Current state of movie making

[Mister H]

IMO movies keep getting worse and worse. There are three things that contribute to this:

1. Too many remakes/re-imagines


2. Movies/shows are made with the intent of making a statement and not with the intent of making a good story.


3. When we continually make excuses for bad or even mediocre shows we encourage them to make even more of it and it will continue to be that way until we stop watching stuff just to be watching something.
Maybe some folks think the opposite though.

Maybe I'm wrong about some of this maybe I'm wrong about all of this?

[NorthernLadMSP]

Here's a video I was just listening to that explains this perfectly and hits on all of the points you are making.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngqO9Hp19_4

[Demona]

We are in the zone where TV is king, especially mini series. I think the problem with movies is they try to extend the content of the film to it's detriment and they have been doing this for years.

There have always been crap shows and crap movies, but I do agree that movies are far worse than TV is. TV has a lot of decent stuff to watch on it.

I really wish somebody would take a change on The Dark Tower as a TV series. It would be way better than the movie they made.

[jeremydmc]

Originally Posted by NorthernLadMSP

Here's a video I was just listening to that explains this perfectly and hits on all of the points you are making.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngqO9Hp19_4

Good video, I agree on most everything.

[Augen]

I think much of it is that you have a business (the studio) that is concerned with one thing above all, return on investment.

Then you have the people that make the movies (directors, actors, etc.) who frequently want to make art as a craft.

In the 1970s film was not a lucrative industry the way it is now. There was a whole wave of young talent in Hollywood making their art. You rarely saw sequels back then and the concept of IP is king and all didn't exist.

Then I'd point to two film that changed history. Spielberg's "Jaws" and Lucas's "Star Wars". Creating the modern blockbuster the response was to crank out sequels in the 1980s. The other aspect was slapping the movie on all merchandise and toys. This took time though as studios learned more and more how to exploit and maximize profits in the new era.

Directors want to be visionaries telling their stories, studios want sycophants who come in under budget and don't cause trouble. The issue in this modern era of IP is king is that unless the stars align and you get people who happen to be legitimately passionate about material who are also talented (like current Dune films). What you tend to get is a company going "Hey, we have X IP, we need to churn out another media aspect to keep it fresh to hit this quarter's numbers". Then people who would probably much rather make their own ideas have to work on X IP and their lack of passion shines through as they put that square peg in a round hole.

The thing is, we collectively are to blame for this as well. I hear people say "I don't want rehashed same old stuff" and yet every year what do people see? Sequels, prequels, reboots, remakes, etc.

This very year I saw a studio take a major risk making "The Northman" and I loved it, it was mesmerizing and truly felt like every one involved committed to bringing this ancient Norse tale to life. It bombed. "It's boring!" or "That was lame" is what I heard and then as a group we went and saw something like...Love and Thunder in ten times the numbers.

Studios move with audiences and we keep telling them this is what we want. We want a sequel to Top Gun or a Doctor Strange sequel or another Jurassic Park or a Batman reboot or a...Minions movie.

Support films you want to be made, nothing we can really do about the tastes of other people.

[Mister H]

Originally Posted by Augen

I think much of it is that you have a business (the studio) that is concerned with one thing above all, return on investment.

Then you have the people that make the movies (directors, actors, etc.) who frequently want to make art as a craft.

In the 1970s film was not a lucrative industry the way it is now. There was a whole wave of young talent in Hollywood making their art. You rarely saw sequels back then and the concept of IP is king and all didn't exist.

Then I'd point to two film that changed history. Spielberg's "Jaws" and Lucas's "Star Wars". Creating the modern blockbuster the response was to crank out sequels in the 1980s. The other aspect was slapping the movie on all merchandise and toys. This took time though as studios learned more and more how to exploit and maximize profits in the new era.

Directors want to be visionaries telling their stories, studios want sycophants who come in under budget and don't cause trouble. The issue in this modern era of IP is king is that unless the stars align and you get people who happen to be legitimately passionate about material who are also talented (like current Dune films). What you tend to get is a company going "Hey, we have X IP, we need to churn out another media aspect to keep it fresh to hit this quarter's numbers". Then people who would probably much rather make their own ideas have to work on X IP and their lack of passion shines through as they put that square peg in a round hole.

The thing is, we collectively are to blame for this as well. I hear people say "I don't want rehashed same old stuff" and yet every year what do people see? Sequels, prequels, reboots, remakes, etc.

This very year I saw a studio take a major risk making "The Northman" and I loved it, it was mesmerizing and truly felt like every one involved committed to bringing this ancient Norse tale to life. It bombed. "It's boring!" or "That was lame" is what I heard and then as a group we went and saw something like...Love and Thunder in ten times the numbers.

Studios move with audiences and we keep telling them this is what we want. We want a sequel to Top Gun or a Doctor Strange sequel or another Jurassic Park or a Batman reboot or a...Minions movie.

Support films you want to be made, nothing we can really do about the tastes of other people.

Glad you mentioned The Northman. Probably the best movie I've seen in a while. While it bombed, I can see it gain more and more followers through the years because it was so well made. I mention this because I can see movies like this influencing future movies because if crap keeps getting made over and over again then people (no matter how easily pleased they are) will stop watching it and yearn for actual "art". I mean how many Love and Thunder/Ragnarok movies can you make and continue to see profit?

[statman]

I think a lot of the reason why movies are not as good as they could be is that, especially in the big blockbusters (MCU, DCEU, Star Wars, etc), they tend to start with "wouldn't it be cool to do "X", "Y" and "Z" in this movie? We'll just figure out the rest of the story along the way". So many of these movies have these epic battle scenes that are cool, but the connective story in between is rife with coincidences and flat out dumb ways to get from set piece to set piece. No one steps back and says, "that doesn't make sense. We need to re-think this". It seems that story and character development take a far back seat to SFX and inappropriately timed jokes. It's getting really old. Just tell a good story please.

[ZenLogikos]

Well said, Augen!

[SONICobra]

i agree with pretty much everything already said. only thing ill add is that i too have grown pretty tiresome of movies lately particularly "blockbusters" which used to be my bread and butter. now everything is so by the numbers and more like an exercise of "corporate box checking" vs making something that is just f_cking cool and different

also i couldnt get my gf to see the northman in the theater but i just bought the bluray - so theres no way out now

[ukshaun]

Film's are in a dire state..

Augen makes many good points.

I am someone who absolutely love's foreign language films, even if it means reading subtitles.