The Deterioration of the Idea

Lately I've been catching up on a lot of classic and cult movies I'd missed. I'm not much of a movie buff so chances are you could name any film and I probably haven't seen it. Usually I'll find films with connections to other things I'm familiar with and start branching that way. As much as I love my modern films and video games they're by no means originators. Many iconic scenes and concepts from popular films, books, comics, etc can heavily influence future creations. For me, and many more of my generation and any generation thereafter, I often can't find difference between creation and implementation. The reason is I'm not familiar with the materials that have influenced future artists. 

First impressions may not give credit where it's deserved if source materials are consumed in the wrong order. Which deserves the most praise: the creation of an idea or the applied implementation of an idea? The examples I'll give are little more than recreating others' ideas in a different medium and in a different way. These could be considered a sort of artistic plagiarism or just an homage. An example: a scene from 1996 movie Independence Day where American military aircrafts engage combat with an alien dropship only to be overrun by swarms of superior alien aircrafts. This same scene, more or less, is recreated in 1997 video game Star Fox 64's Katina level. Considering the special effects of the movie compared to the limitations of video game technology at the time both were quite impressive. Is Star Fox ripping off, homaging, or implementing a superior version?

Another more abstract example. The 1981 movie Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior is set in a post-apocalyptic, desolate, desert wasteland inhabited by merciless marauders and meager human settlements scavenging for a living. All commodities are scarce and invaluable creating a world of chaos after nuclear war destroyed all civilization. Now, this isn't a unique premise within itself but the style and detail of The Road Warrior is quite unique. Video games couldn't match cinema in detail until the last decade. It was only recently where video game worlds could be crafted with the same power of immersion that cinema could create for decades. Games like Fallout 3 and Borderlands draw immediate and obvious parallels to The Road Warrior in many ways. Several design choices, environment design and quests are straight homages, or rip offs, of the Mad Max series in general but in particular Road Warrior. However, Mad Max only offered a glimpse of a world that we couldn't interact with in any capacity. Borderlands and Fallout may not have original ideas but they're unique because we can interact and directly affect how the world unfolds which is quite powerful. The movies set the scenes but the games put you there. Which is more powerful? Which deserves more credit?

I'm in a weird position because I haven't experienced the sources before experiencing the fruit of labor from the influenced. I don't know who I'm supposed to be paying allegiance to: first impressions or seniority. Whatever the proper answer is it'll be affected by the upcoming generations who won't want or won't be able to look back on source materials and understand where ideas came from and who influenced their heroes. The end result becomes the gradual deterioration of ideas. Instead of being influenced by a grand story we'll be influenced by the movie. Instead of being influenced by a grand movie we'll be influenced by the video game. Instead of being influenced by the grand video game we'll be influenced by the remake. Not only will proper credit not be given but the original concept loses power with each iteration. The only caveat would be that once an idea loses it's power and is forgotten that it'll later be revived and praised by a generation who hasn't grown weary of the countless, soulless remakes and are still impressionable.