Hollywood vs. Video Game Companies
2013 became a colossal year for Entertainment Industry screw
ups. Some of the most anticipated
events turned out to be colossal fails and in both camps. 2013 simple became a challenge of who wanted
it more, the video game industry or Hollywood.
Hollywood had a lot riding on 2013. They went into the year still smarting from the
fail that was John Carter, with a new plan.
Let’s rely on those that have brought us big wins in the past.
The Lone Ranger was supposed to be the Cowboys and Indians
equivalent to audience’s love of Pirates.
After all, you have Johnny Depp playing Tonto. The problem was that audiences were beginning
to suffer from Depp-ression after Pirates 4 failed to wow them. Yeah, it grossed over a billion worldwide but
the loss of three key components to the series, Orlando Bloom, Kiera Knightly,
and director Gore Verbinski, made for a rather anemic plot and quite frankly,
continuing the series after the confusing At Worlds End was a bit of rum soaked
head scratcher. One would think it would make perfect sense to
shift the action to dry land and dig up an American icon, The Lone Ranger. But in the overly sensitive world of being,
um, sensitive, folks were angered at Depp’s portrayal of Tonto, of course they
were mostly white. Native American’s
fell on both sides of the fence, giving some concern over Depp’s possibly
stereotypical “Injun” portrayal, but others commending him for at least
attempting to speak Comanche and not seem like an Indian and more like a Comanche
American. Yet, the film failed. Too much action, not enough Western nostalgia. It was simply Pirates of the Old West.
Other flagrant d-bag moves by Hollywood? How about we look at the remakes like Carrie,
Evil Dead, and Oldboy? Each one did not
need to be remade. Carrie was
ridiculous, Evil Dead was Cabin in the Woods played straight, and Spike Lee
whitewashing Park Chan-wook’s 2003 film just to make a buck made
for a stupid moves on an industry that is already losing out to home
viewing. Case in point, I took my kid to see Frozen over the holiday
and the cost of the tickets were less than the concessions. Granted, the prices were a bargain price
during a matinee, but still, theaters don’t make any money off of the films
anymore, just concessions. Hollywood
needs to start putting a better product out and stop being idiots if they want
to bring people back for the prices they charge.
Not to be outdone, the video game industry
had its share of moments. Let’s see…
Microsoft reveals Xbox One and says, “YOU
HAVE TO BE ONLINE TO PLAY!” Oh, wait,
they took that back.
EA launches Sim City 5 and they insist that
you have to be hooked into the Internet to play it. On top of that, it crashes
because they didn’t anticipate the server demand. What
part of a single player game, do they not get?
We play Sim City because we want to control the world, not share
it. That’s like giving someone a
solitaire game and making it multiplayer only.
Last of Us debuts and it’s really good and frustrating and
then Ellen Page gets all huffy because she thinks the main character is too
much like her. Maybe because she’s going
to be in her own game called Beyond: Two Souls and doesn’t want there to be a
conflict between the two when people buy it?
Who knows? Then there’s Battlefield
4 and Devil May Cry and a slew of other idiocies that make you scratch your
head. Add in a bunch of broken consoles
for PS4, the “Don’t install the GTA V disc while playing” for Xbox One, and the
debate over DRM in the gaming this year and you rack up a lot of points in the win
column for the gaming industry.
So who won? HOLLYWOOD!
This one is basically a tossup, but I’m going to go with
Hollywood. For all their faults, the
video game industry is still heading in the right direction with things, but
Hollywood has just become so out of touch with the audience that I don’t ever
see them regaining their credibility.
After all, Justin Bieber had a movie open on Christmas called
Believe. That says all you need to
know.
