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'Ghostbusters: Afterlife' [2022]

Victory said:
Pop culture / music culture / architecture etc has long included nods of respect to or influence from the past.

An example is Tarantino, his films crammed full of both obvious and subtle references to previous films.

Many Reggae songs are updated reworks of 1970's songs, themselves reworks of 1960s; songs.

Hip Hop is full of MCs rapping a couple of bars' worth of lyrics from a song that influenced them, then adding their own lyrics.

A large chunk of central London is built with ancient Greece and Rome in mind!

There are many hundreds of youth sub cultures with their own fashion, slang, danced and music.

There are hundreds of people who define themselves by the football team they support.

Lots of people long to belong to a group - it's hardwired in many people, my guess from thousands of year ago when we lived in small groups of 30 or for defence and sharing resources.
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The exploitation of the past has reached some kind of zenith/nadir.

There certainly were a proliferation of youth subcultures: punk, goth, metal, mods, etc these ones seem to have lessened and perhaps been replaced by others.

If you are an adult, especially a middle aged and are defined by tribally identifying with commercial crap for children, then you should take a long hard look at yourself.
 
Ogdred Weary said:
The exploitation of the past has reached some kind of zenith/nadir.

There certainly were a proliferation of youth subcultures: punk, goth, metal, mods, etc these ones seem to have lessened and perhaps been replaced by others.

If you are an adult, especially a middle aged and are defined by tribally identifying with commercial crap for children, then you should take a long hard look at yourself.
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Nostalgia is a powerful beast.
 
Seriously, though, take a look at what happens when someone tries something different. With franchises, if you add a new twist or development the fanboys go ballistic that you're ruining their childhoods because they want more of exactly the same. If you try something original that isn't connected to an existing property, it gets relegated to the arthouse or festival circuit, where it's dismissed as something for hipsters who are sheer snobs. The profits are not exactly high. You can't win right now.
 
@GNC

Yes.
There is a a sense of entitlement and ownership of product/output by fans of films, TV shows and music groups.

This seems to be strongly but not exclusively connected to social media.

It can be for negative or positive.
It can of course stifle creativity, but also steer a franchise or artist back on course if they veer into trite product.
 
GNC said:
Seriously, though, take a look at what happens when someone tries something different. With franchises, if you add a new twist or development the fanboys go ballistic that you're ruining their childhoods because they want more of exactly the same. If you try something original that isn't connected to an existing property, it gets relegated to the arthouse or festival circuit, where it's dismissed as something for hipsters who are sheer snobs. The profits are not exactly high. You can't win right now.
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I suspect that we are at the point where you cannot win and whatever is done it will upset someone, I am also not certain that the people who "know exactly what they want" really do know. It's just a tribe/cult/identity to join and feel part of whilst excluding and attacking others.

I wish most existing IP would be abandoned but I might as well be wishing for World peace.

Nuke the whole planet, it's the only way to be sure.
 
Victory said:
@GNC

Yes.
There is a a sense of entitlement and ownership of product/output by fans of films, TV shows and music groups.

This seems to be strongly but not exclusively connected to social media.

It can be for negative or positive.
It can of course stifle creativity, but also steer a franchise or artist back on course if they veer into trite product.
Click to expand...

I was listening to a podcast interview with the late Mike Nesmith (from a few years ago) and he said that while he'd had his issues with being in The Monkees, one thing that always proved to him he mattered and the group mattered was meeting fans who unironically loved them from childhood and had stayed loyal down the years. It obviously meant a lot to him, as it did to them.

But maybe Monkees fans, by nature of the show and music, tend to have a sense of humour and perspective lacking in the, let's face it, male fans who follow the franchises of their youth? Watching what you loved in childhood evolving or changing reminds you that you're not getting any younger, and if there's one thing a fanboy can't stand, it's being irrelevant and not listened to. However, you're right: don't tar all fans with the same brush: not everyone gets furious about their pop culture preferences. And all that anger leads to the Dark Side.
 
Swifty said:
The new trailer for the next one ..

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maximus otter
 
In spite of all the allusions to the original movie, and I'd rather have seen a new story, I enjoyed Afterlife well enough. Hopefully they've got the confidence now to do something that captures the spirit of the original but is also something new.
 
Swifty said:
The new trailer for the next one ..

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I was quite into that trailer until the speaking started and the kids appeared.

I think I just don't want to hear 'Contemporary Hollywood Dialogue' anymore.

If people talk like this, I don't meet them.

And I'm happy about that.
 
Yithian said:
I was quite into that trailer until the speaking started and the kids appeared.

I think I just don't want to hear 'Contemporary Hollywood Dialogue' anymore.

If people talk like this, I don't meet them.

And I'm happy about that.
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Remember in the first Ghostbusters when they get kicked out of college at the start and Venkman's trying to talk Ray into setting up as a company? .. Venkman says something like " ... the franchise rights alone would make us rich beyond our wildest dreams!". I'm surprised Jason Reitman didn't decide to expand on that idea instead. The cynic in me thinks he made the new team kids instead because parents would buy their kids all new Ghostbuster toys this Christmas if the kids love the film. What's happening so far instead is that some of the online Ghostbuster chatroom community are currently lusting after the new style red jump suits.
 
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