4 ms·

I blame comic book movies and a generation raised on them. Comic book movies are also "ur fascism." They feature utterly paper thin heroes who are just good an

by api 4y ago

I blame comic book movies and a generation raised on them. Comic book movies are also "ur fascism." They feature utterly paper thin heroes who are just good and paper thin villains that are either just bad or have caricatured motives. Thanos with his genocidal malthusianism is about as high-brow as this stuff gets. I don't think it's a coincidence that the generation raised on these has been softened up for puerile political zealotry (of various stripes) in adulthood. Go back and watch an action flick like Die Hard. Such movies were considered lowbrow when they were made but that film contains some extremely complex characterization and nuance compared to 90% of comic book films.

newsclues 4y ago
I blame the news, and the propaganda they have been pumping out for decades.
stoxascer 4y ago
IMO a bigger aspect is just the exhaustion of the artistic medium itself and exhaustion of creative talent. I think we tend to view the major artistic mediums that we are born into as something eternal when in reality they get stale. Whatever can be said about movies I am sure people were saying 50-100 years ago about paintings. Or think about the last great sculpture? The same thing with movies has happened with music. The LP was nothing until the 1950s but it feels like something eternal. Creative people move on to newer mediums that are a blank canvas so to speak. Youtube, Tiktok, podcasts, long series TV. I think as you age obviously it becomes harder to impress just from having consumed so many masterpieces of artistic expression. You have a much higher tolerance for amazement. I think superhero movies are totally unwatchable but I am sure this would be different if I was starting closer to a blank slate when it comes to movie expectations. I love mob movies but there is no grand comment on society that caused all these mob movies to have been made outside a type of fashion trend.
- api 4y ago
  You know, that's a really great point. In some cases it seems to be cyclic with some artistic mediums falling into and out of fashion as major canvases for artists to express themselves. Maybe music and movies are just on a downswing for a while, having been thoroughly explored by previous artists.
  - runarberg 4y ago
    I don’t think movies and music are on a downswing currently. I think they the consumption is just transitioning into more and more pulp. If you compare literature and pick a new novel completely by random you will most likely pick a dumb romance novel written in less then a day (perhaps mostly by AI). However that is hardly an indicator of the state of the art. I think movies and music is undergoing a similar transition that books went through in the 1950s. Consumption is getting easier and cheaper with streaming service, and the market is being flooded with cheap and easy productions. However—just like literature—great works are still being made, and will continue to be made into the foreseeable future. It just won’t be as prominently displayed as during the heyday of these mediums.
runarberg 4y ago
I really don’t think this is a coincident either. But I think it is more nefarious then you suggest. I blame the USA military. Too many movies that come out today are paper thin propaganda/recruitment tool for the USA military. If your story involves the military in some way, includes some military tools in the set design, etc. and you want the military to help you with that, then you must hand over editorial rights to the military (i.e. you must opt into censoring). This creates an interesting phenomena where you are either more creative with your screenplay (and restrictive with your budget) or you cave in to censorship. I feel like most of the time Hollywood picks the latter. That said, Hollywood is still making good original action movies (the most recent being The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent), they are just really scarce among a plethora of military propaganda and/or superhero sequels (e.g. Top Gun: Maverick).

by api 4y ago

newsclues 4y ago

I blame the news, and the propaganda they have been pumping out for decades.

stoxascer 4y ago

IMO a bigger aspect is just the exhaustion of the artistic medium itself and exhaustion of creative talent. I think we tend to view the major artistic mediums that we are born into as something eternal when in reality they get stale. Whatever can be said about movies I am sure people were saying 50-100 years ago about paintings. Or think about the last great sculpture? The same thing with movies has happened with music. The LP was nothing until the 1950s but it feels like something eternal. Creative people move on to newer mediums that are a blank canvas so to speak. Youtube, Tiktok, podcasts, long series TV. I think as you age obviously it becomes harder to impress just from having consumed so many masterpieces of artistic expression. You have a much higher tolerance for amazement. I think superhero movies are totally unwatchable but I am sure this would be different if I was starting closer to a blank slate when it comes to movie expectations. I love mob movies but there is no grand comment on society that caused all these mob movies to have been made outside a type of fashion trend.

api 4y ago
You know, that's a really great point. In some cases it seems to be cyclic with some artistic mediums falling into and out of fashion as major canvases for artists to express themselves. Maybe music and movies are just on a downswing for a while, having been thoroughly explored by previous artists.
- runarberg 4y ago
  I don’t think movies and music are on a downswing currently. I think they the consumption is just transitioning into more and more pulp. If you compare literature and pick a new novel completely by random you will most likely pick a dumb romance novel written in less then a day (perhaps mostly by AI). However that is hardly an indicator of the state of the art. I think movies and music is undergoing a similar transition that books went through in the 1950s. Consumption is getting easier and cheaper with streaming service, and the market is being flooded with cheap and easy productions. However—just like literature—great works are still being made, and will continue to be made into the foreseeable future. It just won’t be as prominently displayed as during the heyday of these mediums.

runarberg 4y ago

I really don’t think this is a coincident either. But I think it is more nefarious then you suggest. I blame the USA military. Too many movies that come out today are paper thin propaganda/recruitment tool for the USA military. If your story involves the military in some way, includes some military tools in the set design, etc. and you want the military to help you with that, then you must hand over editorial rights to the military (i.e. you must opt into censoring). This creates an interesting phenomena where you are either more creative with your screenplay (and restrictive with your budget) or you cave in to censorship. I feel like most of the time Hollywood picks the latter. That said, Hollywood is still making good original action movies (the most recent being The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent), they are just really scarce among a plethora of military propaganda and/or superhero sequels (e.g. Top Gun: Maverick).