I think more than anything what we need is more movies made by low-budget places. I really don't want to see another sequel, redo, or comic book movie. It's just lazy on the part of the movie companies.
The problem is that your local multiplex is not going to be showing independent films, nor are they going to be blasting marketing cranked up to 11 on all channels, so it's much harder to hear about them, and in some cases, much harder to see them period.
But the scene is alive and well - I've gotten a lot more into over the past year or so, and have really enjoyed it. The accessibility is poor in some places (in the middle of Manhattan is pretty great), but absolutely worth it.
I find IMDB and Metacritic to give pretty solid coverage of these films, so that alleviates some of the discoverability problems.
If you have small theaters near you, please patronize them - better yet, convince a group to go regularly. They need the business, and I think you'll find a lot of worthy films.
It's not inconceivable that we'll eventually see a similar platform for (more) indie movies, using a screen or two a couple evenings a week. Movie theaters are hard up for money, and I suspect would happily take a full theater for any film they can do small batches of.
Making a sequel of that thing means only the people who watched [AND LIKED] the first thing will watch the second one, also ensuring top tier ratings, making more people want to see what makes it so great.
Having original movies is a true blessing; but sequels, remakes, novel and comic book movies are true "office box smashes" with very, very little to risk.
- The Critic
"IT'S up to YOU! Change your politicians! Vote with your wallet! Demand better movies/industries/X!" is a horseshit response that conveniently tries to forget that these industries and ecosystems follow a lowest-common-denominator majority, so all the "clamor" and attention-to-personal-choice in the world does nothing except accomplish some fringe action at the margins.
The only "people" listening to you at that point are those who recognize the frustration of dealing with that world, so it's healthier to engage in a substantiative dialogue about what can be done from those margins to renew widespread interest in the actual change you want than to resign with some holier-than-thou tirade to them regarding "the people" who aren't even listening.
Well millions and millions of other people do, so why should the movie companies cater to you instead?
[1]: http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/movies/dunkirk-gi...
21/22 jump street suggests the problem isn't with remakes of old shows but rather the quality of the remake. I was interested in baywatch, it got bad reviews so I didn't bother.
People don't want to see bad movies. I'm tired of the idea that comic book movies and sequels are all bad movies.