So far, the only film I’ve reviewed that has received a 10/10 from me was, The Social Network (2010), and a while back, my friend went to go see it in theaters, coming back disappointed. That got me thinking, would the very best or “perfect” film be liked by everyone, no matter of genre, perspective, etc? And should filmmakers attempt to pander to all of the different audiences, or focus on one certain area?
Because of the obvious fact that film judgement is entirely opinion, technically the “perfect” film could never exist; but theoretically, if everything was done perfectly, would everyone like it? I think most people would say yes here, because if it had no technical flaws, no one could really complain about anything. I personally think that it still would receive a decent amount of hatred, or frustration from at least a small group of people. This comes from the problem some people have with certain genres. If it were, say, a horror movie, several people would be turned off of it because being scared isn’t enjoyable to a lot of people. Others think romances are too cheesy, or unrealistic, and comedies seem dumb to some people. Every genre has its following, and its cynics, and that’ll always be a problem.
That made me question whether movies should try to pander to as many genre audiences as possible. Think of Get Out (2017) for example. I would argue the mixture of comedy, horror, and thriller aspects played a large role in its expansive popularity. I don’t think that’s why it’s a good film, but it makes it pretty unique, and attractive to different audiences. Movies have been doing this for forever, with the introduction of romance into almost every single movie, to draw that crowd in. I think to a certain extent, filmmakers are aware of this and try their best to branch out at least a little bit. I mean Marvel movies always have their fair share of comedy, but they’re not comedy movies per se. So should they make a larger attempt at this, and mix more genres in with their original idea?
I think if it works with their original idea/plan, yes. But I think turning an idea for a horror film into a comedy/horror film suddenly could end up destroying the original idea. If you think of Get Out, or even to a certain extent, It (2017), both of the ideas sort of flow naturally and don’t seem forced. They’re both horror films, and where Get Out has aspects of comedy, It sort of has this “coming of age” theme. It had a little bit of this from its source material, and while they messed with it a little by changing the timeline, they didn’t add too much. If you were to take a movie like The Exorcist (1973), and make it comedic, it would destroy the many thing that make it great, and it probably wouldn’t be the classic that it is today. I think this may be why some comedy/actions are so bad, because rather than focus on one thing and make it great, they’d rather just make a funny movie with explosions.
All in all, people should come up with good film ideas and let them develop naturally. Introducing comedic or romantic moments in films won’t ruin them, but forcing an entirely new genre into it can create a lot of conflicting ideas. While all genres will always have their fair share of skeptics, it’s better to make a great movie that fits in one box, than a bad one that fits into three. But what do I know? I don’t make millions of dollars writing films! This kind of started off as a question about the “perfect” film, but devolved into a discussion about movie genres and film-making, but I think they’re all interesting topics to think about.
Hunting It Down 