Why Modern Movies Suck

[Occam's Banana]

https://twitter.com/TomCruise/status/1529881653690130432

https://twitter.com/Nerdrotics/status/1531799267706273798

Compare and contrast:

Lucasfilm Warned Obi-Wan Kenobi Star About Racist Star Wars Fans
Obi-Wan Kenobi star Moses Ingram says that Lucasfilm warned her ahead of time about the "likely" possibility of racist backlash from Star Wars fans.
https://www.cbr.com/lucasfilm-warned-obi-wan-kenobi-star-about-racist-star-wars-fans/
Emily Zogbi (23 May 2022)

Obi-Wan Kenobi star Moses Ingram said that Lucasfilm warned her about the potential for racist backlash from certain Star Wars fans.

"It was something that Lucasfilm actually got in front of, and said, 'This is a thing that, unfortunately, likely will happen. But we are here to help you; you can let us know when it happens,'" Ingram said in an interview with The Independent. She also stated that Obi-Wan Kenobi director Deborah Chow has put "the proper systems in place so I feel safe as we do the work" during production. "Of course, there are always pockets of hate," Ingram continued. "But I have no problem with the block button.”

"Obi-Wan is going to bring the most diversity I think we've ever seen in the galaxy before," said Ingram, who will portray the Inquisitor in the upcoming Disney+ series. "To me, it’s long overdue. If you’ve got talking droids and aliens, but no people of color, it doesn’t make any sense. It’s 2022, you know. So we’re just at the beginning of that change. But I think to start that change is better than never having started it."

[... more about how Star Wars fans who don't like the Disney stuff are mouth-breathing, knuckle-dragging troglodytes ...]

 

[ClaytonB]

Modern movies also suck because Hollywood is not only morally bankrupt but theres always some underlining message that relates to wokeism.

Yep. Drinker's got a whole playlist dedicated to this subject:

[video]https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFz_00sC7mo7Zu5GSSj9hqJ8G3faYyhLK[/video]

 

[Anti Federalist]

One of the big BIG problems in a lot of modern movies is the lack of dramatic pause. Everything is tuned for ADHD gamer-heads who just finished playing some kind of frenetic point-and-shoot splatter title at Sonic the Hedgehog speed with their Oculus headset firmly strapped in place to artificially induce blindness... before walking into the movie theater. The theatrical pace of dialogue in a movie such as, say, Secondhand Lions leaves so much "dead airtime" that the Ritalin-speed-freak twidget-spinner-heads are liable to think that the movie ended between the first and second sentence of dialogue. So they knock the wind out of the dialogue in post-production, clipping every bit of dramatic pause or natural breath between lines so that you either have a non-stop whirlwind of explosions on the screen, or a non-stop machine-gun rattle of dialogue where jokes are blatantly telegraphed several sentences before their punchlines (to make sure the idiotic audience "gets it") and by the time the punchline would have landed in a normal joke scene, we're already two or three camera cuts into an action sequence. Trained monkeys could edit better than this new-fangled garbage. I rarely watch movies at all anymore just a handful in a year. How ironic that Hollywood can produce movies faster than ever, but they are producing less watchable content than ever. Pretty much the story of our civilization, such as it is...

Good point.

I've noticed this, just never thought to write it out.

 

[CCTelander]

 

[Swordsmyth]

The original Star Wars trilogy, not the remastered versions of the movies that got released in the late 90's that are now the only version of those movies you can see anywhere any more, were like modern marvels. They took movie special effects with models, puppets, costumes worn by human actors, etc., to a level that was like magic. I was in awe of those movies. If a young person from this generation who is used to CGI were to watch those movies today in their original format, they would still be in awe of how it was possible to make things look like that in movies using only circa 1980 tech. The watershed moment when Star Wars was ruined wasn't the prequels, but the rerelease of the originals.

Research the Despecialized Edition.

 

[ClaytonB]

Good point.

I've noticed this, just never thought to write it out.

Here's a clip from a show that I anti-recommend (Letterkenny on Netflix) and which demonstrates pretty much everything that is wrong with dialogue in today's movies:

NSFW



- The subject-matter is crass. The problem is not the crassness itself, but how it is handled. It's obsessive in the juvenile sense. The point is labored to the point of not being funny. When the "punch-line" is finally delivered, the topic already stopped being funny minutes ago.

- The manner of the dialogue is forced and relies for its effect completely on the constructed personas of the characters. The "funny character" is, well, funny, so you're supposed to laugh whenever he speaks. Doesn't matter what vomit comes out of his mouth, the writers have decided he's the funny one, so laugh when he speaks. The same goes for the "dumb character", the "cool character", the "hot character", and so on. The dialogue is completely disconnected from its content and is more like watching a pinball bounce around in a pinball machine... the meaning conveyed in the scene is completely wrapped up in non-cognitive factors like body language, camera motion, and so on. You could watch this scene muted and understand the dynamics of it. The words add nothing substantial to the scene at all.

- The camera must always be in motion. There are no still shots anymore. Everything is shaky-cam or at least some kind of (pointless, random) camera motion. This is supposed to be very hip, meta, and is supposed to add SO much to the content. It used to be that unintentional camera motion was considered breaking the 4th-wall, which it is. Even in Saving Private Ryan -- where shaky-cam was used extremely sparingly by modern standards -- it was breaking the 4th-wall, but it was intentional. The purpose was to break the 4th-wall a little bit to try to "pull the audience in". But this kind of effect is only suitable to certain kinds of movies/shows, and it's like seasoning... adding a little can spice the dish, but a plate full of parsley flakes is just garbage. And the show that started this hyper-shaky cam, The Office, incorporated it in a self-aware and satirical fashion, in the style of Deadpool. So at least they had enough self-awareness to make fun of what they themselves were doing, rather than trying to pass it off as some kind of deeply insightful, revolutionary technique.

- The pacing is frenetic and there is no breath, neither in the delivery of the lines, nor between lines. Every single statement is punctuated with the equivalent of an exclamation mark and when everything is emphasized, nothing is. So the mind quickly trails off... I have to force myself to follow dialogue written and delivered in this way or I just instantly lose focus and lose track of what is even being said because... I just don't care.

If you were to take the last 30 seconds of the scene, properly pace the dialogue with breath and comprehensible cinematography and use a realistic 1-2-3 structure to build up to the punch-line, it could have been funny, despite the crassness of the topic. Good comedy often involves an element of the crass. But this is not funny. The delivery/camera/editing destroys the comedy and renders the entire scene little more than cinematic vomit.

 

[mtr1979]

Just got back from the new Top Gun movie. Wow. It is the best movie I have ever had the privilege of watching. Just the overall scope of the movie was amazing. Also the movie was perfectly cast. All of the major characters in the movie should be nominated for an Oscar. If we lived in normal world this movie would sweep every category at the Oscars next year.

 

[Occam's Banana]

File under "Answers to Questions Nobody Asked":

https://www.theguardian.com/film/20...-isnt-down-to-being-pro-america-and-anti-woke

 

[Anti Federalist]

Just got back from the new Top Gun movie. Wow. It is the best movie I have ever had the privilege of watching. Just the overall scope of the movie was amazing. Also the movie was perfectly cast. All of the major characters in the movie should be nominated for an Oscar. If we lived in normal world this movie would sweep every category at the Oscars next year.

Well, there you have it.

A rousing huzzah.

 

[Anti Federalist]

File under "Answers to Questions Nobody Asked":

https://www.theguardian.com/film/20...-isnt-down-to-being-pro-america-and-anti-woke

Woketard Leftists Whine as ‘Top Gun’ Continues to Overperform

https://www.breitbart.com/entertain...ts-whine-as-top-gun-continues-to-overperform/

JOHN NOLTE 4 Jun 2022

With a domestic take nearing $300 million after only ten days in release, Top Gun: Maverick continues to prove the obvious: moviegoers of all ages will show up in droves if you entertain and inspire us.

Per the far-left Deadline:

Moviegoers aren’t losing that loving feeling for Top Gun: Maverick this weekend as the movie is destined to become Tom Cruise’s top-grossing movie ever at the domestic box office with $273.6M. The 3x Oscar nominee’s previous high earning title was Steven Spielberg’s 2005 sci-fi title War of the Worlds at $234M.

Top Gun 2 is expected to beat War of the Worlds on Saturday; the Joseph Kosinski-directed sequel eyeing a second Friday of $20M, -61% against last Friday (+ previews) on its way to a 3-day of $68M, -46%. Some rival studios see it much higher, but again, it’s still early.

A second-weekend hold of just -46 percent is extraordinary. Most blockbusters dip 60 percent or better. In other words, Top Gun: Maverick has real legs and is almost certainly benefitting from repeat business.

Leftists are already mad that a non-woke movie that doesn’t violate human nature with woke lectures, woke perversion, woke revisionism, and woke emasculation, is not only breaking records but being embraced by wingnuts like me.

Here’s a sneer from Vanity Fair:

Aside from the Defense Department propaganda inherent to most of Hollywood’s military-themed creations, the film is not overtly political in a way that is recognizable to Americans who have grown accustomed to Air Force flyovers at the Super Bowl and World Series. In many regards, Top Gun: Maverick feels like a product of the ’80s—a decade that saw the U.S. invading countries like Grenada and Panama while also in the throes of the Cold War with Russia. And like the original 1986 movie, it is an exhilarating, beautifully produced military recruitment ad that favors neither Republican nor Democratic sensibilities. It manages to portray a conflict over nuclear weapons as downright fun.

[…]

Despite acknowledging that he had not seen the film, Breitbart columnist John Nolte preemptively lauded Top Gun: Maverick as a “masculine, pro-American, stridently non-woke blockbuster,” adding, “Rather than apologize for being an ’80s ‘relic,’ it embraced what everyone loved in 1986 and still loves today.” While citing a number of Hollywood’s “woke flops,” Nolte wrote that Top Gun: Maverick avoided that fate by “respect[ing] human nature” and eschewing progressive commentary. “It didn’t do what James Bond did—turn itself into a mewling little pajama boy gerbil of a movie,” he added. “It didn’t do what Star Wars did and pervert a romantic adventure series into a shrill Womyn’s Studies lecture.”

Damn, did I really write all that? Pretty snappy.

Salon is in their favorite position, besides themselves… “No, ‘Top Gun’ isn’t an anti-woke success story, but rather a tribute to aging Tom Cruise and balls,” reads the defensive headline. And yet “balls” is exactly what’s missing in the growing mountain of woke flops, no?

You know, balls as in masculinity instead of creepy men in high heels.

You know, “balls” as in confidence and bravery, as opposed to an iconic hero rewritten by woketards into an aging loser shamed into action by a charisma-free woman with the body of a 12-year-old boy?

You know, “balls,” as in a story about competence and duty, instead of smug lectures that break the storytelling spell?

The Guardian is seething with its own defensive headline: “No, Top Gun: Maverick’s success isn’t down to being pro-America and anti-woke.”

The subheadline is even more glorious:

Rightwing pundits have tried to claim the sequel’s box office success as their success but there are enough examples to show that this isn’t the case

Yeah, you lost me in that middle part…

And then the article proves its own headline a lie…

It is indeed true that Top Gun: Maverick does not go out of its way to celebrate inclusion and diversity in the sometimes-cloying, corporate way most closely associated with various Disney properties.

Bingo! We don’t go to the movies to celebrate inclusion and diversity because inclusion and diversity are fucking stupid. We’re Americans. We don’t dwell on our differences, especially differences as shallow as skin color. Instead, we come together as one to get the job done.

Themes drive good movies. “Inclusion” and “diversity” are not themes. Instead, they’re buzzwords spouted by smug, over-educated, shallow bullies whose self-esteem is based on everything but character and integrity.



The Guardian also lets this one loose…

In other words, Top Gun 2 is studiously “apolitical[.]”

Thank YOU!

Exactly!

Golf clap.

Here’s what none of these embittered leftists can point to… A woke movie that overperformed at the box office.

Top Gun 2 is waaaayyy overperforming.

But meanwhile…

Woke West Side Story: Flop
Woke Eternals: Flop
Woke In the Heights: Flop
Woke Wonder Woman1984: Flop
Woke Charlie’s Angels: Flop
Woke Men In Black International: Flop
Woke Birds of Prey: Flop
Woke Ghostbusters 3: Flop
Woke The 355: Flop.
Woke Terminator Dark Fate: Flop
Woke Oscars: flop
Woke Netflix: Stock tanking
Woke Groomers at Disney: Stock tanking
Woke Star Wars: Doornail dead as a film franchise.
How many franchises, including Star Wars — woke has been so rejected it killed freakin’ Star Wars! — have to commit Woke Suicide before these morons smell the coffee?

But, as we all know, they smell the coffee just fine.

It’s admitting to what the coffee smells like that they don’t have the moral courage to admit.

God bless the free market.

 

[ClaytonB]

File under "Answers to Questions Nobody Asked":

https://www.theguardian.com/film/20...-isnt-down-to-being-pro-america-and-anti-woke

That it bothers them so much tells you what's truly going on. I don't give a damn how many Brokeback Mountains they make and the number of people that watch that kind of entertainment is just a barometer of our spiritual state as a society. But for the Left, the mere existence of movies like Maverick is intolerable. "This must be stopped!" All while pretending to be the champions of free speech.

LIARS

 

[Intrepid]

Just got back from the new Top Gun movie. Wow. It is the best movie I have ever had the privilege of watching. Just the overall scope of the movie was amazing. Also the movie was perfectly cast. All of the major characters in the movie should be nominated for an Oscar. If we lived in normal world this movie would sweep every category at the Oscars next year.

Dude, it wasn't all that.

 

[mtr1979]

Dude, it wasn't all that.

I thought it was.
The adage "steel sharpens steel" comes to mind when watching this film. Put a group of amazing actors together. Let them feed off, push, and get the best out of one another.
This film should be required viewing for any would be filmmaker.

 

[CCTelander]

Why Modern Movies Suck - The Myth Of The "Modern Audience"

Another great vid from the Drinker.

 

[Anti Globalist]

Modern movies suck because Hollywood is morally bankrupt and thinks wokeism is profitable.

 

[acptulsa]

Modern movies suck because Hollywood is morally bankrupt and thinks wokeism is profitable.

It probably is. The banks and Klaus Schwab have deep pockets.

 

[Original_Intent]

It probably is. The banks and Klaus Schwab have deep pockets.

...and Soros

 

[Matt Collins]

Yall are forgetting 2 things...

1- China has heavily invested in Hollywood....

2- China is now the single biggest audience for Hollywood... and the Chinese government has strict propaganda standards about what kind of themes can be shown. Not to mention the average Chinese citizen is not as "literate" as the average westerner at this point in time, so complicated plots and high level literary themes just don't play well over there yet for most of their audiences. Remember most Chinese are only 1 generation, or less, removed from poverty.

 

[ClaytonB]

 

[Occam's Banana]

Top 5 Woke Hollywood DISASTERS of 2022

Intro: 00:00
Number 5: 00:28
Number 4: 05:13
Number 3: 08:46
Number 2: 12:56
Honorable Mentions: 17:42
Number 1: 20:10
​

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