We keep speaking and they keep listening

So while I’m glad they are redoing the hedgehog, and maybe (hopefully,) I’m wrong, I suspect there’s more that will be lacking the film than the CG style- and seeing more of such fan guided changes could be a blessing and a curse, especially in those things that lean more towards art and creative vision. For instance- redoing the CGI in green lantern due to Dan response would have helped, but not salvaged an otherwise mostly disliked film. Re casts and reshoots and post also bloat the time and budget of big ticket pictures that are already seeing bloating to the point that a movie must be almost guaranteed to be popular globally to be profitable.

That means that films have to be washed over with huge set pieces and action, dialog is generally cut or made simpler and things are made to appeal to a generic mass of people Los and ideas. It’s already an issue of much discussion in film, that the more movies are made to recoup huge budgets by making sure “everyone” likes them or wants to see them, the less they make individuals love them.

Focus groups and feedback have led to notorious decisions and many “directors cuts” where the creators try to correct the changes studios made for mass appeal. People also tend to be fickle about what they want. In a “teacher student” relationship it is the students job to give the teacher what they want to see- right or wrong, if they want good grades- but film makers are supposed to be specialists with skills we don’t have. They dream up and deliver dialog and events and stories that we wouldn’t, otherwise why would we go see them and not make films ourselves? Everyone would be an award winning writer or director. People often don’t know what they want until you give it to them. Its the barber telling you that they don’t think that haircut you saw in a movie fits your face, the mechanic telling you that putting a jet engine on your mini van probably isn’t the right choice for you, or the tailor telling you that suit looked good on James Bond but you should try a different cut.

Sometimes they’re wrong- or we disagree. Sometimes the “specialist” doesn’t care and will give you whatever you want if you pay for it- but sometimes they have integrity and no matter how much you ask the designer will not sew a neon fortnite sprite into the dress they designed for you. It’s a very slim window between capitalism and artistic integrity and I don’t think movie by committee is a good thing to make standard- more an exception on special cases. If you want proof go read through a bunch of fan fiction. You’ll find tons of good stuff, and even more work that isn’t ready for the big screen and is maybe better suited for the venue it’s at.