Emily+K’s+2016+OpEd+Article

Are they really worth $1.5 billion?

And once again, the hero saves the day. He (or maybe she) has overcome some challenge, learned a lesson, and won the heart of an attractive person in the process.

Sound like a movie you’ve seen? I thought so.

People flock to the theaters every time a new movie comes out. But the thing is, most of these movies hold nothing new. They’re the same basic storyline, masked only by a thin facade of archetypal characters and shallow dialogue, set with some different music and scenery

But of course, nobody cares. The special effects are “awesome”. And even if the entire storyline doesn’t make much sense and is fairly hazy, watching the unlikely hero succeed is apparently endlessly satisfying.

Of course, there are many movies that are exceptions to this. But, as of now, the biggest selling movies of all time are action movies that fit this formula (look up Box Office Mojo, if you don’t believe me). Somehow, a story that could be summed up in the words “dinosaurs escape and wreak havoc before some heroic people save the day” became a two-hour long drama that managed to rack up $1.67 billion. That’s a lot of money.

These movies are rewarded for their lack of creativity and depth. What people are looking for is a way to spend a couple of hours that will brainlessly entertain them, and that’s what Hollywood delivers.

And even though people like watching that same storyline over and over, it’s not even realistic. Not everyone can be the special person that saves the world. Success doesn’t come as easily as a movie might make it seem. The complex issues that make up real life don’t always have solutions, and those solutions certainly can’t be figured out in two hours or less. Sure, movie characters can be flawed, but they’re usually still are far out of the realm of normal humans.

What’s more, these movies promote violence, which has become a form of entertainment, instead of a horror to be avoided. People watch, eyes glued, through movies full of fighting, punching, shooting, stabbing, blood, and guts. Yet most people could not bear to watch the same amount of time of real, thought-provoking dialogue.

Nobody likes to read a book that doesn’t have much of a plot, that doesn’t go anywhere. It’s time we stopped falling for that in movies; and it’s time that we realize the violence that we obliviously consume through them. Movies can be artistic, creative, thought-provoking, poignant… people just need to start asking for them to be made.