AS Film Studies – Induction Tasks

1. Discuss why ‘The Lone Ranger’ was considered to be a box-office failure. Research and debate in a 500 word essay why this film flopped – refer to at least 5 reasons.

In the box-office world ‘The Lone Ranger’, created by Disney, is predicted to be a massive failure, with the chief reason being the genre. In this current world of film, westerns are the least popular of all the genres, despite the high numbers that have been made in the past. 

This is mainly due to a higher surge in numbers attending sci-fi, thriller/horror and animation; the world of sci-fi (such as ‘Star Trek’) is seemingly more attractive to the general community because of how close we are to achieving new heights in technology. For thriller/horror is a separate reason which is that most people like getting scared. For some the fear can often act as an adrenaline rush just like in bungee-jumping. The last genre mentioned is animation. Animation has steadily progressed from Beauty and the Beast, to Despicable Me with incredible results meaning that children, whilst being a major part of its popularity, but adults can also thoroughly enjoy the film.

This first reason about the competition between varying genres often leads to a disastrous cinematic release date, in other words, reason number two. A film with a genre that is not often appreciated fully and is released when more popular film genres are released can often bring devastating affects to the box-office income. When you compare the figures for ‘The Lone Ranger’ and ‘Despicable Me 2’ you see a vast difference in the outcome: ‘The Lone Ranger’ had a worldwide income of $239,170,894, where as ‘Despicable Me 2’ had a worldwide profit of $823,239,290. These films were both released at the same time and are of two different genres; whilst ‘Despicable Me 2’ was highly successful, ‘The Lone Ranger’ was not.

Depp said: "I think the reviews were written seven to eight months before we released the film. [The critics] had expectations that it must be a blockbuster. I don't have any expectations of that. I never do." (Source: Catherine Shoard, The Gaurdian) From Johnny Depp’s comment about critics expecting it to be a blockbuster when in reality it’s not, caused the film to be hyped up by prospective viewers and also criticised in the way a blockbuster would have been. Through this, it is safe to assume that the criticism involved caused few people to want to see the film.
 

Disney is a film company that is often associated with children and family orientated films like ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’, both of which are fantasy based. Through watching the trailer alone, it is clear that ‘The Lone Ranger’ is in a different league; there is a clear amount of violence (which could possibly lead to a minor amount of gore) and for younger viewers it may not appeal to them nor would their parents want them to be exposed to it. Through this it is less appealing to the general audience associated with Disney.

Lastly is the advertising for the story. ‘The Lone Ranger’ film is an adaptation of a Detroit radio character in the 1930s and a TV series in the 1950s, but despite its previous versions, there is a lack of awareness, particularly in the younger populace. In comparison, super hero comics (Superman, Captain America etc) which have been around for generations are known globally and are kept alive by a great number of people. With a lack of people knowing the story of ‘The Lone Ranger’ and a limited amount of advertising that Disney made, few people would have recognised its origins and would have been less excited to see it.

 

2. What was your favourite film this summer? Write a 500 word ‘personal response’ stating why you enjoyed it.

Over the summer my favourite film has to be J.J.Abrams ‘Star Trek: Into Darkness’. With the original ‘Star Trek’ series being popular in its day and the various spin-offs (‘Voyager, Enterprise, Next Generation’) it would have been a real challenge for the director, J.J.Abrams, to live up to and surpass the ingenuity of the numerous series which, in my personal opinion, Abrams did in the 2009 release of ‘Star Trek’. The special affects and technology would have been designed specifically to introduce the cleanliness that is often associated with the future and is pulled off in the first ‘Star Trek’ film.

The back story for both films is that it is an alternative universe compared to the original series, which is said to be the universe in which Ambassador Spock is from (the older one). With this in mind, Abrams could look to the stories in the original series and use them to inspire his films effectively – for example, ‘Into Darkness’ is based upon the ‘Wrath of Kahn’. Whilst there are changes to the story, it allows Abrams to attract an audience of not just the younger generations, but also the older as they would remember watching the original series when they were younger.

However, despite this advantage of using the original series plots as a basis for the films, it means that Abrams had little room for deviations from the ‘Star Trek’ theme. This is a comparison to ‘Super 8’, a film which allowed Abrams a greater freedom with the story line along with the technology of the time period, but in my opinion, ‘Super 8’, as ingenious as it was, is not as good in comparison to ‘Star Trek: Into Darkness’, despite the limitations Abrams had to put up with whilst filming.

The actors are another one of the reasons I enjoyed the film. They portrayed their characters brilliantly and effectively changing the tone when necessary. Chris Pine plays Captain Kirk spectacularly; he is able to show the stubborn headed, arrogant profile he generally flaunts as well as the part of the character that shows responsibility, courage and an interest more to his crew’s health and well-being than his own. Another great example of incredible acting is with Benedict Cumberbatch as he plays his character Kahn. Kahn is shown by Cumberbatch as a sinister character with nothing left to lose (ultimately making him the most dangerous enemy) a long with being better at everything than most people: he is stronger, smarter, and more capable turning him into a deadly weapon. 

Overall, ‘Star Trek: Into Darkness’ is a clever film assorted with action, adventure and enough sci-fi involvement to keep a large portion entertained and happy with the film and how the plot progresses. The clever combination of actors who are capable of portraying the character described, shows that the directors and producers thought long and hard of how to make this film as best as it could possibly be. Couple these accomplishments with the smart use of CGI for the exterior shots of the star ships in a way that looks realistic and the result is a film that could be portrayed as a masterpiece.