Two years ago, whether we realized it or not, legendary director Steven Spielberg came out with a very important film in cinema history. Ready Player One was an exciting tale of a future world where virtual reality is king, and our online lives now physically surpass our real life.
The movie is based on the successful novel by Ernest Cline, and draws heavily on nostalgia from pre-existing media. The coming of this movie marked the Hollywood system snake-eating its own tail: a movie based on a book, based on pre-existing movies.
It also marked the coming of the post-theatre experience. Intellectual property is currency that we trade in. We have become modern drones, only looking to the past in art.
Our brains have become programmed to enjoy the characters and iconography we see on screen, instead of new exciting advancements of our art. We scroll through YouTube until we see a trailer we recognize.
We consume the product, approve of the product and buy the next product. We defend corporations and call it original. It is not original, it is rehashing.
It’s time to fund original movies. Then movies can look like, sound like, or be about anything–and not things we’ve seen before in books, movies or VR recreations of books and movies.
File photo.
