It’s cliche to complain about the big studios and how they churn out barely adequate movies and then make sequels to those. Transformers. Twilgiht. You can name a ton on your own.
But…watching Avengers: Endgame this weekend made me realize they sometimes actually put the effort into the content and are able to make great movies and even great art. And, in many cases, the money a studio puts into things makes them even better. Anyway, it got me thinking about what “big studio productions” ended up being pretty great. I thought of:
Harry Potter series - Honestly, WB deserves a ton of credit for making these like the books and allowing them to make quality movies. The books are better, but the movies do not drop the ball and adapt them quite well.
Marvel movies since Iron Man - Why they did such a great job while DC has struggles is beyond me. But while a few were less than great, most were really good and a few(Thor 3, Avengers 3&4, Guardians 1) were great.
Lord of the Rings - A three-picture deal, all made at the same time. Huge risk, very expensive. A director without a huge hit to his name. Special effects beyond what they were sure they could do. New Line deserves credit, despite messing a lot up later. I still can’t believe these movies exist.
What else? Should be:
- more than one movie to the series
- planned to be more than one movie originally(Potter, Marvel, Lord or Rings style)
- from a major studio