4 ms·

That’s such a great way to put it. Maybe I’ve just seen TOO many films, but there’s a modern homogeneity in big budget films that is installed as safety guardra

That’s such a great way to put it. Maybe I’ve just seen TOO many films, but there’s a modern homogeneity in big budget films that is installed as safety guardrails so that audiences aren’t too turned off. It’s visual predictable. I like that. Lynch said bollocks to that.

boogieknite 2y ago
the entire sequence of scenes on Giedi Prime were far from visually predictable. Denis is a master and flexed it a number of times in Dune. i think a fair take is Dune 1 and 2 are doing more creatively than any other big budget blockbuster franchise has since Avatar 1
- colordrops 2y ago
  Giedi Prime was the only sequence that held me transfixed during the movie. Funny, I was considering mentioning it as an exception with my first comment lest someone point it out.
- comebyrrh 2y ago
  It was gladiator in black and white with the contrast cranked to 11. Take away the overexposure and … just like everything else the sci fi bad guys build in the last three decades of film. The Lynch Giedi Prime was terrifying. But that’s probably because I’ve been watching sci fi films for fifty years.
  - duped 2y ago
    I mean I'm fairly sure it's the first/only infrared shot on imax, which is neat and gives it that unique look.
  - guappa 2y ago
    If you read scifi from the 50s you'll find that there was no original idea in any scifi film.
    - comebyrrh 2y ago
      Sigh. Asimov didn’t write EVERYTHING. He didn’t write about gender and politics like LeGuin He didn’t write about drug addicted Mars settlers like PKD. He didnt write about dimensional fragments and gravitation wave communication and laws of existence like Liu. Even the grandfather of it all HG Wells didn’t …. You trolled me and I fell for it. Damn.
      - guappa 2y ago
        Sigh… there's more than one scifi writer. You've read ONE out of HUNDREDS! Wow you're so cultured and intellectual! > He didn’t write about drug addicted Mars settlers like PKD. Read the first stories on mars colonization, long before philip k dick. It's not a moral fault to not have read something. But perhaps don't go lecturing people who have? You don't see me going to china to lecture about chinese literature while I don't even speak chinese. Don't do that. It's sad.
- thorin 2y ago
  Inception would be another one that springs to mind, I notice that came out the year after Avatar, although I think Inception probably took it's lead from the Matrix.
  - boogieknite 2y ago
    if i throw out the "franchise" qualifier then Nolan's a great example of visual novelty in big budget blockbusters. i enjoyed TENET more than anyone ive met
    - thorin 2y ago
      I think Tenet could be enjoyable in the same way that Primer is enjoyable, but I found it unwatchable at the time I tried to watch it. I'm sure if I watched it at the right time I would like it.
mrandish 2y ago
> there’s a modern homogeneity in big budget films A lot of that is due to the nature of studios milking franchise properties like the MCU or SW. Directors of big budget films are now often selected to be a caretaker of one franchise episode. They inherit a pre-existing style from the franchise while also having a bunch more 'input' (aka supervision) from an army of executive producers who work across more than one film and are focused on "don't fuck up the franchise." Another part of the modern decline in the diversity of cinematic looks is from the economics of streaming. Streamers like Netflix, Apple and Prime are focused on risk reduction by funding either "big name star" properties where the stars make more by being their own executive producers or "big name IP" properties with built-in audiences from books, games, etc. In neither instance is the director usually a central element in packaging the deal. The role of these directors is to be more of a journeymen shepherd like Marquand than a visionary like Lynch, Kubrick or Coppola. It's a worrying trend because many "bankable name" directors like Lynch whose name at the top of the movie poster could guarantee an audience are dying and not being replaced by new directors that have broad name recognition.
- Fricken 2y ago
  As it turns out, having just one blockbuster sci-fi franchise wherein Anya Taylor Joy fights Milk Boys in the sand is not enough for the 21st century. Villeneuve needed an Anya Taylor Joy Milk Boy sand fight sci-fi blockbuster he could call his own.
- guappa 2y ago
  > "don't fuck up the franchise." Were they asleep while filming the more recent star wars films?
  - ghaff 2y ago
    For me the nadir was the prequel series although I also think The Phantom Menace poisoned the well for the other two which weren't terrible. The more recent films have been a mixed bag with them generally being better the further they are from the original story arc. For me at least, there's also a certain fatigue factor. While I like The Mandalorian and Rogue One, I'm pretty much done with the franchise. See also Star Trek and MCU. That said, I know that there are a lot of fans who will take pretty much anything you throw out even if they like to belly-ache about it.

boogieknite 2y ago

the entire sequence of scenes on Giedi Prime were far from visually predictable. Denis is a master and flexed it a number of times in Dune. i think a fair take is Dune 1 and 2 are doing more creatively than any other big budget blockbuster franchise has since Avatar 1

colordrops 2y ago
Giedi Prime was the only sequence that held me transfixed during the movie. Funny, I was considering mentioning it as an exception with my first comment lest someone point it out.
comebyrrh 2y ago
It was gladiator in black and white with the contrast cranked to 11. Take away the overexposure and … just like everything else the sci fi bad guys build in the last three decades of film. The Lynch Giedi Prime was terrifying. But that’s probably because I’ve been watching sci fi films for fifty years.
- duped 2y ago
  I mean I'm fairly sure it's the first/only infrared shot on imax, which is neat and gives it that unique look.
- guappa 2y ago
  If you read scifi from the 50s you'll find that there was no original idea in any scifi film.
  - comebyrrh 2y ago
    Sigh. Asimov didn’t write EVERYTHING. He didn’t write about gender and politics like LeGuin He didn’t write about drug addicted Mars settlers like PKD. He didnt write about dimensional fragments and gravitation wave communication and laws of existence like Liu. Even the grandfather of it all HG Wells didn’t …. You trolled me and I fell for it. Damn.
    - guappa 2y ago
      Sigh… there's more than one scifi writer. You've read ONE out of HUNDREDS! Wow you're so cultured and intellectual! > He didn’t write about drug addicted Mars settlers like PKD. Read the first stories on mars colonization, long before philip k dick. It's not a moral fault to not have read something. But perhaps don't go lecturing people who have? You don't see me going to china to lecture about chinese literature while I don't even speak chinese. Don't do that. It's sad.
thorin 2y ago
Inception would be another one that springs to mind, I notice that came out the year after Avatar, although I think Inception probably took it's lead from the Matrix.
- boogieknite 2y ago
  if i throw out the "franchise" qualifier then Nolan's a great example of visual novelty in big budget blockbusters. i enjoyed TENET more than anyone ive met
  - thorin 2y ago
    I think Tenet could be enjoyable in the same way that Primer is enjoyable, but I found it unwatchable at the time I tried to watch it. I'm sure if I watched it at the right time I would like it.

mrandish 2y ago

> there’s a modern homogeneity in big budget films A lot of that is due to the nature of studios milking franchise properties like the MCU or SW. Directors of big budget films are now often selected to be a caretaker of one franchise episode. They inherit a pre-existing style from the franchise while also having a bunch more 'input' (aka supervision) from an army of executive producers who work across more than one film and are focused on "don't fuck up the franchise." Another part of the modern decline in the diversity of cinematic looks is from the economics of streaming. Streamers like Netflix, Apple and Prime are focused on risk reduction by funding either "big name star" properties where the stars make more by being their own executive producers or "big name IP" properties with built-in audiences from books, games, etc. In neither instance is the director usually a central element in packaging the deal. The role of these directors is to be more of a journeymen shepherd like Marquand than a visionary like Lynch, Kubrick or Coppola. It's a worrying trend because many "bankable name" directors like Lynch whose name at the top of the movie poster could guarantee an audience are dying and not being replaced by new directors that have broad name recognition.

Fricken 2y ago
As it turns out, having just one blockbuster sci-fi franchise wherein Anya Taylor Joy fights Milk Boys in the sand is not enough for the 21st century. Villeneuve needed an Anya Taylor Joy Milk Boy sand fight sci-fi blockbuster he could call his own.
guappa 2y ago
> "don't fuck up the franchise." Were they asleep while filming the more recent star wars films?
- ghaff 2y ago
  For me the nadir was the prequel series although I also think The Phantom Menace poisoned the well for the other two which weren't terrible. The more recent films have been a mixed bag with them generally being better the further they are from the original story arc. For me at least, there's also a certain fatigue factor. While I like The Mandalorian and Rogue One, I'm pretty much done with the franchise. See also Star Trek and MCU. That said, I know that there are a lot of fans who will take pretty much anything you throw out even if they like to belly-ache about it.