*creative wank rant*
I'm becoming increasingly convinced that there's a virus going around that attacks creativity.
The seed for this idea was planted by this week's Zero Punctuation video that pointed out that all major upcoming game titles are sequels. Later I looked something up on IGN and noticed the ads in the heading for six upcoming movies:
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (book adaptation)
Scorpion King 2 (sequel)
Terminator 4 (sequel)
Watchmen (comic book adaptation)
Saw V (sequel)
Madagascar 2 (sequel)
Pretty much every movie or game on the horizon is an adaptation, sequel, or remake - The Mummy 3, Fable 2, Gears of War 2, Fallout 3, Prince of Persia, the Spirit, Wanted, Quake, Wolfenstein, Duke Nukem, Mortal Combat, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, Hellboy II. We've already had The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Get Smart, Grand Theft Auto 4, Metal Gear Solid 4 and probably more but I'm getting tired of making lists. Plus I'm hearing a lot of new music that sounds an awful lot like old music.
I'm not totally sure how I feel about this. I'd already had it in my head that there was a trend of soiling great originals with half assed sequels, but there's always the exceptions that make the rule. Not to mention Christopher Nolan's proved that sometimes something that's a remake, sequel and comic book adaptation can be absolutely fucking mind blowing. So I guess there are always new and interesting ways to tread old ground. It's not like there's noting original on the way either. Game developer Bioware got the shits with making Dungeons & Dragons and Star Wars universe games and started to do their own thing. Neil Gaiman's also doing us proud by proving himself the most awesome man ever to have lived one blog post at a time.
So I suppose the world's case of the unimaginitives isn't going to prove terminal but now I'm just trying to shoehorn all this crap into some sort of conclusion to prove that I haven't just wasted yours and my time. However at the moment that's the only conclusion I can come up with. Oh fuck: it's spreading.
I'm becoming increasingly convinced that there's a virus going around that attacks creativity.
The seed for this idea was planted by this week's Zero Punctuation video that pointed out that all major upcoming game titles are sequels. Later I looked something up on IGN and noticed the ads in the heading for six upcoming movies:
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (book adaptation)
Scorpion King 2 (sequel)
Terminator 4 (sequel)
Watchmen (comic book adaptation)
Saw V (sequel)
Madagascar 2 (sequel)
Pretty much every movie or game on the horizon is an adaptation, sequel, or remake - The Mummy 3, Fable 2, Gears of War 2, Fallout 3, Prince of Persia, the Spirit, Wanted, Quake, Wolfenstein, Duke Nukem, Mortal Combat, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, Hellboy II. We've already had The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Get Smart, Grand Theft Auto 4, Metal Gear Solid 4 and probably more but I'm getting tired of making lists. Plus I'm hearing a lot of new music that sounds an awful lot like old music.
I'm not totally sure how I feel about this. I'd already had it in my head that there was a trend of soiling great originals with half assed sequels, but there's always the exceptions that make the rule. Not to mention Christopher Nolan's proved that sometimes something that's a remake, sequel and comic book adaptation can be absolutely fucking mind blowing. So I guess there are always new and interesting ways to tread old ground. It's not like there's noting original on the way either. Game developer Bioware got the shits with making Dungeons & Dragons and Star Wars universe games and started to do their own thing. Neil Gaiman's also doing us proud by proving himself the most awesome man ever to have lived one blog post at a time.
So I suppose the world's case of the unimaginitives isn't going to prove terminal but now I'm just trying to shoehorn all this crap into some sort of conclusion to prove that I haven't just wasted yours and my time. However at the moment that's the only conclusion I can come up with. Oh fuck: it's spreading.
I guess it's up to people like you and I to keep the flame of originality alight.
There's just not as much money in original ideas. People seem ready to invest in 'proven' concepts, not new, innovative ones. This makes me sad. I've made it my life's mission to find new and original content. Which means that I usually applaud books and movies that others hate, just because it's got an original idea in it. True originality makes me hot!
So get out there and create something!
Its up to us to find the cure. Creative Industries powers, activate!