Movies

It's just the enshittification you're noticing. I've felt this way about movies since the mid 2000's. It's happening everywhere. Movies. TV. Video games. Music.

The only way you can find true innovation and something new and creative is to seek out the independent creators. They're the only ones taking any chances. They have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

All the big producers are just going to find a combination of things that allows them to sell the most and then stick with it for as long as it keeps making them boatloads of money. They won't take a chance; they will wait for an independent to take a chance, and either buy their shit or copy it.

I'm not a huge movie buff so please excuse me if my opinion might be uneducated, but I feel like today's Blockbusters are so risk-averse. The movie has become such a product with clearly defined business goals and target audience.

Just following in the footsteps of the restaurant industry. McDonalds has risen to the top as the worlds most successful restaurant by a very wide margin.

MCU is the McDonalds of film. Simple, formulaic, predictable, scalable, and, unless you eat it too often, even enjoyable. A safe, predictable bet.

Broadcast television took a similar turn years ago, to pundits and reality tv. Low quality, low effort, predictable and repetitive content.

Never forget the goal is to maximize profit by maximizing revenue, but also minimizing risk and cost. This minimizing risk and cost part is hugely important, and is why I always laugh when people are surprised giant corporations aren't producing genuine art. Why should they? Look at what pulls the money in. They're optimizing, basically. You know how you optimize video games? They're optimizing us.

I think the problem isn’t the quality of movies. After all, we have had some really good ones with some that did well (including 2 Marvel ones) like Guardians 3, the Spider-verse movie, Super Mario, Avatar, Dungeons & Dragons, etc..

The problem is that nobody wants to go to the movies anymore. It’s as simple as that. The theater has lost its audience now that streaming is mainstream. Why pay for a $8 coke and $10 popcorn when I have my whole home kitchen available?

Also, even streaming is seeing its audience’s time grabbed away by other things. In my house, making time away from video games, YouTube, and online socializing to watch a 2 hour movie isn’t always easy. Folks have to put away their hobbies and normal entertainment for a passive experience. It’s not always an easy sell.

So no, I don’t think something is wrong with the movies that are coming out. I don’t think an increase in quality will help. I think they should aim for streaming more and away from theaters.

Chris Nolan and Denis Villeneuve are the only directors making blockbusters that I'm genuinely excited for, these days.

The current mainstream movie scene sucks. I've stopped watching most of it because it sounds like something I've seen already, the whole MCU ended with Endgame for me (and even that was just to have some closure, not because I enjoyed it). I don't think there's any movie other than Dune coming this year, that I'm excited about.