Modern Films Are Reviving Retro Technology

Retro is Modern!

As a regular movie goer and television “couch critic”, I find Hollywood’s recent habit of releasing reboot after reboot a bit tiring – and I am sure many other film watchers would agree. I mean, do we really need another The Mummy (2017) or The Six Billion Dollar Man (2017)? On a side note, yes, you read that right. It’s now a “Billion” as a Million won’t build a super speedy cyborg by today’s economic standards. Maybe the new “Billion Dollar Man” will be able to reinvigorate red track suit fashion for a whole new generation, but let’s hope not.

Fortunately, through the white noise, there are some really great films gracing the silver screen, and many of these are reviving the retro tech of yesteryear.

Recent Films with Retro Tech

Though 2011 may seem like a lifetime ago, this was the year of the Super 8. The Steven Spielberg film – titled Super 8 – was a huge hit with a large audience range providing massive praise. That same year, old school Super 8 cameras and the accompanying film reels began selling super-fast on eBay and Amazon.

Manual and analog recording equipment, synthesizers, and record players began selling through the roof after the hip-hop biopic, Straight Outta Compton (2015).

More recently, the 2017 hit, Baby Driver, depicts the main character using an original scroll-wheel iPod as his music player of choice. Soon after the film’s release, the original iPod’s typical selling price increased nearly four times. Yet, that did not deter consumers from buying them up. At this point, you would be hard-pressed to find a first generation white iPod. If you do have one laying around, you might even be able to make a few bucks off of it.

Later this year, a movie about a killer camera, aptly named Polaroid (2017), will be released. Who knows? Maybe this film will build a consumer hunger for an original wood-panel Polaroid camera that the Fuji Instax hasn’t already sated.

Learning from LEGO

If corporations have been paying attention, they may start to invest more into Hollywood just to sell excess products. Just put the product in the hands of an extremely likable character, and boom. You just sold ten thousand units. LEGO already has the right idea with their regular movie releases since The LEGO Movie (2014).

However, in the end, would movie goers accept such blatant product placement in every other major Hollywood release? Somehow, I don’t think people would mind.

(Image Source: iCLIPART)