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Modern movies teach us awful lessons [video]

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Re: Modern movies teach us awful lessons [video]

#221
There are various schools of art criticism that argue that the purpose of art is not to teach morality. I've just noticed in the last few years that the teaching of morality through the arts seems to have come back into vogue, with concomitant disciplining of those that are deemed immoral, but the funny thing with moralizers is the absolute certainty with which they believe that the purpose of art is to teach morality, their morality, and that they do not seem to have any awareness when they talk that there may be other viewpoints regarding art.

Re: Modern movies teach us awful lessons [video]

#222
post #64
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So true. I feared the Hollywoodization of the game industry. But it never happened in the mindless extend of movies and music. Indie games are still going strong.

I mean there’s indie games that are works of art just like there are indie movies for the lack of a better term. Similarly there are plenty of popcorn games with big budgets and shallow content.

most indie games have shallow content as well... you are probably just cherry picking the top of the iceberg.

Re: Modern movies teach us awful lessons [video]

#223
post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are many examples of making a film on a budget of almost nothing. Clerks, Evil Dead, the Sweding movement, most all of Tik Tok… You can make a compelling story via flip book.

"Almost nothing" in movie terms means "the cost of a house". Not "almost nothing" on a normal human scale.

I would actually say, "almost nothing" in movie terms means, "human scale almost nothing" all the way to perhaps, "cost of a house". We all have phones, video editing software is free, there's plenty of distribution channels. If you want to make a movie for "almost nothing", you can do so.

Doesn't mean it's going to be good, or that anyone wants to see it.

Is this a peculiar concept? We all work OSS every day, right?

Re: Modern movies teach us awful lessons [video]

#224

How much of “why modern X sucks” is attributable to survivorship bias? There were plenty of horrible movies/music/art/etc. made in years past; today, we only watch and remember the ones that were good enough to survive the test of time.

most good movies of this decade still suck compared to good movies 20 or 30 years ago.

Re: Modern movies teach us awful lessons [video]

#226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

God...the headache I had coming out of the new Blade Runner...terrible.

I wear earplugs for live music when I go to the movies nowadays

I thought about something like that too but than there are dialogues which are already hard to understand because they're not loud enough just before you get blasted with sound effects again...well yeah..one more reason why I don't go to the movies so much anymore.

Re: Modern movies teach us awful lessons [video]

#227
post #48

I think I agree with the thrust of the video. My caveats would be: 1) When anybody dunks on "modern movies", they mean "modern movies with $>100m marketing budgets". Which is actually a small minority of modern movies. 2) The messaging has changed, but movies have always had terrible messaging in them. Edit: Maybe it's a bad idea to say this out loud, but when you get protagonists who are "just born preternaturally a…

> Edit: Maybe it's a bad idea to say this out loud, but when you get protagonists who are "just born preternaturally awesome", they're generally female, right? I'm not sure the same trend applies for male protagonists. I think this is a bit of selective memory ala: https://xkcd.com/385/ Did you have particular movies in mind with this? The whole Marvel universe is riddled with male protagonists who are simply better…

Surely the whole point of Watchmen was that superheros aren't better than other people. For the last couple of decades cinema's been reinventing (male) superheroes as "complex characters" with flaws, moral weaknesses and questionable motivations.

Like you say, maybe I'm remembering selectively but I think that's less the case for Black Widow, Captain Marvel or Wonder Woman than it is for Iron Man, Superman or Batman.

Can you imagine Marvel greenlighting a female-led equivalent of Logan?

For what it's worth, I now regret saying anything, and will try to restrain myself from saying anything else.

Re: Modern movies teach us awful lessons [video]

#228
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean there’s indie games that are works of art just like there are indie movies for the lack of a better term. Similarly there are plenty of popcorn games with big budgets and shallow content.

most indie games have shallow content as well... you are probably just cherry picking the top of the iceberg.

Plenty of indie games have stunning visuals and lame cookie cutter gameplay.

Re: Modern movies teach us awful lessons [video]

#229

How much of “why modern X sucks” is attributable to survivorship bias? There were plenty of horrible movies/music/art/etc. made in years past; today, we only watch and remember the ones that were good enough to survive the test of time.

OK, but those weren't the ones setting box office records either. The new Star Wars were terrible, still made truckloads of money, and will also be remembered 50 years from now, just because of the franchise.

Re: Modern movies teach us awful lessons [video]

#230

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 feel like I'm going to call bullshit on this. I'm not convinced at all that this is less common in modern films. This one off example is nothing noteworthy. Plenty of similar examples in recent films.
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