The evolution in the OTT space across the world has given filmmakers a medium to express themselves without the limitations of the big screen, the box office, star ratings, and the necessity to have a big name attached. While the initial phase looked the same for every corner of the world making movies and shows for the digital space, the landscape now says otherwise. The trailer for Millie Bobby Brown starrer Netflix’s Damsel hit the internet last evening, and it feels like whatever was happening with the monotony on the big screen has now even cursed streaming, with everything looking like a rehash of the other or a formula that has become repetitive with no room for the nuances and subtlety that the space was actually promised with.

About Damsel

Starring Millie Bobby Brown in the lead, Damsel, set in a fantasy world, is about a princess married to a prince who traps her in a marriage where she is thrown into a cave ruled by a fire-breathing dragon. Now she must survive and bring down this Kingdom built on lies and deceit. Directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, the trailer of Damsel hit the internet and is visually stunning. There’s a dragon at the center of a world created by some top-notch CGI artists and an actor who has millions of fans fighting for it. But is that enough to qualify to be on streaming?

No one’s saying one kind of cinema or shows have a life on streaming, but wasn’t the space supposed to be parallel ground to the big screen and not a replica of it? Well, that is where everything’s going for a toss. For Netflix particularly, the world suddenly seems limited to thrillers, suspense dramas, and mysteries. If not that, fantasy worlds seem like they are catering to some sections more than being potent films. Damsel, though yet to watch and may be completely a brilliant piece of art, looks so similar to what Rebel Moon offered from the trailer. Add to it the gap is so small that the mind refuses to ignore the thought.

Also read: Millie Bobby Brown is a dragon-fighting princess in the trailer of Netflix’ upcoming film Damsel

But Where Are The Others?

And this isn’t a half-baked opinion of a person. The last we checked, the big releases coming out of Netflix were all alike. The Gray Man, Red Notice, and a couple more all looked like they were cut out of the same fabric, with little to no content to offer. And this is not the case just with one streaming platform but all. There is now a demand for a big star, a huge production cost, and some well-known directors, everything that is very much a part of the big screen mandate is now for the digital too. So where do the ones with some very potent content and hope for space in the digital space go?

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When did the Roma, The Irishman, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Marriage Story, and Okja, The Trial Of The Chicago 7 disappear? And why are the last remains of such movies (All Quiet On The Western Front, The Lost Daughter, Society Of The Snow) not marketed like the big star films across the globe enough? Yes, there is still some hope that shines through some spaces, and a few films do land on streaming that talk of the nuances that the digital world deserves, but they aren’t talked about enough.

With the hope that the world might end up looking varied again like it did a couple of years back, and we will be up to watch movies and shows that are different from one another not looking identical in any way, and managed to move, entertain, and have us on board, we live. Because cinema gives hope, and that hope helps us to be positive.

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Also read: Damsel OTT release date - Watch Millie Bobby Brown's breathtaking fight with a beast on THIS platform