I wish I could upvote this more than once. Story is the last thing in the world we should be undervaluing. Look at Pixar. Pixar made some fantastic advances in

I wish I could upvote this more than once. Story is the last thing in the world we should be undervaluing. Look at Pixar. Pixar made some fantastic advances in animation. That's not the only reason, or even the primary reason, why its movies perform so well. They do well because they are exceptionally well written, they have heart, and they are firing on all creative cylinders: tech, writing, directing, acting, post production, music, etc. John Lassiter himself will often credit story with the success of his movies. Ideas for movies are cheap, just like ideas for tech companies are cheap. But story execution is extraordinarily hard, every bit as hard as putting the effects together. My guess is that a lot of folks don't understand how hard writing great fiction can be. So they tend to dismiss it. They take it for granted. Or they over-attribute the success of their favorite movies, books, etc., to the elements that are most immediately visible: the actors, the effects, the direction, etc. All of these things are important, but they'd be entirely worthless without a strong story. Michael Bay movies are fantastic examples of what happens when you combine A-list actors with AAA special effects while devaluing story.