defend the decision given the epic
03:55scope of that story, it unintentionally kickstarted a gross trend in the film industry.
04:01See, in the wake of The Deathly Hallows' release, many other blockbuster franchises
04:06pulled similar tactics, what with Twilight, The Hunger Games and Divergent all splitting
04:11their finales into two-parters.
04:13Though in Divergent's case it actually backfired spectacularly as the first part bombed, which
04:18meant the second never actually got made.
04:20The most egregious example though must surely be The Hobbit, where Warner Brothers convinced
04:24Peter Jackson to adapt J.R.R.
04:27Tolkien's 310-page book into three movies totalling almost eight hours in length.
04:34The trend has definitely cooled in recent years, though studios have grown wise about
04:38how much audiences hate the part-one, part-two gimmick, and so tend to give their two-part
04:44movies titles that disguise their compartmentalised storytelling.
04:49The Babadook sparked the infuriating debate about elevated horror.
04:532014's The Babadook received rave reviews upon release for its expert collision of conventional
04:59horror tropes with a more psychological, character-driven component.
05:03The Babadook's success even sparked a trend of similarly inclined, artsy horror films
05:09in the years that followed, such as The Witch, Get Out, Hereditary Midsommar, The Lighthouse,
05:14Us, Saint Maud and Relic, and many of them were released by A24, and many of them, especially
05:20the ones I just said, were really, really good.
05:23However, this soon led to the term elevated horror being coined, a designation signifying
05:28horror films which supplemented more traditional horror movie elements with themes and ideas
05:33from dramas or art movies.
05:36And ever since the phrase first gained traction in the mid-2010s, horror fans have been locked
05:41in a fierce, exhausting debate about the term's merits or lack thereof.
05:46To many, it seems understandably condescending to imply that any horror movie with a sliver
05:51of depth is placed on a pedestal above its genre brethren.
05:55Beyond tarring the bulk of the genre with the same brush, it also completely ignores
06:00the fact that elevated horror has existed for as long as horror has.
06:05There have always been psychological, visceral, experimental horror films, it's not just
06:10a new thing.
06:115.
06:12Batman Begins ushered in an era of needlessly gritty reboots
06:16Batman Begins is one of the most influential movies of the 2000s, a gritty reboot of a
06:21beloved comic book IP, shaking off his goofy prior interpretations and treating him in
06:26a more or less grounded and realistic fashion.
06:29The success of Batman Begins, and especially its sequel The Dark Knight, prompted Hollywood
06:33to use that restrained style as the template for retooling a glut of stagnant franchises,
06:39whether it suited them or not.
06:41Perhaps the most immediately divisive example is the DCEU's Man of Steel, which gives
06:46Superman the dubious, grimdark treatment, no matter the inherent hopefulness and optimism
06:52of Superman in the comics.
06:54There are far, far worse examples though, like the Kirsten Stewart-starring Snow White
06:59in The Huntsman, Josh Trank's Fantastic Four and 2018's Robin Hood, to name just
07:04a few.
07:054.
07:06Furious 7 proved Hollywood could believably resurrect dead actors
07:10Furious 7 is unquestionably one of the strongest films in the Fast and Furious franchise, and
07:15an all the more impressive achievement considering the tragic death of Paul Walker mid-production.
07:21In order to complete Walker's role as Brian O'Connor, Peter Jackson's VFX company
07:25Weta Digital was hired to create a lifelike CGI model of Walker from existing footage,
07:31which would then be mapped onto body doubles played by Walker's brothers Caleb and Cody.
07:36The end result is genuinely terrific, with only a few distracting moments where the digital
07:41seams become visible.
07:43Given the enormous pressure on the production though, it's tough to argue with how this
07:46turned out.
07:47The problem, however, is that Furious 7 proved beyond any doubt that Hollywood could believably
07:53resurrect dead actors, and so in the years that followed we've had numerous films
07:57featuring long dead performers.
08:00The most prominent examples of course are Peter Cushing as Grand Moff Tarkin in Rogue
08:04One, and Harold Ramis as Egon Spengler in Ghostbusters Afterlife.
08:08And while the estates of each actor did sign off on their inclusion, does that really make
08:13it right?
08:143.
08:15The Matrix made bullet time Hollywood's favourite new trick
08:18The Matrix is unquestionably one of the greatest action movies, if not movies, period, of all
08:24time.
08:25Yet it's groundbreaking, Oscar-winning visual effects were so freaking cool that Hollywood
08:29spent the next decade or so shamelessly attempting to one-up them.
08:33The Matrix's big, splashy VFX coup was of course bullet time, an advanced version of
08:39slow motion whereby the camera moves through the space of a scene while time is slowed,
08:44giving the audience otherwise impossible coverage of an awesome action beat.
08:49There are certainly movies that have managed to co-opt bullet time in interesting ways,
08:53I mean take the jaw-dropping bomb explosion at the start of Swordfish for one, and I know
08:57Swordfish, what a weird drop, but yeah, it worked at the time.
09:012.
09:02Napoleon Dynamite forced Netflix to improve their algorithm
09:06Napoleon Dynamite is one of the most memorable indies of the 2000s, an ultra-quirky, hilarious
09:11coming-of-age comedy that grossed an incredible $46.1 million on a mere $400,000 budget.
09:19In 2008, the Napoleon Dynamite problem was first coined, referring to the film's strong
09:25popularity on Netflix, and how the service's content algorithm struggled to decide whether
09:31customers would like it or not.
09:34Because Napoleon Dynamite is such an odd, difficult-to-categorise piece of work, it
09:38contributed to Netflix seeking to overhaul their algorithm, even offering a $1 million
09:44prize to anyone who could improve its effectiveness by 10%.
09:48In the years that followed, Netflix's algorithm became increasingly efficient, as did those
09:53of its streaming competition, such that today, you're unlikely to be recommended anything
09:57even remotely outside of your comfort zone.
10:00Despite the massive libraries that streaming services offer, the algorithm will aim to
10:05steer you towards movies most likely to guarantee the attention of your eyeballs, in turn de-incentivising
10:11the exploration of more adventurous, left-field works of cinema.
10:15There's actually a really good video on this on the YouTube channel called Now You
10:19See It by the way, which I would definitely recommend checking out if this has piqued
10:22your interest.
10:231.
10:24Pulp Fiction ushered in an era of obnoxiously cool crime films
10:28Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction is a stone-cold masterpiece, and one of the most influential
10:33films of the entire 1990s, if not of all time.
10:38As brilliantly conceived as it is though, its distinctive dialogue and inventive narrative
10:42structure inspired an entire generation of young screenwriters and filmmakers to produce
10:48their own inferior knockoffs.
10:50We were inundated with a deluge of hip, darkly comedic crime movies, filled with too-cool-for-school
10:56characters, pointlessly non-linear storytelling, and a story that wasn't explicitly about
11:02much in the traditional sense.
11:05A few of those examples could include things like Things to Do in Denver When You're
11:09Dead, Reindeer Games, Eight Heads in a Duffel Bag, and The Big Hit, each of which attempted
11:14to approximate the style and tone of Pulp Fiction without any of the skill it's storytelling
11:20or character building.
11:21That's our list.
11:22I want you guys to think down in the comments below, what do you think about the influence
11:25that these movies had on cinema as a whole, and are there any other great movies you think
11:30kind of made other movies a bit worse?
11:32While you're down there as well, could you please give us a like, share, subscribe, and
11:35head over to whatculture.com for more lists and news like this every single day.
11:39Even if you don't though, I've been Josh, thanks so much for watching, and I'll see
11:42you soon.