You know, I'm not sure I know what a vanity project is.  Can someone fill me in?  Is it just any project that the artist does with their own money?  Is Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog a vanity project?  Or is a vanity project also by definition something considerably outside the mainstream?  Or what?

Posting here instead of movies thread, because a great example of a vanity project is Jupiter Ascending.

Or any other Wachowski film. But I rewatched it last night, and you know what? I unironically loved the hell out of it. I don't always like what they put out, I wasn't a Matrix fangirl even when I was supposed to be, but I have to give them props for being the kind of directors that stick with their concept when so much of what I've seen in films lately is something that's been relentlessly filtered through execs and screenings to refine it to the most appealing content for the lowest common denominator. Nevermind that JA has the distinction of being NEW IP, when I regularly see absolutely nothing that isn't either Oscarbait or a reboot/sequel/whatever. At this point I have to celebrate even that.  It's a total vanity project, pulled directly from the archives of every teenage girls fanfic folder. But it was pretty, shiny, and fun. It was the opposite of Interstellar, another vanity project (because Nolan is similarly incapable of anything less.) But they both represent risks that were taken on new content, in largely realized epic sci-fi worlds. And because of their receptions, we'll probably see nothing like either of them for a very, very long time. Apparently, given the flop Jupiter Ascending was, we probably won't see anything from the Wachowskis for a long time, period. That sucks, because I would have been first in line to watch the next film in the story.

Vanity projects often flop, as they often should, because they're often shit. But I'm almost relieved sometimes to see them these days, because film has fallen behind many other mediums when it comes to originality and interest. Science fiction, especially. When was the last time you saw a successful science fiction movie that wasn't a vanity project on some level? That's right--you don't remember them, because more than most genres, science fiction tends to defy formulaic approaches to filmmaking. There's a formula for creation of a good and popular comic book movie, which is why I've seen like fifty shades of Batman reboots in my lifetime. The attempts to squash sci-fi into those formulas fail on an even more embarrassing level than this did, because sci-fi fans would rather see a heartfelt mess than a finely crafted bore. We know when we're being insulted, and it's not when we see BLUE SPACE CHICKS WITH PSYCHIC POWERS or ROLLERBLADING SPACE WEREWOLVES WITH WINGS. Science fiction is a film genre with classics like The Fifth Element, which in this climate I don't think would have been received any better than this was. I feel like between Interstellar and Jupiter Ascending, we've seen the last of any new attempts at sci-fi IP on a grand scale that we're going to see for a longass time. No new sci-fi vanity projects. Just the carefully crafted crap that's kept me out of theaters on more than a once a year basis for just about a decade now.

Mostly I'm just bitchy because I want more space wolves and space bees and epic gothic spaceships and space McQueen.