Definitive Films

One of the many problems with Hollywood is the thinking that if a film is successful, it means that the public wants more films in that genre. Star Wars is a good example. After Star Wars, we got Star Trek The Motion Picture, The Black Hole, Battle Beyond the Stars, Flash Gordon, and the TV show Battlestar Galactica, and none of them were as good as the original.

After Raiders of the Lost Ark, we got King Solomon's Mines, Romancing the Stone, Treasure of the Four Crowns, the TV show Tales of the Gold Monkey, and, more recently, Tomb Raider and The Mummy, not to mention the two Indiana Jones sequels. Again none came close to the original.

In reality, it was not the space setting that made Star Wars successful. It was the winning combination of a perfect cast, good music, startling special effects, imaginative creatures and names, and the general feeling that we were seeing something new. With Raiders, it was a perfect script, terrific costuming, original action, and a logical, linear plotline.

The Hollywood tendency to create 'more of the same' flies in the face of what makes genre-defining films great. They invariably come out of nowhere and have nothing to do with the current trend in filmmaking. If anything they redirect the current trend in filmmaking. Trends themselves should be avoided. Create something new.