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Modern movies teach us awful lessons [video]

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Re: Modern movies teach us awful lessons [video]

#181

Post by distances »

warabe wrote: post #100
blippage wrote: post #65

One thing I've noticed is that is seems more recent movies lack character observations. Everything is done is in service of the plot. I think it was in Doctor No there was a conversation between Q, M and Bond. Bond's favourite weapon was the Beretta, and Q explained their downsides. Bond was ordered to use the Walther (IIRC) as a replacement. It was in a box. At the end of the scene, Bond picks up the box, surreptiti…

I call that sort of "good" plots "character-oriented plot". One best example is Breaking Bad, which is not movie, but it is a great show anyway. The episode of Fly is a good example how well BB portrayed character's personality. with character-oriented plot, we have character first, and let them play drama. It is like having initial condition and seeing how things evolve in Ordinary Differential Equation. Everything…

> One best example is Breaking Bad

Breaking Bad is my usual example of bad plot building. I'm sure I haven't given it a fair chance as it's universally so highly liked, but the plot events were very much built up so that you could see what's coming. You are already anticipating some events, or they feel predictable and made up, as if precisely to serve the show. They don't come through as authentic.

I stopped watching Breaking Bad in the first or second season due to this poor plot building, and Better Call Saul after a couple of episodes when I realized it's just more of that very same style of bad plotting. The difference to well written shows such as Sopranos is like night and day.

Negative comments about Breaking Bad and pointing out its flaws seems to often receive controversial reactions. I suppose it's because it's the favourite show for so many.

Re: Modern movies teach us awful lessons [video]

#182

Post by mikaeluman »

Completely agree with this guy. New movies inevitably seem to teach strange lessons that make you uneasy and kind of feel bad when you leave the cinema or turn of the screen.

Superhero movies used to be about growth. Yet now it's more often than not the case that the hero was simply born awesome. Completely uninteresting.

Politics also creeps into movies in a disconcerted way. Star Wars is suddenly not about defeating totalitarianism and tyranny, but about some strange mix of feminism and animal rights. I think. Batman has to see Batman become a medic rather than do what Batmam does: beat up bad guys. And of course Catwoman must be with the times and complain about the attention paid to "rich white men" when they get horribly assassinated in gruesome ways by a psychopath - as if murdering the mayor such that his now fatherless son finds him should receive equal attention to some drug deal gone wrong.

The latest Bond movie of course had to kill Bond. Something that should just never happen. And then we have to watch this extremely annoying supposed new 007 get an insane amount of screen time even though she is a transparent, vapid character.

Re: Modern movies teach us awful lessons [video]

#183

Post by fullshark »

Strawhorse wrote: post #105

We can blame a lot of the dumbing down on Hollywood's kowtowing to China

Every example here is a female protagonist also, I think it's also partially kowtowing to feminist cultural critics who are vocal online and are particularly sensitive to perceived slights.

Re: Modern movies teach us awful lessons [video]

#185

Post by loufe »

cvuls wrote: post #34
BoppreH wrote: post #24

Another enormous gripe I have with modern movies, other than the (lack of) interesting moral lessons from OP, is the sound design. Loud explosions and music, with quiet, mumbled lines[1]. I'm forced to watch every movie with subtitles on, or to miss a good chunk of the dialogue. And I'd go beyond that, and blame the mumbled lines for our lack of interesting quotes. It's a lot harder to have unexpected turns of phrase…

I'm guessing you're using a stereo setup then, dialogue is usually mixed into the centre channel, downmixing a 5.1 or 7.1 stream to stereo will produce those results. even worse is if you don't downmix to stereo, and all you are hearing is front left and right, which is often just the reverb effect channels for dialogue

Christopher Nolan's Tenet was a prime example of horrible stereo translation. I could hardly understand the dialog. I've never changed volume so much during a movie. IIRC he refused to produce any audio mixes aside from those meant for the most premium 7.1 stream theatres. What a shame.

Re: Modern movies teach us awful lessons [video]

#186

Post by hedora »

BoppreH wrote: post #24

Another enormous gripe I have with modern movies, other than the (lack of) interesting moral lessons from OP, is the sound design. Loud explosions and music, with quiet, mumbled lines[1]. I'm forced to watch every movie with subtitles on, or to miss a good chunk of the dialogue. And I'd go beyond that, and blame the mumbled lines for our lack of interesting quotes. It's a lot harder to have unexpected turns of phrase…

I've noticed an even newer effect: Making scenes almost all black. It might be a software problem with the HBO Max app's gamma and brightness settings, but it's absolutely the case that, during the day with thin curtains drawn, I had to put a thick blanket over my head and an iPad in order to see the highlights in some of the darker scenes in one of their recent original productions (probably Raised by Wolves Season One; can't remember for sure).

These were action scenes with grunting and no dialogue, so the blanket was the only way to follow the plot.

Re: Modern movies teach us awful lessons [video]

#187

Post by analog31 »

BoppreH wrote: post #24

Another enormous gripe I have with modern movies, other than the (lack of) interesting moral lessons from OP, is the sound design. Loud explosions and music, with quiet, mumbled lines[1]. I'm forced to watch every movie with subtitles on, or to miss a good chunk of the dialogue. And I'd go beyond that, and blame the mumbled lines for our lack of interesting quotes. It's a lot harder to have unexpected turns of phrase…

If this were a conversation about mixing for recorded or live music, someone would invariably mention hearing damage. It's a huge problem. Could it be that the technicians are deaf?

Re: Modern movies teach us awful lessons [video]

#188

Post by jasperry »

ZYinMD wrote: post #114

I have a different problem with the modern movies - modern people have pretty much seen everything, but still ask "show me something I haven't seen before", so movies try their best to create "novelties", and end up with crazy plot twists that make the story worse. But then the novelty wears off quickly as we've seen everything yet again, so movies have to find newer and crazier shit to keep us entertained, and devia…

I think what you're getting at is that novelty is being sought as a (poor) substitute for real substance. Give me a movie made by someone who has really thought about an aspect of the human condition and explores it from their own point of view, and it will have true originality and keep you riveted, even if the theme has been treated thousands of times. There aren't that many different themes, but they are inexhaustible if treated well.

Movies bore us not because of lack of novelty, but because they're just tropes stitched together to fit a formula rather than representing a real creative endeavor.

Re: Modern movies teach us awful lessons [video]

#189

Post by ZiiS »

BoppreH wrote: post #24

Another enormous gripe I have with modern movies, other than the (lack of) interesting moral lessons from OP, is the sound design. Loud explosions and music, with quiet, mumbled lines[1]. I'm forced to watch every movie with subtitles on, or to miss a good chunk of the dialogue. And I'd go beyond that, and blame the mumbled lines for our lack of interesting quotes. It's a lot harder to have unexpected turns of phrase…

I certanly also struggle with modern dialog. Another common factor is twenty years ago my hearing was much better.

Re: Modern movies teach us awful lessons [video]

#190

Post by Retric »

watwut wrote: post #160
gcthomas wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One big problem is that US actors have a history of recording adverts, so they are not classically trained, unlike a lot of British actors who have backgrounds on the stage and so have learned to speak clearly. I hate having to watch movies and TV with the subtitles on — the mumbling may be realistic, but I'm paying for escapism.

I like it better this way. Theatre like playing in movie come across as fake to me - as bad acting. When the whole thing is clearly exaggerate comedy, then it don't bother me. But, if I am supposed to immerse myself in the story, it does not work.

Real people aren’t quiet around intense emotions and loud noises. This often comes off really silly, when actual people would be yelling they come off as mumbling to themselves.

Instead, actors are often chatting in front of green screens without any of the appropriate ambient sounds or emotional context.

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