Why modern movies suck - they teach us awful lessons

[darkwillow]

Also, more to the point, the video still has nothing to do with your writer/director question.

The question is why, why are these poor character arcs, these questionable stories getting written when you have a massive budget, all the resources in the world.

The answer seems to be that the director wrote the script instead of hiring professional writers. I mean most game of thrones fans could write a better ending to GoT. Nobody is going to write that Cerseis character arc ending with a stone block landing on her.
No DC fan is going to make the villain a salesman and bring back Chris Pine for the second movie.
etc.

 

[Umbran]

You have to look a little deeper than that... nothing to do with male or female, its about lack of character arc.

So, if it had nothing do do with male or female, why are all his negative examples centered on female characters? If movies suck in general for these reasons, then certainly such examples must exist.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

....
Animal House
....Yup, sure is a shame modern movies teach such awful lessons.

I mean ....

My advice to you is to start drinking heavily.


Can't say that I ever disagree with that. That's right there with ...

As your attorney, I advise you to take a hit out of the little brown bottle in my shaving kit.

 

[Zardnaar]

So, if it had nothing do do with male or female, why are all his negative examples centered on female characters? If movies suck in general for these reasons, then certainly such examples must exist.

The worst 6 or 7 MCU movies are kina meh and that includes Thor and Iron Man ones. None are outright terrible though.

Part of it is I suspect people expect to much it's really had to consistently make great movies there's no magic formula.

Star Wars is batting 50/50 or slightly better. Even then there's only 3 bad ones and maybe 3 meh ones.

 

[darkwillow]

So, if it had nothing do do with male or female, why are all his negative examples centered on female characters? If movies suck in general for these reasons, then certainly such examples must exist.

The title is very click bait, he can't be saying all movies, because he reviews movies he likes.
I think the selection is mostly centered on huge budge movies that fit the criteria of character arc.
I don't think he has any dislike for female heroes, cause he provides stella reviews for lots of female led films.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Here is the NSS news:

There have been awful movies as long as there has been movies.
There have been awful remakes as long as there have been remakes.
There are a lot of modern movies that are far worse than the ones cited in the rant. It couldn't be that they where overlooked because they have male protagonists?

 

[BookTenTiger]

The question is why, why are these poor character arcs, these questionable stories getting written when you have a massive budget, all the resources in the world.

The answer seems to be that the director wrote the script instead of hiring professional writers. I mean most game of thrones fans could write a better ending to GoT. Nobody is going to write that Cerseis character arc ending with a stone block landing on her.
No DC fan is going to make the villain a salesman and bring back Chris Pine for the second movie.
etc.

I actually agree that a lot of modern blockbusters bungle their character arcs. My theory is that it's more due to the pressures of the studio than any artists involved.

This came up recently, and it's a good example of how a large studio like Disney controls what stories their creators are allowed to tell:

Pixar Blasts Disney for Censoring Its LGBTQ Content

Employees of Pixar have released a scathing letter to Disney management in the wake of Bob Chapek's disastrous response to Florida's 'Don't Say Gay' legislation, accusing the studio of censoring LGBTQ content for years.

gizmodo.com

Note: I'm going to keep away from the political / Florida side of it due to ENworld rules.

Employees at Pixar wrote an open letter claiming Disney has squashed storylines and characters that would be representative of LGBTQIA+ culture in Pixar films. The letter also says that Disney will publicly support LGTQIA+ rights, but as a company actively muffles these stories from occurring in their movies and TV shows.

This is an adjacent point to the OP, but I think it does show that the kinds of stories modern blockbusters are allowed to tell are highly controlled by large corporations that own the studios.

EDIT: Also I'm posting this because I don't think the point they are making is political, but Mods if you disagree let me know and I'll edit this post.

 

[Jer]

But I don't think she had many opportunities for growth throughout the series. She didn't have an interesting arc like Luke or Anakin did.

With the original movie Lucas had an actual full story - it had a beginning, a middle and an end. If there were no sequels it would be a satisfying standalone movie, if an example of a sci-fi film where much more could have been done with it. He also had a sketch of what he would do in that world if he could and an idea of some backstory that had led to the point where episode IV started (it wasn't as extensive as some folks would like to believe, but it wasn't nothing either).

TFA is almost the opposite of that in every way. It has a beginning and a middle, and there's a climax, but it doesn't really have a satisfying ending. It was plotted in JJ Abrams "Mystery Box" style where he threw a lot of things into the plot with no idea of how they would pay off - the opposite of having even a sketch of where it would go. Disney decided to let three different directors plot the trilogy in an almost Exquisite Corpse fashion instead of having a rough sketch of how the trilogy would work. Abrams style and Disney's move also led to there being no real solid idea of backstory beyond "Return of the Jedi something something New Movie", which didn't help with coming up with an arc for any of the new characters that he invented.

The actors all did the best they could with what they were given, but it's really no way to make a movie, let alone manage a franchise of films. Hopefully Disney has figured out that maybe having at least a rough sketch on a napkin for how your proposed trilogy is going to play out is a good idea.

 

[darkwillow]

Actor did fine Blame the writers.

Yeah I don't think anyone blames the actors unless it was bad acting.

Idk if you can even blame the directors if the story is bad.

Unless the director wrote the story which is my point. I think most issues could have been resolved by having a professional writer lay out the blueprint of the story. but idk maybe directors desperately want their writing credit.

 

[Zardnaar]

Yeah I don't think anyone blames the actors unless it was bad acting.

Unless the director wrote the story which is my point. I think most issues could have been resolved by having a professional writer lay out the blueprint of the story. but idk maybe directors desperately want their writing credit.

Sometimes the director does a great job otherwise it doesn't.
Personally if I was one I would collude with a writer. Here's my big idea get the writer to polish it.