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Visualization: Movies Are Getting Worse

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Re: Visualization: Movies Are Getting Worse

#31

Post by CPlatypus »

jameskilton wrote: post #7

In other news, those damn kids have it too easy these days, had to walk 10 miles, bare foot, in 10 feet of snow, up hill... Sensationalist title and a data visualization that's useless. Try average Rotten Tomatoes score or something, not some random stat with no formula made up on the spot. Seriously, what does "polarizing" actually stand for? This kind of thing has been going on since the beginning of time and will…

RTFA.

"We looked at how polarizing each movie is by measuring the standard deviation of the ratings for each movie."

That's pretty clear, even if it's still a bad measure. There are plenty of valid criticisms of this survey; you don't need to make stuff up based on skimming it before you post your predetermined conclusions.

Re: Visualization: Movies Are Getting Worse

#35

Post by weego »

pclark wrote: post #32

Huge Moki.TV fan ( http://moki.tv/2481 ). But also a huge movie fan. I entirely disagree. Think about this years movies: The Social Network The Kings Speech Inception Black Swan True Grit Will all almost certainly become classics.

Don't you feel this might be kind of a cognitive bias? Like when people poll for the best album of all time and it's always something that was released within the last 3 years of whenever the poll was.

The social network is of it's time and will date really badly, to the point where no one will watch or mention it ever again.

True Grit is a remake so specifically cannot be included as it had to be good enough to have been remade.

Inception isn't ever going to be a classic a la The Matrix.

The Kings Speech will definitely have longevity; Black Swan I'm not convinced will float above just being another film you can pick up for £3 in HMV in a couple of months but then think "well, will I ever watch it?"

Re: Visualization: Movies Are Getting Worse

#36

Post by pjscott »

SandB0x wrote: post #21
barrkel wrote: post #8

Two things: * I don't think polarization is a good signal for poor quality; I would rather suggest it means a more niche product, more highly focused. That the niche being served is largely adolescents is unfortunate. * I think big-budget movies have been getting more conservative and predictable, but I would hazard a guess that it's due to financial industry turmoil and consequently less desire for risk taking.

"That the niche being served is largely adolescents is unfortunate" Ever seen the Poochie episode of The Simpsons? The producers try to boost the ratings of Itchy and Scratchy by adding a ridiculous character designed to appeal to everyone. Near the start of the episode they hold a focus group (text from snpp.com): Man : How many of you kids would like Itchy & Scratchy to deal with real-life problems, like the ones y…

> So, you want a realistic, down-to-earth show... that's completely off-the-wall and swarming with magic robots?

That actually sounds like the first few seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I would have given any of several other examples, but you specified that there must be "magic robots", which narrows things down a lot.

The kids' desires aren't actually contradictory, if you've got the writing skills to pull it off.

Re: Visualization: Movies Are Getting Worse

#37

Post by apu »

asr wrote: post #20
pg wrote: post #2

Interesting. I'd just been thinking about this. The last two new releases I tried watching were so bad that I couldn't finish either of them. I know this is only 2 data points, but they were both bad in the same way: they were completely predictable. That's something you commonly see in a declining medium. People recycle old ideas instead of having new ones. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spolia

To be fair, writers have been doing this for a long time... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespeare%27s_style#Similarit... Did you watch The Social Network? Did you like it? I think we all knew how it ended, it was the writing, cinematography, etc. that account for its popularity. And the fact that the writers stretched the truth so the story would be somewhat fresh :)

And the fact that the writers stretched the truth so the story would be somewhat fresh

Actually I'd argue that they changed the story to make it less fresh, but more understandable/appealing to the non-tech audience. After all, who doesn't understand jilted love as a motivator? Whereas the "hacker's ethic" -- try something to see it it'll work -- is tougher to convey to a general audience.

(For the record, I thought it was still a great movie.)

Re: Visualization: Movies Are Getting Worse

#38

Post by [deleted] »

pg wrote: post #2

Interesting. I'd just been thinking about this. The last two new releases I tried watching were so bad that I couldn't finish either of them. I know this is only 2 data points, but they were both bad in the same way: they were completely predictable. That's something you commonly see in a declining medium. People recycle old ideas instead of having new ones. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spolia

[deleted]

Re: Visualization: Movies Are Getting Worse

#39

Post by derleth »

weego wrote: post #35
pclark wrote: post #32

Huge Moki.TV fan ( http://moki.tv/2481 ). But also a huge movie fan. I entirely disagree. Think about this years movies: The Social Network The Kings Speech Inception Black Swan True Grit Will all almost certainly become classics.

Don't you feel this might be kind of a cognitive bias? Like when people poll for the best album of all time and it's always something that was released within the last 3 years of whenever the poll was. The social network is of it's time and will date really badly, to the point where no one will watch or mention it ever again. True Grit is a remake so specifically cannot be included as it had to be good enough to have…

> True Grit is a remake

So was the 1939 Wizard of Oz.

> Inception isn't ever going to be a classic a la The Matrix.

And you know this because...

Re: Visualization: Movies Are Getting Worse

#40

Post by pclark »

weego wrote: post #35
pclark wrote: post #32

Huge Moki.TV fan ( http://moki.tv/2481 ). But also a huge movie fan. I entirely disagree. Think about this years movies: The Social Network The Kings Speech Inception Black Swan True Grit Will all almost certainly become classics.

Don't you feel this might be kind of a cognitive bias? Like when people poll for the best album of all time and it's always something that was released within the last 3 years of whenever the poll was. The social network is of it's time and will date really badly, to the point where no one will watch or mention it ever again. True Grit is a remake so specifically cannot be included as it had to be good enough to have…

I chose these movies not necessarily because I felt they were superb (although I loved them all) but because they were critically acclaimed and all received lots of oscar nominations. Almost by definition, they are the best films of the year.

If you compare it to nominated movies ten years ago, Braveheart, Apollo 13, I think they are comparably great.

Additionally, box office returns seem to be at all time highs. Black Swan and True Grit are two films that typically would be destined for "niche" audiences, but have returned hundreds of millions for reasonably small budgets.

Also, I think that Inception will be almost as influential as The Matrix, except in a smaller genre of films (eg: Matrix built upon action movies, whereas Inception was more of a psych thriller) - in my opinion.

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