Little kids watch the same movie over and over again, never getting bored. But the grown-up mind seems to require a different kind of stimulation. For adults, most movies become “used up” after the first viewing. Of course there are exceptions to this. For example, I can see Casablanca or Blade Runner endlessly and never get bored. But I can’t do that with most films.
I suspect that eventually the technology will exist to allow filmmakers to create mutable films — movies that can end in different ways when you watch them multiple times. I’m not saying this will be easy, I’m just saying it will probably happen at some point in the future. Creating such multiverse movies will involve all sorts of techniques that either do not yet exist or are still in their infancy, such as accessible procedural narrative tools for authors, and a much better level of “digital actor” technology than we have today.
When that day comes, I wonder whether people will look back on the movies from our time, with their unchanging plots, fixed character arcs and immutable outcomes, and perceive them in much the way we now regard silent films — as a fascinating yet quaint reminder of a vanished era.
It could be that the mutability is on the viewer’s side – Blade Runner, for instance, is a movie that is often referenced but rarely Quoted.
In other words, a multiverse movie may turn out to express more about the Audience than the “audience”… and any perceived anachronism.
On the other hand, a multiverse movie, different each time you watch it, might not be as quotable as the old-fashioned immutable films of today.
Or, as Batty famously said: “All those moment will be lost in time, like tears in rain.”
Sorry — just couldn’t resist getting a Blade Runner quote in there. 😉