1. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
2. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
3. The Dark Knight
4. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
5. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
6. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
7. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
8. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
9. Shrek 2
10. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
11. Spider-Man 3
12. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
13. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
14. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
15. Finding Nemo
16. Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
17. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
18. Spider-Man
19. Shrek the Third
20. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
But what is most interesting to me is the comment at Kottke:
Only one movie on the list was made from an original screenplay: Finding Nemo...the rest are all sequels or adapted from books, TV shows, amusement park rides, etc.I'm not sure what implications that carries, but I find it somewhat disquieting.
Addendum: On this subject matter, see this enjoyable essay by Phillip Graham.
Just wait until the movie comes out with the detective Nick Relief . . .
ReplyDeletehttp://www.themorningnews.org/archives/opinions/freddy_and_jason_and_reese_and_julia.php
Well written! I've added the link to the post.
ReplyDeleteFinding Nemo is actually based on Homer's "The Odyssey".
ReplyDeleteGreat find.
Thanks, I'm glad you liked it!
ReplyDeleteI used to worry about getting to the movie theater on time; now, on those occasions when I do go to the movies, I make sure I'm late, in order to avoid watching the noisy trailers for movies I know I'll never, ever see.
"Coming Attractions"? I see them as warning labels.
I don't think the fact that the top-grossing movies are not based on original premises is as bad as it might seem at first.
ReplyDeleteI don't mind watching unoriginal movies that are engaging, entertaining, and well made.
Just because a movie is not original does not mean it is uncreative or that the story is of a lower quality.
Look at the list.
The Dark Knight - based on comic books, but if you think about it all comic books are essentially sequels. It was an excellent movie that helped to revive a franchise that had been destroyed with past attempts. Has one of the greatest pieces of character acting ever, and is going to have a huge impact on future movie-making, with the groundbreaking use of IMAX.
The Lord of the Rings - Did a great job of putting into flim stories that people have been wanting to see for a long, long time, with superb cinematography and amazing technical achievements.
Pirates - based on only a ride. So essentially the base concept is unoriginal but the story but the story had to be written from scratch.
Harry Potter - hard to knock making these movies. Based on recent novels that were an unprecedented phenomenon that many, many people couldn't wait to see made into movies.
I also found it interesting that (unless I missed something) Finding Nemo is the only one on the list that is not part of a series of movies.
ReplyDelete