As I’ve said before, I refuse to see any more film adaptations of YA books clearly aimed at fans and no one else. Each and every one fails to distinguish itself from its counterparts or validate its existence other than to capitalize on a trend. And no, I haven’t read the books.
Though the titles may seem different, like “The Divergent Series”, “The Maze Runner” or “The Hunger Games”, the products are all the same: A future dystopia wherein everything is grim and grey; sexy, athletic sportswear is in abundance and; the lower-class society is organized into generically named categories that will eventually rise up with the leader being some tween-aged hottie who is special for some convoluted reason. I’m not exactly Sherlock Homes, but I believe there is a pattern here.
Now I have no problem with a genre being capitalized on. Hell, over 400 film noirs were made between the early 40s and the late 50s at the height of that genre’s popularity. Just like now, back then you just couldn’t escape it, and that’s because the audience ate them up.
But what I don’t respect is when there is a clear attempt to peddle the same garbage to the same audience, and in no way make them feel different. Every film is drab, poorly written, unimaginative, grim without grit and devoid of any passion whatsoever. “The Hunger Games” seemed to be on track to defy those traps with good acting and writing, but this most recent installment (“Mockingjay Part 1”) took “ah f*** it, they’ll pay anyway” to level ten.
I mean, for the love of God, can someone throw a pie? The reason why similar pop-genre, the superhero movie, does so well is the unabashed sense of fun those movies convey. Who doesn’t love it when Tony Stark or Thor makes a witty quip before rocketing into the air? The second Tris Prior and Katniss Everdeen morph into something not resembling a soul-sucking scrap of wood I’ll start to pay attention.
But the great thing is that I think people are starting to catch on. All one needs to do to realize this is skip on down to your nearest box office website and search one of the aforementioned opuses. The recent “Games” sequel made about $100 million less than the previous one, “Catching Fire.” I don’t do numbers so well, but that’s about 20-25 percent of its audience just gone. Some say you can hear their howlings on the foggy moor.
As well, the new “Divergent” sequel opened to less than its predecessor, and that includes the added 3D surcharge (the sign of an unconfident studio) not existent with the first one. Include the fact “Maze Runner” barely broke $100 million domestic and I believe people are warming to what I preach before you now; these are all the same gunk, and it never seems to end.
My only hope is that people realize what’s happening: The studios involved don’t care about quality. Money is the end game and as long as they can push out the crap at low overhead ($34 million for “Runner.” Compare that to $18 million for “Borat”) and high returns they don’t care how the movie turns out. They insult your intelligence knowing you’ll pay for it no matter what. I call it the “Michael Bay Variable.”
Look to “Harry Potter” for a franchise done perfectly. Warner Bros. was smart enough to realize the audience would grow with these movies, so the quality grew with them. Sure they left stuff out from the books, but what was necessary to the movie’s narratives made it in, making for great movies. However, with these new YA movies that seek to top HP, if I can’t understand the movie’s basic plot I’m given a “well, read the book!” To that I say if the books are good, the movie should be too.
