“Why Modern Movies Suck – They’re Written By Children” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQ92cggLMx8
Why 99% Of Movies Today Are Garbage (Part 2) – Chris Gore
Hollywood has, of late, cranked out some reboots and big box office popcorn movies that have been universally disliked. Star Trek reimagines “Khan,” “Kirk,” and “Spock.” when the original was already damn near perfect.
A new Star Wars protagonist, Rey, gains full Jedi powers without any challenges or training- just born to her.
We could go on, but just watch the videos.
I propose, however, that nothing has changed, and we’re cherry picking our favorites and forgetting the bombs. In the Star Trek series- no one (who wasn’t a series fan) seemed to like “Time traveling whales..,” and “Star Trek V- a one line punch line of a movie- “What Does God Need With a Starship” quite possibly killed the old casts’ run.
Star Wars 4,5,6 – masterpieces. Mostly in spite of George Lucas’ lame writing, however. Marcia Lucas single handedly saved those films, imo. 1,2,3 left George Lucas to his most indulgent and created films that were “creative,” but for some of us, destroyed some of the previous mythos.. (what? I have to have been born with midichorians to be a Jedi? What the hell is the fun of that?)
There are still cleverly written, cleverly edited, cleverly acted movies, however. Some are independents (more likely.. I think), and some are even still big hollywood blockbusters. Ironman I created a superhero character that had problems, overcame challenges, and inspired. Without the Tony Stark character- the rest of the Marvel universe (some good, some bad) never happens. Instead, decent writing, decent acting, and special effects gave us a hella good time. Marvel continues to take chances on characters, tone, creativity- hiring directors from good indies and giving them some free reign. Do they have some limits? Do they get notes from the committee? No doubt. But Thor: Ragnarok gave us a creative Taika Waititi movie. A James Gunn Guardians of the Galaxy with connectable characters and a movie magic soundtrack. Etc.
Every attempt for Disney to do the same for Star Wars.. seems to be failing. Most notably, hiring the lego movie directors Lord and Miller to do Young Han Solo- which probably would have been funny and irreverent and a bit silly.. But the committee pulled the plug, handed the reins to Ron Howard for a more conventional, and bad, take. Lord and Miller went on to write/produce Into the SpiderVerse.. Which may be one of the best Spiderman movies, if not one of the best superhero movies.
More movies (and long form TV) popping into my head as having unique characters we can root for include “Nobody,” Amazon’s “Jack Reacher,” “Mad Max: Fury Road”, “Wonder Woman” (but definitely screwed up 1984), “Mare of Easttown”, “Ted Lasso”, “Barry,” “Ghosts”, and probably more.
So, fear not, movie lover! Every once in a while, they get it right. Here’s looking forward to more modern classics.