Hacker Cinema
X-Men: First Class
2011 · Film · 132 min
Part of X-Men Collection
Directed by Matthew Vaughn
ActionScience FictionAdventure
Before Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr took the names Professor X and Magneto, they were two young men discovering their powers for the first time. Before they were arch-enemies, they were closest of friends, working together with other mutants (some familiar, some new), to stop the greatest threat the world has ever known.
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2 comments on Hacker News
The term is "soft reboot" [1].
It's a common tactic used very widely. See Jurassic World (Jurassic Park), Star Wars: The Force Awakens (SW: A New Hope), X-Men First Class (X-Men 1/2/3), the new Jumanji films etc etc.
[1] https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SoftReboot
If you create a show with the set design of Roseanne or even the Cosby Show in 2016, you're missing out on opportunities for product placement:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/movies/2012/04/brett-ratner-comments-ads-marketing-x-men.html
The logic is, "Well, I need to have a car in this movie anyway. Why not get a free car instead of paying for one, and in fact, the manufacturer will pay me to place their brand new car?"
The good news is more art is created at a lower cost. Great.
But the bad news is you perpetuate the idea that everyone has a new car (or new kitchen or new 3000 square foot house or whatever) all the time, no matter what their financial situation would be like in reality. This is especially insidious when there is easy consumer credit.
Here's a scene of a doctor buying a car from 1987:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKMlx5p6n8k#t=1m58s
The premise, if you don't bother to watch, is he doesn't want the car salesman to know his job, because then he won't get a good deal.
The quaint part is that 30 years ago, a doctor and lawyer raising a family in New York City were considered almost unimaginably rich by TV standards. Now they would be "middle class."
The sad part is it would be hard to justify a scene like this on a modern prime time TV show. "So, we're going to have a car in this scene? Great! I'll call up Ford. Wait, but what do you mean the car salesman would overprice the car? Don't you know they're running 0% APR or $2000 cash back for President's Day?"
Sure, there are shows that try hard to be more authentic. But for every Breaking Bad, there are 10 spinoffs of lawyer / doctor / detective shows where the characters live in a bubble of perpetual newness the article describes.
And even Breaking Bad did its share of product placements: http://www.bustle.com/articles/5963-how-breaking-bad-product-placement-helps-or-hurts-products-like-stevia