Why was summer ’16 for films so poor?

Much as critics and film fans often disagree, there is one universal truth uniting them this year – the summer blockbuster season has, on the whole, been a bit poor. Our cinemas have been prone to dud after dud and, after the record summer last year, it is worth asking why this is the case.

At the moment, it feels like there are incredibly few new and interesting films out there (in the mainstream cinema, at least). Instead, studios churn out sequel after sequel in the hopes that people will flock to things they recognise, but there is no demand for them – I doubt that a single person in the world was crying out for The Huntsman: Winter’s War, and yet, that was a big release. We seem to get nothing but sequels – Alice Through The Looking Glass, Now You See Me 2, Independence Day: Resurgence, Jason Bourne – nobody wants them, and nobody is going to see them.

Studios churn out sequel after sequel in the hopes that people will flock to things they recognise, but there is no demand for them… nobody wants them, and nobody is going to see them

We also had a reboot, courtesy of Paul Feig – the much-derided Ghostbusters hit cinemas this summer, and proved to be as lame as all of its critics suggested it would be (although not because the leads were women, nor because it ruined anybody’s childhood, and whatever else they claimed). Painfully unfunny, Ghostbusters did nothing new with the source material other than change some genders, and its lame reception quickly killed off any hope of success (that, and the director saying anybody who found any fault with the movie was a woman-hater – way to win round your audience, Paul).

One among the many sequels this summer, Independence Day: Resurgence. IMage: Giri Trisanto/ Flickr

If, by some odd chance, you managed to see something original, it was incredibly likely that it ended in a sequel tease (the most blatant of which was the aforementioned Resurgence). Russell Crowe-‘em-up The Nice Guys was very much angling for a sequel, and with a title like Warcraft: The Beginning, it is clear Universal wanted a few more chapters to this story.

However, it’s not just sequels they have on the mind – every film now wants to build up a franchise and its own cinematic universe, trying to copy the success of Marvel without any of the groundwork. DC perhaps have the best chance of aping it, but how much sense it makes and how forced it is doesn’t matter. We’re getting a Universal Monsters cinematic universe, executives want a Fast and Furious franchise and, most curiously, a Hasbro franchise (to put that in perspective, Hasbro’s next three films are horror Ouija: Origin of Evil, Transformers: The Last Knight and My Little Pony: The Movie. Come up with a way for these to segue together naturally, and I’ll be astonished).

The last thing Hollywood needs is a deluge of crap films as another nail in its coffin

The most crucial point, however, is this – a lot of these films simply aren’t very good. The hurdles you have to leap through to get anywhere in the business, you’d think that the people who made it had some degree of skill and competency at filmmaking, but that is apparently not the case. Critics are slating the films, and then audiences slate the films – nothing really kills a movie’s run like bad word of mouth, and the films that are being put out are generating just that.

One of the few watchable films this summer, Finding Dory. Image: Josh Hallett/ Flickr

Now, there is some light at the end of the tunnel. Although unasked for, Pixar’s Finding Dory showed that making a sequel with care and affection means the end product is very good. Some good original films (The Secret Life of Pets and Lights Out, because animation and horror has always proven to be reliable) have secured sequels, and if they are as good as these originals, they will be highlights of a future cinema season.

On the whole, though, the end analysis is pretty clear – Hollywood has to do better. The cinema is dying because of costs and the experience, and the last thing it needs is a deluge of crap films as another nail in its coffin.