Our Culture is Eating Itself

[@SolarSands]

AAAAAAH Sign up for a 14-day free trial and enjoy all the amazing features MyHeritage has to offer: bit.ly/SolarSands2

[@mandyscool]

AAAAAAHHHHH

[@Ivyinterrupted]

AAAAAAH

[@noctarin1516]

To be fair I must say, it might seem pretty sad that movies or general cultural do not appeal to us in the same way they used to do, but is there such thing really as a golden standard of culture we should all strive for? I feel like a lot of the discussion about this is really flooded with people calling for a return to the glorious old days, but as long as we live, I think these types of people will always be making that same argument no matter how we currently have it.

[@noctarin1516]

@@ToxicTurquoise454 I feel like that is the problem with objectively establishing a piece of art as objectively good or objectively bad. There is nothing that we know of that really makes a movie good or bad. It is really just the subjective enjoyment of the viewer's. And just because your experience of a movie did not please you does it necessarily mean that it is bad art. After all, through time it has been proven that one man's trash is another man's treasure.

[@MasterBotttle]

I think now that Movies of America in the distant future will be a D3@D practice and Art-form, their will be no movies at all because of the terrible reputation it has being cheap moving pictures of junk food.

[@verygoodfreelancer]

animator in the industry for 15 years! the reason everything is bad now is everything is run according to data and metrics. things can only be remakes because investors need recognizable IP. has nothing to do with creatives, creatives make 0 decisions. spreadsheets and accountants do, so why spend a million dollars to make a movie that isn’t the new moana?

[@cinnamonnoir2487]

Reminds me of how Frank Zappa once said that when he started off in the music industry, the suits who ran music labels had no idea what kids were into and frankly admitted it, so they were willing to take risks because it was the only way to have a chance at a big hit. Then younger executives started climbing the ladder, and these guys assumed they had a finger on the pulse of the young generation, so they bulldozed the old system and started signing bands only if they met the specific "success" criteria the executives believed in. George Lucas has made similar remarks about how studio managers seem to think they can guarantee success, whereas in his opinion making movies is more like playing roulette.

[@casbienbarr]

@@cinnamonnoir2487 this is the crux of it

[@mapper7310]

@@cinnamonnoir2487 Its definitely interesting. Thankfully the music industry has sort of splintered so much, both due to the low barrier to entry of making music as well as the accessibility of listening to it, so even at the top there are still genuine and sincere creatives. While I feel as though a Zappa, or a John Lennon, or a Ween could make it big in today's music market, I don't see the same thing happening with film or television anytime soon.

[@jeremiahsacks2868]

And then when someone does have the bright idea to have a bright idea, the theater is filled with so much slop that noone sees it (transformers one failed despite being probably the best movie released this year, and one of probably 2 or 3 good movies)

[@blockwearingman]

insane

[@TheCrewExpendable]

e.g. Hasbro announced this week that, going forward, half or more of all Magic the Gathering sets are going to be collabs. There is going to be a Final Fantasy set, a Marvel set, a Spiderman set (yeah, separate from the general Marvel set), etc. I am really starting to despise the Fortnite-ification, FunkPop-ification, slop-ification of all culture.

[@alephnull3535]

Spice8Rack has a great video on this topic. The problems with modern MTG actually go way beyond the crossover sets

[@IPITYTHEFOOLZ]

Its funny to because a friend of mine told me about it and he's so excited. He doesn't even play final fantasy but he calls himself a fan because its in magic. These people just exist to consume. I tried to be nice but I told him it just feels like pandering to me. They're doing spongebob magic the gathering too. Its just stupid.

[@Commander6444]

I can _maybe_ squint my eyes hard enough to accept the Final Fantasy crossover, given that Final Fantasy is still at least in the same genre as Magic. It's a surface-level similarity, yeah, but at least it's there. On the other hand, Magic is about to add cards from Doctor Who, Fallout, Marvel, and freakin' _Spongebob._ And while most TCGs have joke cards, there's a fine line between a welcome sprinkle of zaniness and just completely selling out. I don't even play Magic, but these crossovers are so contemptuously cynical that it's not even funny or cute. It's just icky, and meant to appeal to that lowest-common-denominator nerd crowd that laps up fanservice like it's ice cream.

[@diamondhamster4320]

Don`t blame the player or the game, blame the creators who are making money and increasing profits any way they can.

[@diamondhamster4320]

@@IPITYTHEFOOLZ And what do you exist for??? What is your "raison d'etre" ??? From both gnostic and agnostic sides.

[@BrandonPilcher]

I don't think it is coincidental that this cinematic trend is happening at a time when the big media companies are merging into one another to form bigger and bigger corporate leviathans. There's a reason we consider monopolies undesirable for producing quality products.

[@itzyomg8052]

"Corporate leviathans" is such a scary concept

[@laurentiuvladutmanea3622]

....Brandon Pilcher?What a nice surprise. I did not expect to recognize anybody when I looked at the comment section. Especially not a fellow Spacebattles member.

[@ElementalAer]

Wait until you hear about "corporate behemot" and "corporate hydras".

[@HoboGardenerBen]

Yup, this is all a natural outcome of scaling up profit focus into gigantic hierarchies

[@Kamileon2011]

More like corprate hydras

[@Shaker626]

Copyright is basically the only tool that allows these large monopolies to stay around. No copyright, no monopoly. Copyright was first requested by publishing houses to protect their investments against the rapid rise of the printing press. The big guys only convinced smaller artists that this system actually benefits them, and after enough lobbying we have the situation we have today; people believe that copyright is the only thing that will keep their media safe from a larger company (whose own copywriters would sue yours out of oblivion if you dared fight back). The system inherently favours large entities, and would be best if it didn't exist in the first place. (Violations would come down to branding or masquerading as the true original artist, much like trademark fraud).

[@Allie-w1l]

That's interesting. I never thought of that before.

[@kenbaird7454]

If copyright didn't exist, how would you propose the sale of media be protected? What's to stop someone from publishing a piece of media somewhere else?

[@PhurPher]

@@kenbaird7454 It's an insanely progressive idea that holds no grounds in reality. Copyright is fair, though it needs to be more relaxed and the courts need to hold it up the same for everyone.

[@kenbaird7454]

@@PhurPher Yeah, that's my general opinion. Copyright has many issues(Mostly relating to not letting you play copyrighted music in a video as well as a bunch of other very outdated rulings) and favors the giant companies way too much, but as a concept it's a good idea, as without it there is no such thing as selling a creative work(unless you take draconian measures to prevent it from being copied, and I think we can all agree anti-piracy is bad enough as it is.)

[@delia_watercolors]

As a small artist who has had her hard work stolen repeatedly over the past 15 years, no. Do changes need to be made like eliminating such a pay to win copyright system? Yes.

[@partyharry7585]

When you mentioned "death" I thought you were going to talk about characters continuing past their happy endings. Like resurrecting Luke Skywalker or Han Solo just to kill them off. Or Woody and Buzz still having adventures even though Andy's already grown up. Its that impact that saddens me most. The characters never get to keep their happy ending. There must always be a sequel. Their story's finished, they've overcome the peril, they get to live the rest of their life offscreen, leaving with a smile. But, there must always be a sequel. Continuing something they never were designed for.

[@Noahed_]

This pretty much echoes my thoughts regarding Indiana Jones 5. People can say what they want about the 4th movie-and I have to admit, pushing back my nostalgia, it had its flaws-but at least it gave Indy a happy ending, a proper sendoff. The 5th movie just trashed on this. Why did they kill off his son? Why screw up his marriage? Why bring back Nazi characters when the setting is now in the 70s? I honestly wish they just kept the prologue of the first twenty minutes, cut the rest of the movie, and kept it as a short film tribute to Indiana Jones. Oh crap, I wrote a rant.

[@ciclon5682]

@@Noahed_ I liked indiana jones 5 as a movie, its an enjoyable movie in its own right..but i agree. it has no business existing and shits on the entire character of indy by keeping on a story that had already concluded well enough.

[@aliasfakename3159]

In my heart, Toy Story 3 is the end of the franchise. It was so impactful when they all linked hands & prepared to melt in the garbage fire.

[@yum8666]

In all fairness life kind of happens like that. There is never a happy ending we kind of just keep living until we die

[@matman000000]

Even actual deaths don't matter these days. Somehow Palpatine returned, along with Darth Maul, BBC's Sherlock, Wolverine, Glenn and Rick from TWD, pretty much every character in Supernatural and half the characters in GOT.

[@John_Weiss]

Reading the comments, I'm seeing an important point being missed here: the Remakes, Prequels, Sequels, Live-Action versions, etc. aren't bad because of any of the reasons that SolarSands has _directly_ stated, but something new only implied: They Aren't Telling Stories, there just repeating the same damned anecdote for the 57th time … and it wasn't all that good after the 7th. The Entertainment Industry is no longer producing _entertainment,_ it's churning out _distractions_ that aren't all that entertaining. And the problem can be summed up by one sentence: "If you think your primary role is, 'to make money,' Go run a bank." I saw that sentence in an article about the software industry from 20 years ago. The author was recounting this time when he was taking to a room full of heads of software companies, and he asked them all, "What is your primary role, your main job?" To a man, they all said, "To make money." *_"WRONG!"_* he boomed, "You are SOFTWARE companies, your primary job is _to make software that people want, at the best possible quality, so people will want to buy it from _*_you._* If you think your primary role is, 'to make money,' Go run a bank." And that sentence is true for any industry: you're in that industry to produce the things that industry creates. Making money is a _consequence_ of making that product, in a form and at a quality that people want to buy. Because, if all you're doing is trying to make money, then you've become a con-artist looking for the next sucker you can find to go sell that bottle of pee mixed with ink as a cure for baldness.

[@djangokill65]

Mark Fisher was right: RE: Capitalist Realism "In our capitalist societies, as technology advances, our culture deteriorates and we increasingly lose our sense of time and progress, becoming amnesiac consumers stuck in an endlessly recycled and rebooted past."

[@Furydragonstormer]

Yeah, while he had justified critics on Romulus, I can't help but be irritated by him saying he wanted it to fail over the part with Ian Holmes. There was an actual story being told there, even amongst all the references, and it was actually good. Sure, the characters are a bit more shallow compared to the OGs, but it isn't like Rook is literally Ash, or Ripley was brought back. They had an original cast, none of them were big name actors either (The movie was the debut for one of them even!) Plus, actually more memorable characters like Andy, the faulty jokester android who is slowly breaking down. Even Rain, who may be comparable to Ripley, isn't really Ripley either. She feels distinct enough to me that she isn't Ripley, and I've seen people saying they'd be happy to have Rain be the next fact to take Ripley's face moving forward

[@TQFMTradingStrategies]

It’s sort of why I like parts of finance, it’s a grimey business. But in alot of ways it’s very upfront about it all.

[@John_Weiss]

@@TQFMTradingStrategies That's the point of the author of that article I was paraphrasing: The only business whose primary function is, "make money," is _Finance._ If that's your lone goal, then go do _that._ But if you're not in Finance, then your main goal is deliver the product or service of your industry, and do it so well that people want to pay you for it.

[@Architector_4]

Honestly, with layoffs and shitty wage jobs and housing crises and inflation, i wouldn't blame some people saying that the primary reason they're doing what they're doing is making money, leaving quality of the work done as secondary. If you don't have enough money for rent next month and you can get a bonus quicker by developing a feature in a program with quick, sloppy code, surviving obviously makes sense lol There is of course difference between CEOs going ultracapitalist to get a 4th yacht and people crawling paycheck to paycheck, and blaming the former absolutely makes sense.

[@bakuya99]

Minecraft movie is just a reskin of another movie called Jumanji which is also a retelling of the same Jumaji film from the 90s.

[@thejay8963]

I hated those movies. "Well what if it was a video game instead of a board game -" I don't care, your movie sucks and Karin Gillian being in it made me cry.

[@DrownedLamp9]

Zathura called. . .didn't say much.

[@bakuya99]

@@DrownedLamp9 Damn i forgot about that one.

[@HSingingTree]

@@thejay8963 I liked Jumanji :(

[@superninja252]

​@@DrownedLamp9Zathura is so.underrated yo

[@gavins6419]

There's a really good indie song that relates to this called Lifetime Achievement Award by Lemon Demon that talks specifically about how big producers are trying to synthesize old actors and artist just because they saw that they were popular and brought in the big bucks, no ethical concerns whatsoever. The song mainly focuses on Michael Jackson saying things like "Hey Remember Michael Jackson. Michael Jackson really happened really happened" to draw in people's nostalgia and how "When you see the chart tomorrow you'll be number one" just makes the artist seem more like a product of the company rather than an actual, human person. Less of someone with creativity and more of a cash cow. That song came out in 2016 and has related to the entertainment industry more and more as time has moved on.

[@autoteleology]

Lemon Demon is so goated, listened to this just because you mentioned it, it was great and aged so well it's more relevant more than ever

[@gavins6419]

@@autoteleology I really do recommend his other music. The albums I most recommend from him are Spirit Phone, Dinosaurchestra, View-Monster, and Hip to the Javabean if you're interested in checking out more of his music.

[@ry6184]

Woah I love this song, I have it on vinyl, and I never really put that together. I’m truly scared for the future

[@grace-yp3sv]

what sucks about the minecraft movie is that the sincerity is literally right there in the game - there's a whole original poem that plays when you beat the dragon. it's all just a symptom of no one being able to be sincere anymore - we like enjoy everything ironically. cringe culture is unfortunately not dead

[@Wicked_Knight]

Heard of the Minecraft Animated series coming to Netflix?

[@danny-d0rito]

​@@Wicked_Knight while I can't say I have too much faith in it (recently, anything for kids on netflix with such a direction has used the same archetypes of funny punchlines in every scene, no matter how threatening) I still hope. I am almost 100% sure it'll be better then the live action. good, though? only time will tell. and to you, original commenter, yes. irony has become the bane of a good film. it's what I fear may kill the animated minecraft series on netflix. I love minecraft. it just has this SOUL to it, the sincerity you speak of-I love every bit of it. well, welcome to cannibal culture. where everything beautiful and pure is raped of its sincerity and churned back out as yet another corpse of what it could have been.

[@somethingcraft3148]

@@danny-d0ritoi think the original comment was a joke about arcane a Netflix adaptation of the show league of legends.

[@zachjohnson6586]

Exactly. The movie is not made for fans of Minecraft, it’s made for the people who made Minecraft cringe comps in 2016

[@ChaffyExpert]

Plus there's the ruins of ancient Civilizations and the pigeon invasion with monsters villagers and the hero Fighting side by side, only to end up causing the problems with the world in actual game like Illagers, which is infinitely more interesting

[@The_Dinosaur_Heretic]

‘Incest of ideation’ is such a great way to explain the current artistic landscape

[@BanTskTvaoan]

This is obviously a consequence of how fans are in charge, even fans are part. ccore of the reason. Fanart, fanfiction. They shouldn't exist, because it just shows how much our culture has become an incestuous mess.

[@urnoob5528]

ppl cant create nothing new no more be it writings, games, movies, or anything

[@ThatGuy-lv7hf]

Free Palestine 🇵🇸

[@diamond00007]

Everything went bad after 2020. Art becomes lazy and filled with corporate greed. While political climate is bad as well. The right is arrogant and immoral, the left is weak and wimpy. People are getting more terminally online. Covid really took a hit in the world's culture

[@The_Dinosaur_Heretic]

@ All for the movement, what does that have to do with this comment about art

[@Design.Theory]

As long as these franchises keep making money, movie studios will keep producing them. Staying power, artistic vision, and cultural relevance are not the metrics for success. Profitability is. You basically nailed the psychology of these production studios at 21:08 (paraphrasing): "Who cares if it's garbage, it'll probably make a billion dollars anyway".

[@Silver77cyn]

Basically, capitalism.

[@macronevicktor]

oh hey you're here too

[@JonoSSD]

They don't even need to make that much money, since company execs, the ones actually making the decisions, never suffer the consequences of their own actions. Some layoffs here, a corporate restructure there, leaving to be on the board of another company after the current one sinks. They always have their golden parachutes. And that's why the status quo never changes, not just on movies or games, but overall.

[@niranjanr9064]

Well hello there Design Theory. It's funny finding you here.

[@sabershark3102]

@@Silver77cyn Has nothing to do with capitalism, the masses getting dumber and dumber is the problem and the current state of the entertainment industry is only making it worse

[@jesucristo8016]

"Digital Neceomancy" is such a cool concept, I loved that set of words.

[@martinalejandro224]

my favorite movie this year was The Wild Robot, a movie that, although based on a book so therefore not completely original, made me feel like I was watching something not made by a corporation but made by a group of artists that felt this story needed to be told; it was a sincere movie about motherhood that, althouth it featured celebrities voicing the character, It felt like they were playing characters and not themselves this video made me appreciate that movie more

[@realchezboi]

I love The Wild Robot so much, favourite film of this year

[@nelsonth]

but it was made by a corporation though. Not denying it was good, but it definitely was made by one

[@Neekalos]

⁠@@nelsonthI think they're just making the point that it doesn't feel like corporate garbage like many other movies nowadays. It has genuine charm and artistic substance, and you can tell that it was driven by talented creators, not just soulless investors

[@baconsarny-geddon8298]

It was Ok. Not terrible, not amazing. The ONLY 2020's movie I've seen, that felt genuinely great, was The Banshees of Inisherin, which was genuinely original, uncompromised, and felt like it had "soul"- The unique vision of an actual human being, not a market research workgroup, or corporate diversity and inclusion taskforce. There's been others that were decent- Late Night With the Devil, Talk to Me.. but Banshees is the only 10/10 I've given, since Covid shutdown in 2020. Even in 2019, sure the slop was bad.. but there were still a handful of great, 10/10 movies- Joker, 1917 JoJo Rabbit, Captain Fantastic... But since Covid in 2020, NOTHING genuinely good has come out of Hollywood (even Banshees is an indy, Irish movie) I've basically given up on new releases. These days 95% of what I watch, is from the 1960s or (mostly) earlier. Best decision I ever made

[@SeraphinSnecmel]

@@baconsarny-geddon8298Everything Everywhere All at Once was a pretty great 2020s movie

[@Spaniard47]

A connected issue worth mentioning is the "for kids" label, and our culture's widespread acceptance of it. Of all the movies that had an influence on me as a child, every last one of them would be just as enjoyable to watch as an adult. We must stop accepting the premise that "kids' movies" are a separate entity from "good movies". The "for kids" label in general is nothing but a mask for media that optimizes solely on attention-harvesting.

[@RadioactuveToy]

Nearly everything has been throttled by huge corporate investors who only care about squeezing the life and every single dollar out of any process. It isn't just movies and TV, even academia is having this problem. There are discussions about how there is not a lot of groundbreaking research happening anymore, well unless it can somehow return huge profits, like pharmaceuticals, but otherwise little to improve everyone's lives since proposed research would not be "profitable" The hoarding of wealth at the top is killing the ability of people to engage in their fields passionately across the board. The desire is there, but investors only care if they can increase their returns.

[@czwarty7878]

This is a wider problem, that society accepts mediocrity with these cop-outs. Bad writing and lack of consistency is widely accepted. You can never have any demands towards media, you can't even have minimum expectations of quality - because "it's just a kids movie". Yet, still, it doesn't stop at "kids movies" either. Movie has glaring plot holes? "bro chill it's just a movie" Story is defying laws of physics? "bro just enjoy the story it's not meant to be realistic" Game's timeline is in 1970s, yet it has anachronistic technology that didn't even exist yet? "bro it's just a game who cares" You can't have any expectations and criticism whatsoever. Just consume the slop and don't ask questions. Because "who cares", "it's just a movie", "just enjoy". And you are the weird one for having conscious thoughts of any kind. People became so accustomed to such bad writing and lazy, low quality slop that they find it weird that some people might still want quality entertainment.

[@mihailoveselinovic7151]

@@RadioactuveToy Our consumer-centric culture and the investors banking on the safest bet, lowest common denominator, and a focus on quick big buck only go hand in hand, and they've eroded our global culture, and not just culture but social structure to a critical degree.

[@TheEvolver311]

​@mihailoveselinovic7151 Well that was the goal of the conservatives in the Reagan/Thatcher era. "There is no such thing as society: there are individual men and women, and there are families" - Thatcher. To atomize every person down to an individual no community, no unions etc...they won and we are now what they worked to make us.

[@Tom_Quixote]

Kids love to watch movies for adults. But then when enough kids love a franchise, it changes into a franchise for children. And then children go look for other grown up stuff to watch instead.

[@ludoviajante]

I think the saddest part is that a lot of these bad movies break record profits. And when one fails, online discourse rushes to associate it with culture war bullshit (jeez, one of Disney's directors even blamed a gay kiss scene as the reason Buzz Lightyear failed), while the real reason remains obscured: lack of originality and terrible scripts. Anyway, great video as always! Cheers from Brazil 🌎

[@bazzfromthebackground3696]

Doesn't help that the "discourse" is only meant to make someone else money and not actually discuss anything.

[@icecold1805]

Oh, that is all part of the strategy. The whole blaming the gay kiss was the plan. Big movies, AAA games, and what not, add this elements, simply to use them as scapegoats and blame all critics of being bigots. Battlefield 1 critics are all racist cuz it had black soldiers. CoD vanguard critics are all misogynist cuz it had a female empowered character. Beauty and the Beast live action critiques are all homophobic cuz it had the Gaston kiss. And this, gives birth to people using the term "woke". People are growing frustrated. And it breaks my heart. Because now we have honest-to-god bigots, people grow so frustrated of this arguments people are starting to lash out not just against this movies or games, but the minorities, the policies, the whole thing...

[@Cubeytheawesome]

Nimona is proof that representation doesn’t affect a movie, sometimes a movie is just bad. Also I could say the same for Baldur’s gate 3, The owl house, Agatha all along, and Sam & Max

[@KetsubanSolo]

The gay kiss DID negatively affect box office performance tho. Several countries like China (whom up to this point, Iger was obsessed with pursuing) refused to screen the movie unless the scene was removed, and when Pixar refused, a big revenue stream went poof.

[@captainstupid1569]

Omggg Ludoviajante hiiiiiii

[@um_please_no1728]

On a positive note, this video was how I found 'Hundreds of Beavers'. What a treat. The most entertained my best friend and I have been by a movie in ages. Thank you for the rec! I'm excited to keep on supporting Mike Cheslik with his future projects. Please keep highlighting under-the-radar gyms, even if its only as an aside, because people will continue to check them out!

[@qin2500]

What pisses me off about the Minecraft movie, is that, it has already been proven you can tell compelling stories in the world of Minecraft. Remember the Fallen Kingdom music videos? Yet, Hollywood decideds to do the most generic thing I've ever witnessed

[@MrFram]

Some of the best minecraft animators from back then even got recruited to work in the big studios. Too bad those studios are forcing them to make Hollywood crap instead of letting them do what they're good at.

[@GKOYG_and_KAAF_is_epic]

Is sloppywood. 900 million dollars a fistfull of months. Dont expect quality beside few redeming gigs

[@07Flash11MRC]

Well, did the entertainment industry profit off of the Fallen Kingdom music videos? No? Then they may want what they consider their "fair share" of profits. This only happens in economic systems where profits matter the most such as cap...ism.

[@warron24]

Sorry but no. I don't think the real problem is that we missed out on some supposedly great Minecraft movie yet to be made. The Fallen Kingdom videos are good for what they are- cute, kind of charming nerd-kitsch- but those videos don't prove you could make a good movie out of this world.

[@SleepyZoop]

people defend this by saying "it's a kids movie" but WHY would that be? those who grew up with this game are adults now! why can't we have a movie with a solid plot that doesn't just consist of Slapstick jokes and "hey, remember this? hm? we put this in the movie! don't you feel nostalgic?" like... so much wasted potential. it's a shame .

[@SloMoMonday]

Just hosted a family Halloween event and was curious about what movies to set up for the older kids that evening. Some background noise while they all scroll tik-tok (god, I've gotten old). And they unironically wanted to watch Kane Pixles Backrooms and Oldest View. It was such a hit even some adults were getting into the story and for the first time in years, we had the family around the TV, sharing the same experience. Its not perfect, auteur grade Cinema; but I think everyone could recognize that it was a project earnestly made by people that love the story and their chosen medium. We were discussing how we would survive in that world. What real companies like amazon or walmart would do with such a technology. We were curious about Kane as a creator and were invested in where the story could go. And I know CG gets a bad rep, but there was genuine awe when some older people learned that none of it was real. It also inspired conversation on other independent creators and we dipped into Vita Carnis, Ted the Caver and Mandela Catalogue (which my dad compared to watching the Exorcist for the first time which was wild). There is definitely an appetite for good new art, especially with the public offerings being so hollow.

[@Cubeytheawesome]

Those kids have some good taste. Vita Carnis is awesome.

[@des-astre]

Honestly… it is cinema. The Oldest view is not only extremely well made by full of layers of messages and symbolisms. And both of these series were created by someone under 20 years old.

[@Someone-sc2hk]

I've gotta be honest if you let your children scroll tiktok you've failed as a parent

[@filmkonstrukteur]

Don't treat Animation and CGI (as tool for reallife films) as the same. It's the latter that "gets a bad rep". Not Animation itself. Very happy for you and your family to have such a beautiful evening! :)

[@WitchHunterSiegfried]

That Backrooms series is getting a full movie from A24 if you didn't know.

[@ParkerCS2]

WB’s Minecraft movie could potentially flop because how the majority of fans ratioed the trailer. Even kids hate the trailer. Just because a movie is meant for kids doesn’t mean it should be bad quality. Children aren’t stupid.

[@JNJNRobin1337]

maybe if they had steve with the pink sheep face it would have won

[@CRT_YT]

that only happened because hating on it became a massive meme lol. i guess the proper move is to absolutely spam memes and cringy tik toks anytime a new slop movie trailer drops?

[@ragcat3732]

I’m worried about people hate watching it. But maybe it will still flop.

[@ParkerCS2]

@ yeah only time will tell

[@xxmustard_boixx]

I REALLY hope that later down the line, an animated Minecraft move that is faithful to the original concept comes out. I would be thrilled with 90 minutes of Steve mining and building, especially over the slop the trailer for the Minecraft move.

[@isingwer]

I think you're hitting on something deeper than movies. Sincerity, and genuineness are things that have become rairer and rairer in our lives and culture. Being sarcastic and cynical is the order of the day, and so we've reached a point where nothing is to be taken seriously about our culture and it's driving people more and more to seek out genuine emotions and genuine things, people, and places

[@badlula17]

This is happening in every artistic medium. The mainstream is being turned into slop and the internet is allowing for the flourishing of underground art. We're in an all time productive era.

[@aubreypressley1450]

Yeah but that's the rough part. The mainstream is collapsing and with it a lot of great things like movie theaters and stuff. And we're all kind of shackled to this wider culture. The more the mainstream crumbles, the more some indie art will crumble with it because the outlets will fall apart. I don't want long form media to lose it's footing. I don't want the community of a theater to disappear. I know in some ways this destruction takes out gate keepers, but it also destroys some of the foundations that helped popularize the stuff they keep nostagically repeating.

[@__-be1gk]

The mainstream deserves it. Normies don't care about art, all media is background noise to them.

[@WasatchWind]

The very difficult part is that with books and games, the mainstream ways of publishing them have serious problems - but because of the relative ease of creating an independent project, we can still get fantastic books and games. This is a lot harder for making shows, and very hard for making movies.

[@FerinitheBloodHusky]

i feel like music is the only form that still gets good mainstream stuff, even if it is rare

[@wunderwalze]

There's ALWAYS gold to be found in the abundance of today's media. Too much for a lifetime. The key is to get what you want and leave before u get dizzy. And to share with friends

[@Thomas-wd1go]

35:11 Unfun fact: James Earl Jones' voice has already been used for AI. Disney did that for the Kenobi show and it sounds terrible compared to the Original Trilogy

[@EvilSnips]

wait where did you hear they used AI in Kenobi? I had no idea...

[@Thomas-wd1go]

@@EvilSnips It is in the credits of the show. They used a program called Respeecher

[@sundown6806]

iirc it was something he himself okayed before he died

[@emi2922]

@@sundown6806 Hiring a different voice actor is still the most ethical option

[@MyScorpion42]

I honestly liked his performance in Rogue One

[@jello4835]

I think part of the problem is that IP ownership is the only big advantage that major studios still have over indies. It used to be impossible to make films with good production value and famous actors unless you were a major studio, but that's not the case anymore. It's like how they started making epics to respond to the invention of TV, since TV couldn't give you Ben-Hur. Now indie studios can give you A-listers and good SFX, but they can't give you Yoda.

[@thejuiceking2219]

there's also the fact that a lot of these movie/show/game reviewers often don't bother to go over indie titles. why talk about original content when you can just repeat the same talking points about the newest mcu movie for the 10th time?

[@kosatochca]

@@thejuiceking2219 But isn’t it a problem in itself, when the true culture recedes to the indie and/or underground with mainstream becoming completely derivative and uninspiring? This greatly reminds me of the Soviet experience and not in a political way, but how people at the top went on with “Yep, we’ve reached the height of culture and arts now and so we’re gonna squeeze it”, which was for the Soviets the decision to endorse social realism in the 30s and basically force all other forms of expression into an independent production mode or underground. Again just an intersection parallel but the parallels might be as severe as they were in the Soviet Union with fizzling out mainstream media of all sorts

[@CollegeDroputPowerpoints]

And then you have the international market. These films make money specifically because of china if you check domestic vs outside countries.

[@RickJaeger]

The giant media companies are, as of now, not in the business of entertainment; they are in the business of monopolizing IPs. They are IP feudal overlords. They are IP rent extractors. They no longer want to make, they want to middleman something that unfortunately (from their POV) still actually needs to be made. They want AI production more than anything to allow the manufacturing of Content to be run on autopilot, so that all they have to do is serve this preprepared slop up on a plate and charge whatever the piggies will pay.

[@RdTrler]

And even when indies give you something that's legally distinct, there's Nintendo trolling the courts and updating their patents to sue people.

[@Geekus]

It’s beyond even just movies; the same handful of companies sell us food and advertise everywhere forever; the same three or four social media companies have bought and now own the act of humans interacting with each other (which has fundamentally changed how and why people seek out other people and experiences, not for the experience but for the instagram photo of the thing); and my god, the same politicians maintaining the same system of power, and they keep coming back (talk about a worse sequel to a bad movie…); even bigotry is a kind of “keeping things the same” ideology, suppressing other races, nationalities, genders, orientations, religions, etc. so that we have the same demographics as the norm and in power, again, forever. I don’t want to overreach the point, but I think a very real, very haunting case can be made that the ouroboros has many heads: artistic, political, religious, racial, sexual, economic, business, culinary, and more, all eating their tails until … I don’t even know, and I almost don’t want to.

[@JohnJohnson-sc7hn]

Until nothing. It doesn't stop. That's the point

[@amokriinprolgiid3409]

13:12 Ok, let's be perfectly honest here. Spiderman: No Way Home is riding ENTIRELY on nostalgia. The whole movie is built on callbacks to previous movies and having the villains and themes from previous spiderman movies. They literally redid the same scene of "Spiderman's girlfriend is falling to her death" so they can have Andrew Garfield save her. The whole thing felt like a remix of ideas from previous movies. It was enjoyable, but let's not sugarcoat what it is.

[@turtleanton6539]

Yeeeh

[@Njsr]

The thing is that this type of plots are the norm on Spiderman stories, almost at the same time we are having the Spiderverse movies that explore a similar concept. That it does not feel as forced as other cases.

[@graysonmcguire3510]

Facts, it was the movie that made me fully give up on Marvel. It was two and a half hours of pure fan service and I felt embarrassed that this is what Marvel thought I wanted.

[@dragonexe2297]

The difference between No Way Home and most of the other examples I saw in this video is that its concept wasn't 'heey, remember this character? Remember this joke? You'll get it again, because you liked it so much the first time!1' alone. It did repeat jokes and memes and that was the worst part of NWH, yes, but it also worked as the final movie for the Raimi- and Garfield-Spider-Man series they didn't get. Both series weren't finished because the movies weren't as successful as the studio wanted it to be, so both Maguires and Garfields, but especially latters, arc were cut short. The scene of Garfield-Peter saving MJ is one of the best of the movie and it isn't because of 'hey, remember this? Remember this??', but because it works with Garfield-Peters guilt over not being able to safe his girlfriend, and that now he may be able to heal from that. This is the smallest way to tell and finish his story, but it's also work most other movies didn't put into their project. And yeah, NWH isn't perfect and yeah, it does lean on nostalgia, but compare this how The Flash or Deadpool 3 handle legacy characters for example and you see that there is a big difference in quality.

[@graysonmcguire3510]

@@dragonexe2297 That's very valid. In all honesty, I was so sensitive to the fan service and nostalgia baiting I was conditioned to expect from Marvel around that time, that it fully overshadowed anything redeeming about the movie for me. Might be worth a rewatch

[@D3K43]

Bro's dressed like he's about to leave a hand-made explosive device in the Disneyland parking lot in a box.

[@thecoolbyzantine24]

based

[@mildly_miffed_man1414]

Me

[@hemiacetal1331]

​@@mildly_miffed_man1414 Me fr fr mfw me

[@CollegeDroputPowerpoints]

Hes the ai version of Banksy

[@crypto0829]

oo I thought he kinda looks like Yuji Itadori from jujutsu kaisen. maybe since since i was posted/recorded near halloween? that's just my guess tho

[@tsunderemerc2963]

It's ironic to me how Star Wars is in the care of a soulless corporation, when the amazing thing about the original 6 is that Lucas was always independent and in control. He had to answer to nobody. He could make them exactly how HE wanted (whether you like that or not), rather than how some boardroom agenda wanted it to be. The complete opposites of freedom and subservience. And now it's the task of these smaller underground artists to make their art how *they* want. Star Wars references itself in a multitude of ways (like Anakin saving Palpatine and then later killing him), but that serves a very clear narrative purpose. Disney references the old movies at face value, with nothing to say about it or add to it. Just "Remember Star Wars?"

[@esterhammerfic]

Exactly. The new series feels like 10 different people are all trying to write scenes to maximize how much nostalgia bait they can throw at audiences.

[@SoulBro12]

My issues with George Lucas at the time is that he's too independent and he needs to be kept in check by a group of people at times because he sucks at story telling but at least he can come up with a great world that other writers and creator can work out of and make truly something great. The disney era is just slop after slop due to the suits being the one keeping thing in check

[@glocrowhurst]

Just want to throw out there the og trilogy was not Lucas alone, but a team of dedicated storytellers, editors, etc. However they were a TEAM, and they all were artistically invested in the process.

[@MyScorpion42]

​@@glocrowhurstYeah, the first film was heavily edited down from his original plans

[@tsm688]

Luke originally had school buddies! Lucas wanted to market Mark Hamil as a high school "kid"! Imagine a universe where nobody had the power to talk Lucas down from that bridge -- well you don't have to, that's when things like Jar Jar happen. Star Wars was saved by editing as much as anything else.

[@NostalgiaAmbience]

It's SO GOOD to hear a pop culture criticism without the word "wOkE"

[@FrenchThottyAmelia]

It’s still part of the problem

[@rexfury8724]

I think one of the main problems with the modern film industry is a term called: irony poisoning, the term is used to refering when a person uses irony so much that they can no longer take anything seriously, you mentioned it quite a few times in the video, they dont take the source material seriously, or well anything at all, theyre completely poisoned with irony and that seeps into their work, making their works completely flaccid by result

[@Cubeytheawesome]

I completely agree, in some of the movies I’ve seen recently, most of the cast was like they did not want to be there. Also Modern family guy too

[@labrynianrebel]

"Well that just happened!"

[@Gharict-the-Fwatler]

Welp, based on my general sense of humor, I might have irony poisoning; my artwork might be cooked

[@mrgalaxy396]

I don't think it's irony poisoning at all. It's just good old design by committee. Distill it so it appeals to the lowest common denominator because that's what guarantees a return on investment. Sure you could make a bigger profit with a bolder movie, but that's also risky as it might not pay off and business is all about certainty. In some cases it's also arrogance where the committee wants to make the source material "theirs" and introduce major changes to serve some self-indulging narrative.

[@howdoyoudo5949]

@@mrgalaxy396 Its still Irony Posting.

[@Exnem]

"Remember the 60’s, you know, that era that people have glorious memories of? They really weren’t that great, but one thing that did happen in the 60’s was that some music of an unusual or experimental nature did get recorded and did get released. Now look at who the executives were in those companies at the times. Not hip young guys. These were cigar-chomping old guys who looked at the product and said “I don’t know… who knows what it is? Record it, stick it out, if it sells… alright”. We were better off with those guys than we are now with the supposedly hip young executives, who are making the decisions on what people should see and hear in the marketplace. - The young guys are more conservative, and more dangerous to the art form than the old guys with the cigars ever were." - Zappa on this in the late 80s. Today those "young guys" are the old, the boomers. And they have not changed one bit. They still want to dictate what everyone else needs to do, rather than just sit back and let whatever an artist has breathe. Its not just that "they are only trying to make money" which some make it out to be. It's not like those cigar chomping executives of the 60s were super into expanding their minds and anti-war causes, yet that type of art became massive because it was profitable as Zappa points out. It's the attitude change at the top that is the real problem. It went from the cynical "I dont care make me money" to the equally cynical but much more destructive: "I need to both rectify my insecurities about my unearned position _and_ make money"

[@plateoshrimp9685]

Exactly. The early 60's are a pretty terrible time in American filmmaking. People seem to forget the studio system collapse of the 60s. The studios were trying to make the same films they'd been making since the 30's (historical epics etc) and the public just wasn't interested, especially since television was providing free entertainment in basically every home at this point. We wouldn't have gotten the films of the late 60s and 70s (really the height of American cinema) if we didn't have that collapse. The cigar chomping old guys had to lose a bunch of money before they threw up their hands and let directors do what they wanted, opening the door to go from "Camelot" to "Apocalypse Now". We've been here before. The question is whether modern mega-corps are able to make the same sort of decisions as cigar chomping old guys. My bet is on something more dystopian, like AI movie projection drones will follow you around and force you to watch the latest Marvel movie for 35 bucks unless you opt out.

[@NeyamRye]

Exactly

[@mastah39]

That only proves that no matter what the year is, the "Last 10 years of X" are always the "Worst ten years of X" Music, gaming, cinema, books, whatever. It's just plain old survivorship bias, we look back at the 5, 10, 15 good movies of an entire decade or more, and we say "all the movies in that era were amazing" completely ignoring the hundreds of "Mac and me" released in between a Ghostbusters and a Home Alone.

[@suspicioussand]

Everyone is always so blinded by nostalgia it's ridiculous

[@pleasegoawaydude]

@@suspicioussand Right, but most things just are actually better up until about ten years ago.

[@mjr_schneider]

As soon as I saw the Russo Brothers and Chris Pratt attached to The Electric State I knew there was no hope for it. I don't know how they looked at an atmospheric sci-fi horror art novel and thought it would make great material for more Marvel slop, but they did it.

[@Quinold]

That trailer devastated me. I had some hopes for it but I knew very well it could be hot garbage. I wanted a somber journey venturing through a technologically advanced nation in decline. I absolutely don’t care for the fast paced action that was no where in the source..

[@MarshalMarrs-eu9yh]

I think the film/media/entertainment industry in America should be completely abolished and be replaced with something else entirely.

[@Shoxic666]

I'm going to start praying they don't touch Romantically Apocalyptic. Nightly.

[@SallyGreen-yt7kj]

Why is Chris Pratt in everything now! I don't hate guy or anything, but come off it! Stop shoehorning the same actor into 1 mil projects

[@jonaut5705]

I knew the movie existed, but I only just saw the trailer and my heart sunk

[@aguynamedwyatt]

I wish that the Minecraft movie had been inspired by the end poem of the game, where it pretty much states that this is just a dream that you can escape into, but you eventually have to wake up from this dream and go to the real world. I wish it was like Steve was running from something bad that happened to him, and he found his way to the Minecraft world, where he’s able to have complete creative freedom and make up stories of grandeur and heroism. But then, when the people fall into that world, it’s a reminder of what he was hiding from, and even though he’ll miss the Minecraft world, he has to go back to the real world, except now he’s stronger because of everything he has done in the Minecraft world. I feel like that would be such a great testament to what Minecraft is at its core: a video game where you can accomplish and do anything you want.

[@Dinglesmckringles]

Correction: Luke didn't miss the kick. He used a Force Kick.

[@seatspud]

Ref Mills Lane's Force Ghost: "I'll allow it!"

[@Berry-Urodo]

a wizard did it

[@stellviahohenheim]

If they could do everything using the force then why bother move at all? Just stand still and force push everyone

[@ULTRAOutdoorsman]

@@stellviahohenheim like Elfen Lied basically

[@neptonic7590]

Is one of those funny things, like, if Vader was strong enough to force choke his goons from across a screen, how come he didn't catch Luke when he dropped? Or how come he didn't force pushed Palpi instead of frying himself when he save Luke? Did he wanted to atone for his crime? Should've turned himself in then. Did he wanted to AVOID taking responsability and take the easy way out? That would contradict his redemption, so we know it wasn't that. As said in the video, even the OT had errors, what matters, is that they had a lot of heart too

[@purplehaze2358]

What I find interesting about the first Jurassic World film is that the very existence of the Indominus seemed to be an.. admittedly half-baked meta-commentary on how films need to essentially try to make the old stuff but better, but actually worse. And then you have the rest of the movies in the series missing that point, poorly explored though it was, and in the process becoming the one thing the series sought to criticize.

[@nanuqo2006]

Jurassic World could have been so good if a better director than Colin Trevorrow was attached

[@nicolasnamed]

Honestly I think they're just that stupid that in a meta way the story of Jurassic World ended up being about the movie itself and why it shouldn't exist. There was no wink at the camera. It's soulless capitalist slop. I watched Jurassic World while high a bit ago and it made me so mad what a shit movie it is. I feel like the later ones just gave up but in a funny camp way, so I enjoy them a lot more than world.

[@Krona-fb4dn]

@@nanuqo2006 to add to this, the same writers for Jurassic World wrote the critical and commercial success, Rise of the Planet of the Apes. I am confident saying that Rise, Dawn, and War for the Planet of the Apes are genuinely up there with Lord of the Rings in terms of “movie trilogies” quality. Genuine shame Andy Serkis didn’t win an Oscar for Caesar.

[@Jim90117]

I thought that was clever of them too, it was an almost 4th wall breaking aspect of the movie. I fear when the money men saw the success of Jurassic World it was simply a case of pump out the next 2 movies fast and cash in, which judging by the poor quality of Fallen Kingdom and Dominion, it clearly was.

[@ciclon5682]

@@nicolasnamed Nah, the first jurassic world movie its okay for being an attempt at continuing a saga that had no business being revived (it could have gone a lot worse), the other two movies did a good choice by trying to be their own thing and by trying not to link it too much to the old movies but they didnt get all there. lost kingdom its an enjoybale action movie but it sucks as a sequel, the same can be said for dominion, but it gets extra points due to the awesome visuals.

[@unamelable256]

The main problem of modern media: When source material becomes too rich, companies don't tend to create something new or innovative. Why would you risk, and release something ambiguous, when you can play safe and parasitize what you have in your arsenal? Remember, companies exist only because they have only one in mind - output result, *have to be profitable*. And that why we see world as we see right now.

[@caldw615]

Streaming killed a lot of potential unique/risky productions. Years ago a movie could flop or barely break even at the box office (even if it is a good movie it might just release at a highly competitive time or during a time of financial issues that make people less likely go splurge on cinema visits) but then make a killing later in video/DVD sales later through word of mouth. Nowadays streaming services want to have already established IP's in their library so they'll stick to those, and since most people choose to stream instead of buying DVD's at all then those lesser known more experimental movies just don't get bought or rented like before. So because they don't get the chance to be established, streaming platforms continue to only purchase the rights for franchises people already know and the IP owners continue to milk those franchises to continue selling them to streaming platforms etc.

[@darkzeroprojects4245]

I don't think it's that alone. They just don't make good stuff period.

[@cartoonishidealism582]

Not just profitable, they constantly have to be MORE profitable. If they make a billion dollars one year and 9 hundred million the next year, it's somehow a FAILURE.

[@kiloyu3325]

why not make something good and creative that people will want to watch if they want profit then? two birds with one stone

[@darkzeroprojects4245]

@kiloyu3325 because execs and such think for themselves short term AFAIK.

[@C-Llama]

Good video but tbh I think "our culture" is too broad a term when the video is just about the film/TV industry and never makes connections to other aspects of culture or culture at large. I'm sure there are more examples of this in many other facets of modern culture that could have been used to make a broader point. Aside from that pedantic nitpick though, perfect video.

[@NugGarou]

I remember 20 years ago reading one of my dad’s issues of Entertainment Weekly. Toby McGuire’s Spider-Man was on the cover and the cover article was something to the effect of how everything is a sequel, prequel, remake, reboot, or adaptation these days.

[@Clownacy]

I remember KZbinrs making a big fuss about this same subject 10 years ago.

[@turtleanton6539]

Yea😊😅😅😅

[@malif1279]

Time is a flat circle

[@kaphizmey6229]

it’s always been a problem, but it’s been especially bad since about 2010. that’s when a lot of these remakes/reboots started coming out

[@panoskotoulas759]

has it been any better since then??

[@mantamariana64]

When you mentioned Hollywood not caring about death, that brought up another thing many have felt, a lack of sincerity. It's now surprising when an emotional moment is allowed to play out and not be interrupted by a quip or a gag. Let the audience feel. There's a reason people can't stand "Well, that just happened dialogue" The film doesn't care about these moments, why should we?

[@zenboy1612]

It reflects the culture, real values are laughed at.

[@pleasegoawaydude]

@@zenboy1612 This is actually a genuine issue I've been furious about. Everybody is genuinely proud of being apathetic. They consider it a form of superiority. Sincerity is considered a flaw, everything is 'not that deep' and to even personally engage in giving a shit is a threat to their belief that nothing can possibly matter.

[@justseffstuff3308]

@@zenboy1612 Genuinely! It's the "quit yapping" crowd- people who want to pretend everything is simple, that everything not perfectly matching what they feel is meaningless.

[@TheVoidIsCold]

@@pleasegoawaydude I'm confused? Is being apathetic also mean that you dont believe anything matters? Cause I'm pretty sure that was nihilism, not apathy. I'm not sure if I really count as apathetic, but I do consider myself as being apathetic sometimes.

[@callmeej8399]

@@TheVoidIsCold they do go hand in hand technically. Nihilism is the philosophical premise that life has no meaning and any any attempt to find meaning is meaningless so there’s no reason to struggle or achieve anything. A person practicing true nihilism would be apathetic (lacking care) If you see the world without meaning but decide to create meaning or enjoy what you can you would be an existentialist or an absurdist. Both pick and choose what they care about. In summation nihilist are apathetic. Existentialism and absurdism can be apathetic.

[@chasemiller3712]

It should be mentioned that the same problem isn't exclusive to movies. While remasters and remakes of video games can be a nice way of reintroducing a new audience to a series, it's telling that people are more excited for remasters of old games than brand new games. But, worse of all is music. There's been a recent trend in pop music where new artists have just covered older (sometimes, they're not even that old) songs and giving them a generic pop/trap "flare". Like video games, it's telling that we are so pessimistic of the present and future that we'll cling desperately to the past. The mainstream is dead, and all I feel is loneliness.

[@enderkoregameing8090]

Dua Lipa's music sounds very good IMO, but I really can't help but feel like the tracks pull solely from 80s/90s grooves and wouldn't sound listenable without them

[@mapper7310]

@@enderkoregameing8090 While I see your point, most media would not exist without building off of the past. While I'm not a huge fan of Dua Lipa, its a lot more commendable than the current interpolation trend in music, which I see as a parallel to the remake/sequel culture of movies.

[@plebisMaximus]

At least with games and music, it's fairly easy to go off the beaten path. With games, you just browse the indie category on Steam and with music, you just turn off the radio and go listen to something else. I discovered most of my favourite current bands by just listening to old power metal and then getting YT recommendations to listen to Sabaton, Twilight Force, Brothers of Metal, Dreadnoughts and many, many more. I agree it's still an issue the mainstream is so soulless, but I don't think the issue is as bad anywhere as it is with movies, it's a lot harder to find good original movies. I live as far out as you can in rural Denmark, my nearest cinema isn't going to waste screening time playing some Slovak art movie 2 people might be interested in, they're just going to play the big budget American Hollywood films and occasionally, when there's a big new local movie coming out, that'll get a few spots too. I also can't exactly travel around the world to film festivals to see what people are coming up with. If I want independent filmmaking, the best shot is trying to scour KZbin and that's lost artistic integrity too, in favour of what makes money.

[@marekverescak2493]

This. Radio stations in my country constantly play these pop covers of songs and sometimes covers of covers that completly suck the life out of the original and i feel like im going insane

[@TheIndigoShine]

I hate music reusing melodies from older songs. Especially when they're very memorable songs like I'm Blue or anything else. It's not good. It's just plagiarism!

[@attentionlabel]

Love the spray painted title cards! Great video, thank you for treating this theme with such passion!

[@xandersbrain]

as a student studying film at nyu i can confirm there are so so so many young filmmakers obsessed with making real, original art and while my peers and i aren't at the point in our careers where we could be doing that yet, im sure the same can be said of every one of us now in their 30s and 40s. there are so many artists eager to tell new stories studios just don't want to hear them anymore. these days big-budget movies are basically entirely crafted by producers and studios, not writers and directors. i hope that the recent decline in financial success for a lot of these remakes, however small, and increased interest in slightly original movies (plus a HUGE increase in interest in less-mainstream and indie projects) will prompt at least a slight revival by the time me and my peers are at our prime, and i do think there's a *bit* more promise in TV for original stories at the moment, but my faith in the hand of the free market to allow art to flourish like it once did is cautiously optimistic at most.

[@TwoSouthFarm]

I guess you are still too optimistic

[@hamishbarrett7695]

faith in the hand of the free market 🤣🤣🤣the free market is why we are here mate. keep doing your thing and put less faith in those processes

[@tsm688]

lucas had the exact same problem. he wasn't a traditional filmmaker, he was an art filmmaker, and had to fight tooth and nail to not be put to work making just another cowboy movie.

[@tsm688]

the free market optimizes nothing but the flow of cash by any means. "corruption" is just as likely a result as "quality"

[@hasch5756]

The free market does not allow the arts to flourish. It is a sublime and tremendous force against them like a cyclone, it is more inescapable, more unquestionable, more capricious, and more unforgiving than the mechanisms of censorship designed or ever designable by any human hand; and everything in its gaping, calamitous wake is either broken or bent in the same exact direction. Not only forbids it anything that will not be profitable to come into existence, but even that which is profitable will not satisfy it if the expected profit has not yet reached its maximum. The current avalanche of bland content and generated slop is exactly what should be expected from its increasingly harsh demands, and only a sorry handful who managed to eek out a pause from its beatings can afford to bow their scarred bodies over the barren terrain to cultivate the remains of their artistic vision

[@nadias.mariano2196]

Dune is not a remake. it is an adaptation of the book, with zero connection with the other movie. To say that Dune is a remake, it's the same of saying that the Lord of the Rings trilogy is a remake of the animated movies that came before.

[@Yaqins]

THIS!

[@turtleanton6539]

Indeed😅

[@byronholt2031]

Its a remake of the book though?

[@Yaqins]

@@byronholt2031 it's called an adaptation, there's no such thing as a remake of the book

[@DaveWasThereMan]

Okay nerds

[@OnlineVideoSurfer]

One point I want to add to this essay is that the sheer quantity of media is also enabling our cultural retreat into nostalgia, sequels, prequels, and remakes. As you noted, there are no shortage of smaller, independent projects - good and bad - for people to find, nor has it even been easier to make your own movies or artistic creations. Yet, the greater the amount of media, the harder it is to separate the good from the bad, and the harder it is to have a shared culture that makes these moves/media feel more significant. Often it's just easier for your average person to retreat back to the familiar. So even if a studio wants to take a risk, the incentives are still lined up against them. That said, it doesn't make this escape to nostalgia any more tolerable, nor does it make the studios any less cynical, lazy, and incompetent. The ouroboros is hungry and it won't rest until there's nothing left to eat, and even after it's done we'll still use AI to revive the snake again and again!

[@cinnamonnoir2487]

Washington Irving pointed out this problem more than 200 years ago. He prophesied that in the future an "educated" person may really be nothing more than a walking catalog of great works, without having any firsthand knowledge of any of them, because the flood of literature would simply be too much to pick through. There might be so many great books that it would be the work of a lifetime to even learn all of their names. Fortunately, criticism has grown alongside the production of art to make it easier for people to find the good stuff, which Irving also predicted. I think his fears were pretty overblown, but it makes me appreciate all the tools we have to narrow our selections so we don't go crazy trying to watch everything. That's a big reason why I prefer physical media to streaming; it's harder to bite off more than you can chew when you're limited to what you can physically carry out of a store.

[@AfutureV]

I have always hated the criticism of "When was the last time someone talked about X". Of course in the past people would talk about Jaws or Star Wars for months, because not much was coming out to change the conversation. We still have a shared culture but people act like if they have not seen a gif of a movie on their timeline in the last month, the movie has completely disappeared from the public consciousness.

[@JSSMVCJR2.1]

"and even after it's done we'll still use AI to revive the snake again and again!" No wonder why it's all cynical these days.

[@user-wb8iu1hl6i]

I don’t think having a shared media culture is all that important

[@destroyerofturtles5024]

I completely agree, I think Social media algorithms have encouraged more and more niche and personalized experiences, while neglecting a common culture.

[@stivie2013]

What a perfect video, thank you for wrapping up everything I've been feeling for the past years in such a digestable way.

[@CrybabyDraws]

There's a segment from Matt Damon's episode of Hot Ones where he talked about how streaming and the abandonment of DVD sales and Blu-Ray releases changed the movie industry and how movies are made. I highly recommend watching the full segment of him talking about it for anyone interested, but he basically explained that a DVD or Blu-Ray release was like the movie reopening acting like a second chunk of revenue that studios and film makers could rely on. Even if you didn't make a ton on the initial theatrical release, it was ok because you made an extra chunk of money once the DVD sale happened. This meant they could take more risks with the movies they made. Once DVD sales were abandoned and streaming came along though, you didn't have that extra revenue that used to come from DVD sales. Now, you have to guarantee that there are enough butts in seats to make a profit upon release. What gets butts in seats? Familiarity and nostalgia. Trying something new is risky and with these movies costing so much money now, studios are going to be very picky about what risks they actually can take if any at all. The craziest part is that streaming as a business model seems to be proving more and more to be unsustainable, but it's the only option for people who want to watch certain pieces of media. With DVDs, you owned a copy of the movie. You bought it with your money and you could pop it into the DVD player and watch it whenever you want. Now, you need a subscription to a platform that will probably take it off later whether you like it or not. On top of that, you'll probably still have to watch it with ads anyways even though you're paying to watch it already. Profit seeking behavior will be the end of everything you enjoy and, unfortunately, we live in an economic system that makes it a requirement in every facet of society. It's not rocket science; it's capitalism...Lord Capitalism.

[@ritishify]

> What gets butts in seats? Familiarity and nostalgia. Also, I'm pretty sure that all fantasy / sci-fi movies end up overlooking certain details because, for one, they're not looking to portray real events, and the potential of criticism equals potential for engagement. Nothing get people talking like someone doing something wrong, nowadays, and many content creators of all kinds are starting to capitalize on it. I coincidentally saw that interview too and I agree Matt Damon seems to know what he was talking about. I don't think that the quality of all movies will degrade though, like, this is not a loss for the movie industry because of how big it is, or at least that's what I hope. I mean, I don't think there's a shortage of supply, or even demand, but rather a problem with distribution as you pointed out very well. My hope though, is that these big companies that are pushing and massively distributing their products fail sooner than later, or at least change the way they do things, before some other, less known companies get some recognition out of all of this. I'm not too knowledgeable on the production panorama but I'm pretty sure that we all hear the same brand names over and over again since we were kids, it would make sense to me that their time had come, haha. But yeah my conclusion is that story-telling has been such a fundamental part of human culture that not matter what something good will come out. It's also clear to me that, with so much to choose from, it's just inevitable that a lot of bad stuff will have to be analyzed before it's officially determined that it is bad. It's crazy not being able to choose a fun movie because we're worried that they're basically trying to rob our time, haha.

[@fhornmichaelmac]

This is clearly a sign that the return of physical media and actually owning the things you pay for is something which is long overdue. Maybe if they could get production costs down with the right format, they could offer movies to people for cheap on, like, proprietary SD cards or something? I dunno -- SOMETHING has to work on people frustrated that series get fragmented across streaming services and pulled from them without warning. They're not even profitable for anybody excepy Netflix, and even then they're hitting ceilings....

[@ritishify]

@@fhornmichaelmac Do you think humanity could take such a step back, though? It is now common knowledge that you can have all kinds of media stored in one same place (a computer) and sorting through virtual files is always going to be a lot more efficient, among other benefits. I think that if those companies did such a thing, a black market would arise instantly to fill in the gap that they left. I don't know a better alternative but sounds like it wouldn't do much good to go back to physical media, would you agree?

[@tamaritiel9909]

The Electric State book freaked me out soooo much the first time I read it. Something about a world that's addicted to VR gave me nightmares and a giant part of that weird creepiness came from the haunting artwork. I won't dare cheapen this experience by watching a Netflix adaptaion of it.

[@michaelbennion3704]

Thank you some elder who feels the same I only feel rage for the way the adaptation is being taken

[@Rathersillydude]

The Electric State adaptation is a fucking war crime.

[@campbellmays9900]

It’s never said when the world diverged from ours but I’ve always imagined it as a Man in the High Castle sequel - Nazis and Japan destroy each other in a nuclear war and the book’s civilization is what results

[@wahrerrosty5347]

Reminds me of Dan Simmon's Hyperion. There are people there addicted to "flashback". It is basically a Nanovirus that people inject into their brains (with a cable and implants) to replay nostalgic memories over and over again. This becomes a viscious cycle to the point where the addicted becomes a frozen shell of himself, lethargically staring into the void. Speaking of which, do you know how people surfing this tale's equivalent of the web call "Real life"? They call it "slowtime".

[@davesmith1588]

It looks horrendous, at least the Tales From the Loop series got the atmosphere right and was well written and acted

[@Amyisntcreative]

I lowkey missed your commentary bro, my dinner is SAVED

[@wargames2195]

Sincerity, that's indeed the key. Have respect for the stuff you are making.

[@kamakura5793]

they call me the oro the way i borous

[@chasehedges6775]

Good one

[@user-xp8nq5mf9y]

They call me oro97

[@erickonami1]

Low effort comment gets 100 likes. This is proof of culture eating itself

[@zonkedmc]

gay and cringe

[@jythmivena6617]

She oro on my borous till my snake gets eaten I am not sorry

[@earthchompz]

The irony of getting 4 minutes into this and thinking, "Yeah, I've heard pretty much all of this".... This video about how everything's being rehashed. It makes the irony so thick my knife just can't cut through it.

[@leonthethird7494]

There was one good point about the rehashing of the actors themselves through AI and CGI.

[@CoolManCoolMan123]

​@@leonthethird7494but everything else? It didn't even have a neutral view. About Marvel, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 was great, Deadpool yeah I get his point. But, X-Men 97 was probably the best Marvel stuff after Infinity War. Loki was good. Penguin is basically like Joker case where it is an inspiration of a great show(Sopranos). Remakes didn't even include the section of good movies failing. The fall Guy, Transformers One(especially), etc. It felt more like a summary of everything wrong with modern culture, and not something different from especially someone like Solar Sands who us artistic and cares for quality

[@leonthethird7494]

@@CoolManCoolMan123 yeah, it was weird that he praised joker even though its just a joker themed remake of the king of comedy and taxi driver. I feel liked he could have added more by maybe bringing in some more numbers, giving reasons to why there are so many adaptations/sequels and maybe predicted where this trend was going. For the most part it was just surface level critiques of filmed picked seemingly at random. It was also a bit confusing, whether or not he had an issue with remakes in general or just ones he himself considers bad. Even disneys recent original film receives criticism from him.

[@CollegeDroputPowerpoints]

I think this is more of a wake up call than a breakthrough. We 100% need more people to notice these things so ill drop a quick like on it

[@irecordwithaphone1856]

​​@@CoolManCoolMan123Transformers One didn't fail, it made more money than they spent on the budget. It just wasn't a smash hit. I wouldn't call that a failure though. The problem is companies expecting everything to be a smash hit on the levels of an MCU film

[@hazeust]

This Friday night dinner watch is gonna hit different

[@matthias7968]

Omg you reminded me of the Friday Night Dinner sitcom lol

[@Krazy6ix]

@@matthias7968 hello jackie 🤓🐕‍🦺

[@neelharrison3439]

I remember discussing with someone about how much I was dreading the release of Rings of Power season 2 and how disappointed I am with how Tolkien's property is being treated. The unironic response was "well at least we're getting more middle earth right?" Like, no, not right. I'd literally rather have nothing.

[@bigscarysoup8046]

There have been cases lately where there are so many AI generated images online, the AI that made them will reference itself when asked to conjure a new image, creating unrecognizable slop, believing that it made what was asked of it. Like always, life imitates art.

[@chaosfire321]

Not quite. AI programs don't learn in real time. The datasets are static. It just means future AI systems will be a pain to train (and even that's unclear.)

[@Murkaeus]

It's not just movies that are banking on nostalgia. Recently it was announced that half of all sets released for Magic: the Gathering would be "Universes Beyond" where they bring in other IPs (Jurassic Park, Godzilla, SpongeBob Squarepants, etc.). They've been slowly abandoning their own product in favor of other franchises. Many of the in-universe sets are creatively bankrupt, basically amounting to "what if we put our most popular characters in [x] setting?".

[@alephnull3535]

Spice8Rack has a great video on this topic. The problems with modern MTG actually go way beyond the crossover sets

[@stenstensson2610]

Was going to write this exact comment. Magic has no future anymore. Other nerdy hobbies are closely going there as well - D&D having Rick & Morty books, dumbing down of the rules, and Critical roll being turned into a blueprint for a game that's literally about using your own unbound imagination. Warhammer 40k is getting a lot of attention with SpaceMarine2 and it scares me for what is to become of that universe when the Netflix adaptations and Fortnite crossovers inevitably roll around. But i have hope. Nerds are resilient. We just have to go back to how our ancestors played and enjoyed media in the 80s and 90s

[@iniquumiudicium811]

We had it all... Godzilla skin cards could've been everything and it wasn't :(

[@PacdemonStudios1]

I mean how many decades can you realistically add new things to a setting without diluting everything about it? At a certain point it's okay for things to end, not for Hasbro of course they want that money, but audiences really need to let go of the notion that everything needs a sequel, and that every franchise should go on forever.

[@stenstensson2610]

​@@PacdemonStudios1 Magic is a setting. You could write infinite captivating stories about infinite characters on infinite planes (dimensions) in that setting. Series and franchises that start and end on their own in wildly different themes and genres. Take "Urzas saga" or "War of the spark" for example. Beginning middle and end. But for a smaller example: Dack Fayden. Arguably each block used to literally be a beginning middle and end of a contained story that sometimes got a sequel. The problem is now that stakes have been erased (omenpaths), and since we dont have planned blocks anymore no story can be more complex than "this is the cowboy one", "this is the racing one" - not even the Phyrexian invasion got more than one set. Sure, things like Innistrad and Kamigawa are still that to an extent, but we explored deeper in those settings and got past the "planet of hats" exteriors and into their lore, characters, and stories.

[@AfutureV]

I am glad you made the clarification that the Mainstream (more specifically Hollywood) is the problem. But I also think dismissing independent movies as a potential solution to the problem is very unproductive. When people say "This is the worst era of cinema" they always tend to refer to something extremely specific with the most general language. The complaint is about a very specific region of a specific country, and movies that have high budgets, mostly tied to a franchise. If you think it is productive, or even accurate, to attribute the failures of this specific movie type to all of cinema, I fully disagree. Why wait for the mainstream to get better when there are fantastic movies made every year that barely get noticed? It is funny that in gaming, telling someone to play an indie game is common and people try them, but tell someone to watch independent/foreign movies and they act like you just asked them to climb Mount Everest.

[@sundown6806]

I don't think games and movies are that good of a comparison. For one, movies don't have a Steam equivalent. There's no one central place where you can buy almost any movie like you can with games. Secondly, games are on average waaayyyyy easier to make than movies. This means that indie games don't suffer from the same limitations that indie movies do. A single developer can mimic say Titanfall 2's gameplay loop relatively easily, whereas an independent studio has no hope of recreating something like an MCU movie. If you like those movies, you have a really hard time finding them in the independent space. You'll probably refute this point by saying people should have better tastes then or something like that, but then that's admitting that getting into indie movies *is* a hard task

[@AfutureV]

@@sundown6806 Actually I would disagree. Steam does not have even remotely "almost every game", and while one central platform does not have every movie, older movies are way more accessible than older games. There is a realm where you can buy a lot of movies easier than games, physical. I have no idea how you think that making a game is easier than making a movie. I assume your definition of movie does not include ones like The Blair Witch Project. I would not say anything about people's tastes at all. I would say that for Titanfall you are extracting the core gameplay but not doing the equivalent for the MCU. A guy with a camera an make an superhero movie or even an interconnected cinematic universe. If you mean the use of very expensive VFX, then the equivalent would be the polish of Titanfall that indies can not easily achieve.

[@hanifarroisimukhlis5989]

@@sundown6806 No, making movie is _way_ easier than game. For one, all you need is a camera, not even actors are necessary. Heck, you can do away with camera and use exclusively Blender. Will it be a good film? Probably not. But hey, at least you tried. Also film don't even have to be feature-length, make a short for all i care. Audience only watch in one POV, passively, for

[@sundown6806]

@@hanifarroisimukhlis5989 "will it be a good film? Probably not" Well that's kinda exactly my point. It's way easier to make a good game on your own than a good movie. And for your second point, that still doesn't really make it harder than movies. There's whole game engines you can use entirely for free to make your game.

[@joesizzle10]

@@sundown6806​​⁠I agree with your core point, but movies do have a central location where you can buy almost any movie, its called prime video. Also, I don't think making games is "easier", because any untrained dude with a camera and microphone can make a movie, but game programming requires training. There are other glaring things that set them apart though, movie theaters only have so many times available, which means none to waste on indie projects. An indie game can become a huge hit without a publisher, but you're not likely to be seen as a filmmaker until you have a publisher.

[@henningerhenningstone691]

This too shall pass. Back when these now-franchises were new, they weren't franchises but someone's passionate vision that they had to come up with because there was nothing to copy, or copying was too hard. Now that there are these successful franchises around, the greedy mega-corporations who own the IP can continue to milk them because it requires no effort or risk (especially now that copying has become trivial). But eventually, no one will feel any more nostalgia from them and the franchises will fade, creating another need for actual creativity and room for new ideas. We just happen to live in the difficult inbetween-times, which feels frustrating.

[@mariaa.7624]

I can't remember exactly why I subbed but I'm so fcking glad I did. Thank you for talking about this.

[@juliusnepos6013]

Indeed

[@wj11jam78]

I subbed back in the deviantart days

[@JSSMVCJR2.1]

Is it me, or have I tasted Confirmation Bias and Ego... Egoing in this comment?

[@seahawksfan76]

When I saw the first half of the trailer for the Harold and the Purple Crayon, I thought the animation looked great and that there's some promise to it. And then it goes to live-action.... Hollywood rarely learns the right lessons.

[@jingalls9142]

You cannot be serious. We used to make the joke 20 years ago about Forrest Gump 2: The Gumpining...now that it might actually happen makes me nervous.

[@minespatch]

Especially since it's a grown man in a toddler's outfit, feels like a humiliation fetish.

[@SadeN_0]

to be fair, it's practically confirmed that matrix resurrections sucks on purpose. lana wachowski chose to drive the property into the ground herself because otherwise the studio would've been able to give the property to someone else to milk forever, due to expiring contracts with the original filmmakers.

[@CollegeDroputPowerpoints]

Doesnt mean its good on paper. Rian Johnson made last jedi bad on purpose to subvert expectations that doesnt mean we have to congratulate him for a job well done. Its inconsistent with previous works and shows they care about corporate gripes over the actual audience.

[@Lucas-sk5iy]

@@CollegeDroputPowerpoints He didn't make it bad on purpose to subvert expectations. He made it to subvert expectations and it was really bad. In his mind he was making good decisions.

[@snowcoalRC]

if true thats respectable and based. Waste the studios money and simultaneously save the franchise from a fate worse than death.

[@evanpereira3555]

To be fair too, the second and third Matrix aren't great films either, so the sequels are just bonus (and closure) for the original one.

[@szczypawa]

do you have a source for that?

[@ronaldbibi209]

that's what you get when you have business school people at the top of an entertainment company, nothing but milking, everything they do is based on data and metrics, they do little research, boom, they think they know what the audience wants while in reality no one really knows, if Disney adopted this approach since the very start, there will be no mickey mouse, there will be no fantasia etc etc. I am tired of this business people and their greed.

[@jalapenoofjustice4682]

6:43 I love Mark Hamill's joke that he was doing a force kick in that moment because, despite clearly being a joke, it unironically makes sense as an explanation.

[@DanielleAlek]

I work in the film industry. A lot of this is the exact type of stuff that we were striking over. We don't want to be making the same 5 mundane things over and over again, and we certainly don't wanna let AI do it, either. We want fresh, new ideas, but studios are only interested in surefire hits that'll make a gagillion dollars. Nevermind that after marketing, you actually only get the same profits as a smaller successful movie would have made, the number looks big on the chart and makes shareholders happy. What we're seeing right now is the tail-end of the media produced before, during, and immediately following the strike. Now that we're settled into a post-strike atmosphere, we're definitely gonna be seeing more creative freedom. Between Marvel projects starting to flop, the strike wins, and people's general overall sick-of-it attitude around movies these days, we're very likely to be seeing a resurgence soon. If you haven't noticed, TV has become the new playground for new artists to be able to show off their work, and for companies to do big project they normally wouldn't. I'm not talking about that Disney+ crap, I'm talking about things like Arcane, whose second season is coming out now. Once someone establishes themselves in TV, they often get the chance to move onto movies. This has been pretty standard in the industry for decades. And if you look to the time just before the pandemic and ensuing strikes, we were getting things like Midsommar, The Lighthouse, Chernobyl, hell even in the past couple years we got the whole Barbenheimmer thing. Not to mention Spider-Verse, as well. And it's genuinely shocking to me that you managed to go this whole video about sequels and remakes without mentioning Blade Runner: 2049, probably the best sequel of all time. These aren't just random indie side-projects, these are all huge names. A mixture between new properties, one-offs, historical dramas, and recognizable IPs, all being done well by talented people who're passionate about the stories they're telling. THAT'S what happens when execs get the hell out of the way and jus let us film what we want. Issue is, because of the stuff we struck over, nobody was really making it past the 1st step. Now that the strikes are over, it'll take years before new artists emerging from TV shows that're just now starting to trickle out are able to get behind the directors seat for an actual big studio flick. We were just in the best era of film history a moment ago, and the executives tried their absolute damndest to end it. Now that the battle is over, just be patient and see if we can start cooking things up again. It'll take a couple years, because all good things take time, and the studios need to release SOMETHING in the interim, so you'll be getting slock for a little while longer. This is all to say; if you're willing to be patient, we're working on it. In the meantime, everything else you said was completely correct, don't fucking waste your time or money on the slop they're pumping out to hold your attention.

[@MattTheSpratt]

I'm already jumping up and down in impatience for Queer, the next Guadagnino film!

[@huckmart2017]

Yeah there honestly is some good movies coming out still. I recently watched "poor things" and honestly it was one of the best films ive seen in a decade.

[@luccabibar7033]

the wild robot was SUCH a breath of fresh air

[@justiceiria869]

I remember reading the book when i was younger. It surprised me when i heard a movie is being made of it.

[@timdn6188]

Until the moment Dreamworks decides it's a good idea to make 3 more films. I know it's based on a book series, but what I am afraid of is they'll see it's success and think of giving another go to make everyone somber, to talk about it etc. And when I realised a possibility of this happening and saw some threads like 'i hope we get a sequel', I understood just how bad I don't want to see The Wild Robot 2

[@Dice-Z]

@@timdn6188 At least Dreamworks's sequels tend to at least be more or less entertaining on some level. Can't say the same about Disney.

[@that_odd_guy]

I see Twitter has found this video given how much hysterical screeching it's causing.

[@polarzup6034]

You nailed down the prediction there

[@zani2693]

1:24 ngl you look like the unabomber

[@Jasi-Mori]

I think that is what he is going for, yes

[@ComplexnotINC]

W

[@PurushothamKoduri]

thats a compliment

[@zani2693]

@@PurushothamKoduri never said it wasn’t

[@ehtresih9540]

spoilers

[@TheMellowPumpkin]

0:32 Good Christ, 9 out of 17 of those movies are from Disney.

[@irecordwithaphone1856]

Well, monopoly gonna monopolize

[@Solesteam]

23:10 WHY ARE THEY RE-MAKING MOANA!? That's modern a Disney film! *It won't need a remake for another decade!*

[@amberhernandez]

Dwayne Johnson's ego, purportedly. His attempt to become a face of the DCEU floundered and failed, so he supposedly wanted to fall back on established wins to maintain relevance.

[@JackDuripper]

Moana feels way more recent than it is to me and I think its because Disney has produced so few animated bangers since it's release.

[@LimeyLassen]

That's how you know they're running out of fuel.

[@n8horsfall]

the best part about it is that it will come out roughly close to when Moana 2 is releasing. Pretty much peak "out of ideas" if there ever was a sign.

[@theoldgods8229]

The Super Mario movie was successful exactly because it was created for kids. It didnt need to take risks, subtle jokes or a bunch of surprises to cater to adults.

[@m_nikitin]

30:40 “Remakes are good when people making them love the source material and want to put their own spin on it.” - Totally agree, and I’m sure that none of Disney’s remakes would exist if it were not only for money. No artist would ever come up with the idea to remake The Lion King. Ever.

[@MrRenanHappy]

I feel the same about the idea of puppettering dead people's bodies. They're going to reuse Christopher Lee's old lines in the terrible soon to release Rohirrim movie and that will be another case of such a desecration.

[@stanley.le.crookshank]

Reusing unused lines for a dead actor shouldn’t be something that should be looked down upon, it’s more respectful to do that than to use AI voices.

[@MrRenanHappy]

​@@stanley.le.crookshank the dead actor still can't consent to being part of this new movie

[@Surkk2960]

When the skinsuit conspiracy becomes reality...

[@j.c.denton2060]

We literally live in a zombie culture.

[@lainiwakura1776]

Wow, way to ruin a movie I was actually interested in (not you, the people using the tech).

[@doommustard8818]

The problem is the movies that make the most money are the ones that get the most advertisements And the original can be treated a giant ad. So mainstream can only "afford to make remakes" otherwise they aren't competitive.

[@lautarogomez9711]

Yeah, this is why I don't watch movies or anything else anymore. It has become nothing but a corporate businesses whose only purpose is not for the sake of living the good times, but to take away our money and makes us still consume that product no matter how bad it is. Like zombies who go always for. Like the dawn of the dead zombies...why do you think they all went to the mall our protagonists were?. Because that's the only thing they know for sure: they don't remember anything else, just buying stuff and stuff and stuff and stuff...no matter if it's good or bad.

[@philipramirez5406]

I'd like to point out that the majority of media people consume now is online. Meme culture is by nature derivative, reposting is the easiest way to generate clout. When the most of the interaction we have with art and entertainment lacks creativity, how can a general audience understand what's lacking in their films?

[@interloper6384]

I agree with many of your points, although personally I’ve soured a bit on this video. This is less to do with the quality of the video itself and more of a disagreement with its core message. In many ways, I can relate to the frustration with the modern business of Hollywood. It’s maddening to see the same franchises squeezed for all their worth, while new high budget IPs are a dying breed. However, like so many individuals who discuss this issue, the only solution he can give is to “not support” the films in the hopes that they fail, when I think the issue is much deeper than that. We’ve already seen big budget failures like Indy and Flash (he showed those two a lot in this video so I’m just going to use them as an example), and yet you don’t see Disney halting any plans for remakes or Warner Bros stopping superhero films. Quite the opposite. They’re doubling down. Why? It’s the perception that these remakes, sequels, adaptations, etc, even if bad or at times unprofitable, are the only viable movies that can be made. You see, capitalism has this way of clouding the perspective of greedy businessmen. It doesn’t matter if any film, even ones based on huge IP, have a chance of being a failure, or that original IP can still be profitable if it’s high quality and marketed well. They’ve diluted themselves into thinking that IP is the only thing that sells, and no matter what happens, even if reality hits them as hard as a concrete wall, they’ll go for the gold. I think Scorsese said it best, “ And if you’re going to tell me that it’s simply a matter of supply and demand and giving the people what they want, I’m going to disagree. It’s a chicken-and-egg issue. If people are given only one kind of thing and endlessly sold only one kind of thing, of course they’re going to want more of that one kind of thing.“ Film watchers aren’t stupid. Even casual watchers know when they’re being pandered to. But if audiences are left with no other alternatives to the recognizable IP fare, then that’s all they’re going to watch. And if that’s all they can watch, then that’s more confirmation bias for big studios to keep making their subpar IP films. That’s why I’m a bit frustrated with Solar Sands conclusion of “hoping that these films fail,” because I feel it’s missing the forest for the trees. It doesn’t matter if they fail or not. They’ll keep being made because big studios want them to be made. The solution to this ultimately upstream problem is, therefore, a lot less concrete. I don’t know if any exist at this point other than a complete collapse of the industry (or our current version of capitalism, but that’s just my own gleeful hope) which probably isn’t going to happen anytime soon. The best thing that can be done is to demand better from studios and definitely to support the conditions of filmmakers, production crews, etc. The better position they’re in, the more likely it is that they’ll have at least some bargaining power against executives. That’s just my two cents. Sorry if this sounded a bit rambly.

[@TheSilentPr0tag0nist]

I still agree more with the video but that's a valid comment

[@Comicbroe405]

​@@TheSilentPr0tag0nist True

[@lexiferenczy9695]

It DOES matter when they fail. It's just that it takes a long time for a money titan like Disney to sink. They keep producing movies despite their financial losses because there is nothing else they can do (except maybe better the quality of the movies they produce, but they don't view that as the issue in their narrowminded ways). They see the problem with the audience not with themselves and thus think there is nothing they can change about it.

[@vaszgul736]

The fact you even have to elaborate that a problem with a film does not mean "you don't like the film" or that you "don't have an emotional attachment or nostalgia for the film" but that it means "an error that, upon contemplation, damages the narrative or overall enjoyment of the film and that, if fixed, the film would be better" I cannot stress enough how few people comprehend this 'but I like it' yes? It's still flawed. 'No it's not, I like it' you liking it does not make it not flawed. 'Well why don't you like it?' you can still like it and acknowledge it has flaws. "Why say it's flawed but you still like it? That is sad" it does not make a person flawed to like something but still acknowledge the thing has flaws, oh my god

[@blazewagon5677]

remember what they did/happened to spongebob as soon as its creator perished

[@DonSMDT]

it was about time, hillenberg was such a stuck in his ways guy and he could've been a trillionaire if he had the balls to actually do anything with his product there's 'not wanting to sell out' but then there's 'actively not letting other people sell out'

[@civotamuaz5781]

​@@DonSMDTit's not like spongbop is planetary level of already, he really needed a boost to get to star level to defeat Dan Schneider

[@kangarooMonkee]

Yes actually, and it’s nothing worse than what they did when he was alive, and doesn’t go against his wishes like certain people who don’t know the full story think. Please leave him out of this.

[@estebanod]

American companies and their love of consumerism ❤

[@an0therW]

I really like most of Solar Sands videos, I consider him one of my favorite video essayists and have learned a lot from every video up to this point. But this one was weak, even though I agree with most of its points. I want to provide some (hopefully) constructive criticism because I think the conversation about this sort of endlessly nostalgic media is important. Sorry if I come off as too critical but I think this topic needs justice. For the most part, this video really does read like a Redditor complaining about things. When he spitballed the estimated number of mistakes he thought each Star Wars trilogy had I genuinely thought he was building a strawman to tear down later but he actually used it as a complaint?! I'm not a fan of Star Wars at all so from the outside it sounds like broad generalization to make conclusions out of. I understand the point, it is supposed to highlight the lack of care or passion within these films, the point is just not made well. It's too vague and doesn't properly explain to the audience how these films are more interested in recapturing old audiences than they are making creative stories. Later in the video did get better about this, I found the Electric State a particularly effective example as I'd never heard of the books but could immediately tell how creatively bankrupt the adaptation is. (Side note I want to read the books now.) The theme of recycling and rehashing became very clear and gave me a lot to think about. However, I think there's a lot missing from this conversation by choosing to leave out truly creative works, both high and low budget. For example, I watched a lot of horror movies this month, and most of my favorite ones were very artistic and original. Yet they had reviews sitting in the 50-60% mark. Audiences simply don't respect cinema. They see something they can't relax to and view it as a problem. That's why these rehashed movies are making money. It's what casual audiences want. This is mentioned in the video, but it doesn't go into why this could be the case, or why the perception of film and media as a whole has changed in this way. It's simply brought up as a complaint, because this video is mostly about complaining. I felt like I was watching a right-wing rage bait video directed at Hollywood instead of gay people. And no matter how valid that Hollywood critique is, it is not a vibe people should go for in their videos. The most enlightening part of this video to me was the final segment, about the recycling of dead actors. That served as a perfect climax to the themes of the video and really brought to light the real goals of these media conglomerates. But I also think it shouldn't have ended there. It left me feeling hopeless and that everything was doomed, which isn't the case. We live in a world where there is more good media available to us than we could ever consume in a lifetime. Sure, 90% of it is slop. But 90% of 1000 is still 100, and that's plenty. You just have to go looking for it. Instead of paying attention to the 75th Star Wars show or Marvel movie and groaning at the fact that Hollywood can't think of anything new, just watch an A24 film. Instead of complaining about how shitty free to play video games are, go play Elden Ring. Discussions of these dominant, uncreative works are important, but the topic should never end there. Instead, focus on what we as a consumer can do instead as an alternative. Talk about the disadvantages truly creative artists have when it comes to money and publicity. We can help create the media landscape we want to see. Leave the demon to his demons. Rest your own soul. There is nothing else.

[@miragebarrage9748]

Left winger detected, opinion rejected.

[@EvanH2000]

I agree with you completely, and it has the same emotional tone as the recent NerdSlayer videos without SolarSands in the comments berating commenters. I was hoping to see more data and raw information, as well as an expansions to other forms of entertainment to further the theme of the video. Hollywood has never had the image of being a petri dish for original works full of humanity. Are small film projects getting greenlit, and when they release are they good? Are people watching them? How many aspects of culture is the ouroboros consuming? These questions and perhaps perspectives would have been a welcome addition. Halo is being resurrected yet again under a new studio making it. Does that game franchise have anything left to say? Social media stars are being interviewed on TV. Do their brands have anything to add to our culture? How much culture right now is just "incest of ideation?" (Which is by far the most striking line of the video.) This I would like to know

[@an0therW]

@@EvanH2000 there's a lot to explore with this theme and I hope Solar or someone else makes a video expanding the idea. For a similar analysis on the current climate of film I'd recommend the video "Who killed cinema" by Patrick Williams

[@lexiferenczy9695]

So what are you saying, that movies are basically the same quality wise now than 1 or 2 decades before, because people's tastes surely haven't changed that much? Or do you mean that people have indeed changed and that's why everything is worse now qualitywise, because companies just produces what people want? I don't agree with either option. There are so many video essays complaining about the entertainment rot out there for a reason, something truly has changed in Hollywood and other mainstream producers so that even the average viewer isn't satisfied anymore with these braindead, soulless productions.

[@MrDamojak]

I agree.

[@JamesRoyceDawson]

The prequels are some of the worst examples you could’ve used for this. The lack of originality and soullessness of modern media is due to corporate overreach. The prequels are bad because no one questioning George as an auteur filmmaker. Totally different issues

[@user-wb8iu1hl6i]

Yeah the use of the prequels here is such a tell that the video author is a sophomoric young Millenial/elder Zoomer. They are an earlier version of slop, with many of the hallmarks of it: expansive worldbuilding and merchandizing and thin characters, CGI spectacle, and overexplaining the mystery of past works (midichlorians). It retroactively got reevaluated because of people watching it as kids felt nostalgic for them and memes. RotS is an interesting movie though.

[@no0nefamouss]

@@user-wb8iu1hl6i he is an elder Zoomer and they have an affinity for the prequel trilogy since they grew up with them. The prequel trilogy is perhaps equally as bad as the sequel trilogy, but for very different reasons.

[@Lissbirds]

​@@user-wb8iu1hl6iMidichlorians almost single handedly ruined Star Wars for me. Measuring the Force with a blood test was one of the most absurd things I had ever seen in a Star Wars movie. (Until the sequels came out.)

[@360Nomad]

@@user-wb8iu1hl6i CGI in the Prequels is forgivable because Lucasfilm was genuinely pioneering the use of it and it was usually done in combination with miniature sets similar to the Lord of the Rings films. They were also just better films in general. They were absolutely flawed, but also had vision. The Sequel Trilogy had no vision to speak of and intentionally so from the start because Disney originally intended for each film to have a separate director and only backtracked after The Last Jedi blew up in their faces. To put it in layman's terms, the Prequels were a trilogy had the capacity to be masterpieces and fell short despite the admirable attempt. The Sequels were a failure at the conceptual level, they were never going to be good because the core idea behind them was completely rotten.

[@gibbstan96]

​@@user-wb8iu1hl6iit was used to build the narrative of that part of the video i think, not a direct example. it showed the escalation from hundreds to thousands of problems with more corporate involvement.

[@jakespacepiratee3740]

The difference between the two post-original Star Wars Trilogy’s is that the Prequels is a good story told poorly, the Star Wars Sequels are a bad story told well. (As in higher production value)

[@lainiwakura1776]

No, no, the sequels are merely polished dog turds.

[@Bactaman]

​@@lainiwakura1776The sequils weren't solid enough to be turds. I always thought they were more like wet shit with rancid gas. Whenever I think of them all I can hear in my mind is continuous fart noises. Kindof like that Southpark episode where everything turns to shit for Stan.

[@Ten_Thousand_Locusts]

​@Bactaman you realise Stan was in the wrong that episode right?

[@jonaut5705]

@oivinf which still means they have more going for them than the sequels

[@jakespacepiratee3740]

@oivinf idk the modern audience reactions speak for themselves. The Prequels have numerous characters people still love, Young sassy Obi-Wan, General Grevious, Darth Maul, numerous Jedi Masters such as Mace Windu, various Clone Troopers and many others. What characters do the Sequels have that are truly memorable? Downer Luke Skywalker? The Knights of Ren? Snoake??

[@CosmicMapping]

I have a major issue with the hyper-objective Cinemasins-esque film analysis. What’s infinitely more important are the themes, tone, characters, and narrative. EDIT: I hadn’t seen that Skeleton Crew trailer and I swear to god I literally thought those were clips from Gaurdians of the Galaxy 3, holy fuck.

[@SolarSands]

The cause and effect of a story is part of the narrative and influences characters.

[@CosmicMapping]

@SolarSands A knife disappearing between shots or someone’s kick not fully connecting doesn’t affect the story or characters dude

[@SolarSands]

Yes it does. The knife disappears in order to keep the main character alive. If it didn't her back would be unguarded and the guard would have every reason to stab it. Then we wouldn't have a main character anymore. The fact a kick doesn't connect breaks the immersion of a that story as you plainly see someone act in a way that doesn't correlate with previous actions. I understand these are not noticeable for most people but they do affect the story.

[@brooke9446]

Dunno if you’ve heard of him already but SheevTalks is a great channel that delves into the deeper aspects of stories, primarily Star Wars, but he’s talked about other things

[@thedarkmasterthedarkmaster]

There are some that try to be creative, they just don't succeed financially tbh

[@Leo-ok3uj]

And that’s the problem The big problem

[@mariaa.7624]

​@@Leo-ok3ujIt's incredibly worrying the more you think about it. Hollywood, Disney and the like receive all the money, billions of it, yet they can't do something good, to the point some random youtuber's content is more interesting. They had one job... So, we're in some way paying these people to keep us entertained or at least make some good art and they aren't capable of none without regurgitating old ideas from others who did have talent. And they're the most "creative" minds in the entertainment industry. Geez, thank goodness they don't influence other industries from the rest of the world anymore.

[@thedarkmasterthedarkmaster]

@@mariaa.7624 If you want good indie stuff I know of a fantasy book that might be up your ally

[@RJS2003]

Transformers One...

[@BanTskTvaoan]

@@RJS2003 It's a franchise prequel, what the hell are you talking about. It was entertaining, but it's a franchise prequel. So it's bad.

[@Mr.Moustache24]

I’m disappointed that KZbin hid this from me for 10 second

[@jjunbeatable9522]

Ong

[@Crinlask]

Ong

[@Amyisntcreative]

Ong

[@Vingul]

s

[@y__h]

ong

[@roberttalada5196]

6:25 Wait, wait wait wait. Saying the exact number doesn’t matter because the number is increasing is… kinda bullshit. You actually do need to measure something to know it is increasing. You can’t claim something is an objective fact if you’re just going off a gut feeling and not putting the work in. You’re really shooting your own argument in the foot here and are losing credibility with your audience by saying that.

[@davidmiles1741]

Absolutely cracked up when you brought in Kino Corner. Also loved his segment!

[@MrNocturnalEmission]

The streams ARE changing, even in the video game industry. Thanks to technology the indie scene is catching up on every front, the giant brands can only gatekeep mainstream success for so long before they're forced to adapt.

[@orbakun]

I think 2023 was a great year and a step in the right direction. Oppenheimer, Barbie, across the spiderverse, TMNT Mutant Mayhem, The covenant, Maestro, poor things, anatomy of a fall, and Killers of the flower moons were all great films artistically

[@laz0rbra1n]

bruh

[@RRRRRRRRR33]

Barbie, lol sure. Let's all take photographs dressed in pink later, for some "likes" and "thumbs up"

[@maxwellkazemba2299]

Hope you're ready for barbie phase 2 including Barbie 2 and Ken: a Barbie story

[@tj-co9go]

Loloooool. Bad Hollywood slop

[@Pasclesrm]

TMNT and Spiderverse are only good because of their animation

[@sinixdesign]

Those Alien: Romulus scenes took me so far out of the movie.

[@ParkerCS2]

Exactly me too

[@victorpedrosoceolin3919]

as someone that did not see the first movie, alien romulus was good

[@ArgentIcon]

@@victorpedrosoceolin3919 Me too, though I've last seen the original 20y ago as a teen... so I also didn't catch any of those references.

[@tambo2397]

Hello sinix I didn’t expect to see you here

[@ForumArcade]

Derivative works are perfectly well and good if they possess passion and vision. But intellectual property is an economic commodity; corporations seek to control it and milk it for cash, while denying the passionate, visionary fans of any given franchise the opportunity to create their own derivative works in that space.

[@coughingbabie]

isn’t it so sad that when disney finally decided to start casting poc in accurate roles, they made the movies so dog shit? And people are so stupid that when they see these bad movies they think the problem is “go woke go broke” when no, the movie is just bad. They blame the quality on the actors of color who just read some shitty lines and had to act against a green screen when it’s not even their fault. Every time disney just lets it happen, letting the blame fall on some young actor instead of themselves

[@ThePrincessCH]

It's the same logic that comes with people criticizing Disney's princesses as weak female characters when that's how they were mostly characterized in the original folktales.

[@hey-zel]

This is what I’ve been saying!!! And the movies or shows with mainly a female cast as well. It’s such a shame

[@modna9439]

you're so real for this

[@bencekiss7662]

But a lot of times studios purposefully fueling the culture war aspect of their movies. Like when Disney casted a black actress to play Snow White... Snow White, whose only character trait is being white as snow.

[@negative6442]

I'm not big into fashion but I remember seeing a video on Victoria's Secret that talked about the same thing. The moment they started having plus sized and women of color on their advertising, they also made the actual products crap. So people can point to their new advertising as to why the company is failing, but in reality the products are just leagues worse.

[@SkylightCiel]

Though I completely agree with a lot of the sentiments in this video. As someone who has somewhat limited time in my hands I have found a solution to this. I just don’t engage with slop. I don’t watch notoriously bad things or things that make me angry. I can’t afford to waste my time on garbage because it has the title of something I like on it.

[@Alfenium]

Thank you, a proper mindset.

[@azliaheaven]

that's not culture that's just entertainment industry and consumerism

[@anomalousanimates]

yeahhhh i thought it wasn't about just films

[@fedoralexandersteeman6672]

You can thank capitalism for squeezing every bit of coin out of corporate private properties.

[@tristandpc]

Unfortunately, the entertainment industry is a massive part of our culture. So is consumerism.

[@CyrusChennault]

AS A WHITE GUY, ITS ALL WE GOT BRO. WE DONT HAVE TRHE CULTURE OF A MEXICAN OR A JAPANESE. i used to push back and say white culture was playing halo all night while listening to bullet for my valentine, then going to warped tour and moshing. but now idk. is all we got left a bunch of yee yee beer drinkin boys going muddin?

[@amysteriousviewer3772]

It's basically "Brave New World"

[@leviathantoobz]

Cant wait for live action “I spy” books.

[@godzillapark9075]

Imma be real, while I do think it has become a bit of a problem, let's not pretend this isn't something new, they made 9 Friday the 13th movies before the 2000's, some of the most popular movies ever are just amputations of books, in 1998 there was a American remake/reboot of Godzilla that was absolutely panned by critics, it wasn't faithful to the original character at all, it is technically one of the most successful Godzilla movies when taking in inflation. Am I defending Hollywood's current obsession with remakes reboots and adaptations? No, but what I am saying is that I feel like people are just over exaggerating, modern audiences will eventually get tired of this trend like they did with the Western and something new will come along

[@mimisaur5000]

yeah like, there ARE good creative + original films coming out lately. i don't watch many films but i've heard longlegs, the substance, love lies bleeding, kneecap, they were really good. monkey man was fucking stellar, so was everything everywhere all at once. there's been good adaptations too, like the spiderverse movies, twisters and look back. like, i do agree that hollywood's gotten really lazy lately but it's so, so easy to just avoid the slop

[@deadpan2866]

you're correct that it isnt new but it has been getting worse. with the rise and mass adoption of the internet, marketing agencies everywhere and the rise of stupidly big monopoly's in every part of life its all alot worse. alternative media and entertainment isnt so alternative when 10 years ago mego corpo bought the website/studio that provides the alternative.

[@afterceasetoexist]

youre not wrong, but its also very important to note that we're much, much, much more saturate with remakes and sequels than we were in the past

[@TiE23]

1:10 I think the word you wanted is “sanctity”, not “sacredness”.

[@oliviapenelopehope4497]

It's a little thing, but I love that this is exactly 40 minutes long.

[@LilChuunosuke]

I have been called a hipster for telling people most of the new films I enjoy nowadays are from small studios and I have mostly been rewatching films and shows from the 80s - 2000s. People act like I'm crazy or intentionally trying to be different and unique for saying modern major film is lower quality. As an artist, I feel obligated to work harder on my art and create pieces that make the viewer feel something. Because the people with all the money right now are so afraid of taking risks that people are starting to forget what good art looks and feels like

[@elbateador]

22:40 I love how everyone considers the remake of The Lion King a live action movie, despite being an animated film 🤣🤣🤣

[@gonasjoss]

Correct, but it "tries to look" like a life action movie. Like real lions are acting.

[@elbateador]

@@gonasjoss Oh, yes, of course! That's the irony 🤣

[@mangofoxy]

I’m eating myself

[@Decton]

Good job 😀👍

[@mangofoxy]

@@Dectonthanks 😊👍

[@Wbfuhn]

The Amazing Digital Circus is unique. The show is being developed by a handful of people. One person is doing the bulk of the animations with a few voices. The writing is by one person.