Not me or my kids specifically, but I think barriers between genders will break down enough that within my lifetime we might hear people wondering why we were all so cool with gender segregated bathrooms for so long. Separate but equal in the 21st century.
For me specifically, probably my thoughts on movies. I think barely any newer movies are very good. Obviously there were plenty of bad movies “back in my day” but it truly feels like the studio executives and producers fundamentally do not give a shit about art. I could do a Ted Talk rant about this, but you guys have shit to do today so I’ll keep it light. Indiana Jones. Compare the trilogy to the new entries. Objectively speaking, as stories and character studies, looking at effects and acting and score, analyzing cinematography and lighting, if you were to score each film 1-10, the first 3 are consistently 7+ movies (1 and 3 are 9+) while the nostalgia bait sequels would get 5s at best. They would rather milk existing IPs to prey upon our nostalgia to make a buck for killing the franchise’s legacy than take a risk with new IPs. That’s why we keep getting Star Wars, super heroes, board game adaptation, toy adaptation, video game adaptation, remake, reboot, and the occasional rushed book adaptation while the book is still hot. They are all about the bottom line, and so long as we keep paying to see shitty movies, they’ll keep making shitty movies as it is a beneficial investment strategy. Boycott bad movies. Just wait for reviews.
I broadly agree with you, but it feels like cinema is shifting back to quality again. We’re all tired of shitty superhero movies and many of the recent ones have bombed at the box office. Hell, one of the biggest movies of last year was mostly about men in suits talking about science and it was great. Dune pt. II is also an incredible breath of fresh air and shows that it’s still possible to make a massive blockbuster with mass appeal but also a strong sense of style and integrity. I really hope this trend continues because I want real cinema and not mere ‘content’.
I feel like bad movies nowadays are bad for simpler reasons. Trying to pin down why some movies from the 1980s worked or didn’t, for that audience or a modern audience, was complicated and remains complicated. Nailing down the failure points of modern crap is so straightforward that it naturally becomes comedy.
Maybe it’s a matter of proportion. There’s complex duds now, and there were blatantly atrocious movies then. But it’s like… people making movies grew up watching too many movies, and don’t recognize which parts are a choice. They know a thing is supposed to happen, but don’t recognize that it was clearly set up to appear obviously necessary, so they don’t do that setup. And then the “have I got a movie for you” guy gets to say “unclear.” The same cyclical regurgitation creates live-action adaptations of animated films, which neither build on nor live up to the originals, despite examples where stage musicals outclassed the celebrated hand-drawn films.
The good news is that AI is going to destroy all of this by eliminating Hollywood. I mean really - if any writer who can sketch their own animatics can extract a finished scene from their computer, what is a billion-dollar studio going to offer them besides marketing?
Not me or my kids specifically, but I think barriers between genders will break down enough that within my lifetime we might hear people wondering why we were all so cool with gender segregated bathrooms for so long. Separate but equal in the 21st century.
For me specifically, probably my thoughts on movies. I think barely any newer movies are very good. Obviously there were plenty of bad movies “back in my day” but it truly feels like the studio executives and producers fundamentally do not give a shit about art. I could do a Ted Talk rant about this, but you guys have shit to do today so I’ll keep it light. Indiana Jones. Compare the trilogy to the new entries. Objectively speaking, as stories and character studies, looking at effects and acting and score, analyzing cinematography and lighting, if you were to score each film 1-10, the first 3 are consistently 7+ movies (1 and 3 are 9+) while the nostalgia bait sequels would get 5s at best. They would rather milk existing IPs to prey upon our nostalgia to make a buck for killing the franchise’s legacy than take a risk with new IPs. That’s why we keep getting Star Wars, super heroes, board game adaptation, toy adaptation, video game adaptation, remake, reboot, and the occasional rushed book adaptation while the book is still hot. They are all about the bottom line, and so long as we keep paying to see shitty movies, they’ll keep making shitty movies as it is a beneficial investment strategy. Boycott bad movies. Just wait for reviews.
I broadly agree with you, but it feels like cinema is shifting back to quality again. We’re all tired of shitty superhero movies and many of the recent ones have bombed at the box office. Hell, one of the biggest movies of last year was mostly about men in suits talking about science and it was great. Dune pt. II is also an incredible breath of fresh air and shows that it’s still possible to make a massive blockbuster with mass appeal but also a strong sense of style and integrity. I really hope this trend continues because I want real cinema and not mere ‘content’.
Can’t even trust reviews.
I feel like bad movies nowadays are bad for simpler reasons. Trying to pin down why some movies from the 1980s worked or didn’t, for that audience or a modern audience, was complicated and remains complicated. Nailing down the failure points of modern crap is so straightforward that it naturally becomes comedy.
Maybe it’s a matter of proportion. There’s complex duds now, and there were blatantly atrocious movies then. But it’s like… people making movies grew up watching too many movies, and don’t recognize which parts are a choice. They know a thing is supposed to happen, but don’t recognize that it was clearly set up to appear obviously necessary, so they don’t do that setup. And then the “have I got a movie for you” guy gets to say “unclear.” The same cyclical regurgitation creates live-action adaptations of animated films, which neither build on nor live up to the originals, despite examples where stage musicals outclassed the celebrated hand-drawn films.
The good news is that AI is going to destroy all of this by eliminating Hollywood. I mean really - if any writer who can sketch their own animatics can extract a finished scene from their computer, what is a billion-dollar studio going to offer them besides marketing?