Why Modern Movies Suck (Critical Drinker video series)

[Neil]

Althought he generalises, he's got a point I feel. I mean if we look at things like Dr Who, that's gone in the direction he's discussing?

[MinionZombie]

Aye, some fair points in there. Dialogue and characterisation in a lot of mainstream movies these days is fucking cringe, riddled with extraordinarily blunt self-awareness that ultimately comes down to simply stating what is literally happening in front of them at any given second. Characters make stupid decisions for stupid reasons based on selfishness (either for their own benefit or the benefit of one over hundreds/thousands/millions). I mean, look at the most recent Jurassic Park movie - when that annoying kid unleashes all the dinosaurs on a human population ... ... FUCKING WHAT?!?! And that's posited as a good thing?! Are you high?! Indeed, I can't be doing with children making major decisions in a room full of adults and the adults just let them. Er, how about "fuck no"? Now - compare these things to something like "Drive" ... ... now that is a great character from recent years. He loses his shit sometimes, but that's part of his otherwise very controlled and quiet nature. That movie is so chaste in many ways emotionally, yet as a result the small things gain huge significance and resonate with the viewer. That movie gives me chills. I don't want to get too into watching videos like this as it could totally ruin any new movie potentially, but at the same time it's good to acknowledge some of these failings - either by watching videos like this or just analysing for yourself. It's certainly helped my own writing and I try to now write against some of these things - I don't have characters making stupid decisions for idiotic reasons, for instance. Humour is another thing. I'm all for characters having a sense of humour, be it dry or sopping wet, but it also has to match the story and stakes. Marvel take the piss with the amount of undercutting their dialogue does to giant events with huge implications for countless innocent lives. It smacks of them not caring, so as a result, why the fuck should I care? Look at Joss Whedon's Justice League vs Zack Snyder's Justice League - biiiiiiiiiiiig fucking difference between the two (hint: former is shite, latter is pretty good). That was an interesting point about the total disregard for the chain of command and characters basically having zero respect for each other (i.e. they'll just say and do whatever they like and act like poorly raised kids). That clip of Tig Notaro waxing disrespectful reminded me of her character in Army of the Dead ... ... you know, the one who doggedly smokes cigars around copious amounts of fuel. Yeah. Fuck off.

[shootemindehead]

That "meta" ha ha bollocks has made pretty much most movies these days unwatchable for me. I'm sick to death of that self aware nonsense in films. It wasn't funny the first time it was done and it's sure as shit not funny now.

[MinionZombie]

A follow-up...

[MinionZombie]

Another follow up, this time on moral lessons: I've noticed this problem creeping into numerous mainstream movies in recent years. Not good.

[Neil]

Ta. Wasn't aware of the new one. And agreed!

[Neil]

This is applicable...

[MinionZombie]

The new one is about CGI overload ... yep ... way too much CGI these days. You feel too disconnected as a result, but when it's done for real you instinctually know the difference and the stakes are decidedly increased for the viewer. There's too many imperceptible details that are almost subconscious that a computer and the conscious decisions of a CGI artist will never achieve.

[Neil]

^ Totally agree with all of that!

[MinionZombie]

^ Totally agree with all of that! I was watching the extras on Spider-Man: No Way Home and numerous shots were literally totally and utterly CGI, or the amount of 'real' footage was so minimal you might as well have not bothered. Other times you had real footage of, say, Doc Ock, but it wasn't used and instead replaced with a slightly different CGI character! Sometimes you don't notice just how much CGI is used, but other times you just get the feeling the whole thing is made-up in a computer. You might get spectacular camera movies and all sorts of cosmic chaos crashing about the place, but it's so beyond any shred of reality that it's just a load of pixels. Ironically, a Pixar movie ends up feeling more real. Mad Max Fury Road works so well because so much of it is real, and CGI is only used to stitch together multiple real stunts to make one single event that would simply be far too dangerous to do all together. Really, the bulk of the CGI in that film was just scenery and backgrounds, removal of wires and such. It's impressive just how much they did for real - and it makes an impact because of it, even after several viewings. You know it's real, but you also feel that it's real. Marvel movies are drowning in CGI, so none of it feels remotely real most of the time. Sometimes you get swept up in the story/characters, but you never feel any sense of physical impact, any hint of jeopardy. It's all pixels and green screen and they seem to think that's impressive. He mentioned Fast & Furious in that video - again, the most impressive stuff is the stunts you know are done for real. The CGI stuff makes for a moment, but those moments keep getting bigger and more silly. The 'swing a mucle car on a rope bridge' moment from FF9, for instance, or the punch-up on the truck driving through a mostly CGI location in Hobbs & Shaw just dial down the sense of risk that the characters are going through. It's also annoying when they shoot something for real and then cover it in CGI ... so why did you bother doing it for real at all? *cough* The Wolfman or The Thing 2011 *cough*

[JDP]

Mad Max Fury Road works so well because so much of it is real, and CGI is only used to stitch together multiple real stunts to make one single event that would simply be far too dangerous to do all together. Really, the bulk of the CGI in that film was just scenery and backgrounds, removal of wires and such. It's impressive just how much they did for real - and it makes an impact because of it, even after several viewings. You know it's real, but you also feel that it's real. Baloney. That movie looks almost cartoonish. It looks like it's taking place in some weird alternate alien place, not our planet or even universe. There's tons of CGI involved everywhere. Even some of the characters are CGI. Nothing like the proper Mad Max movies from the original trilogy, which were 100% real, done with nothing but good-old fashioned (and dangerous) stunts and clever camera work, that's why those films truly look believable.

[MinionZombie]

Baloney. That movie looks almost cartoonish. It looks like it's taking place in some weird alternate alien place, not our planet or even universe. There's tons of CGI involved everywhere. Even some of the characters are CGI. Nothing like the proper Mad Max movies from the original trilogy, which were 100% real, done with nothing but good-old fashioned (and dangerous) stunts and clever camera work, that's why those films truly look believable. It's set in an apocalypse, much like the sandy and dusty open spaces seen most particularly in the 2nd and 3rd movies. The physical stunts and action were all carried out for real. It's backgrounds and landscape (and the giant storms, natch) that are CGI. Similarly, as previously stated, stunt work was augmented only when it was too dangerous to do it for real as it appears on-screen (i.e. stitching together several live action plates to form a whole). For example, there's a huge explosion of a tanker with numerous vehicles and goons surrounding it - naturally that'd be simply deadly to achieve in real life, so numerous live action plates (e.g. the explosion on its own, the surrounding vehicles on their own) were shot and then composited. The main rig crashing involves CGI - mostly to remove any rigging and to provide the landscape, which didn't exist (they were shooting in areas that were basically flat nothingness - which would be fucking boring as hell, and deny various scenes to happen, such as the baddies who live in the rocky hills), and stick in the couple of elements that fly at the screen. The truck was toppled for real with a stunt driver behind the wheel performing that feat. The way the world looks in the original Mad Max looks very different from Mad Max 2: Road Warrior. In the original movie it's just outback Australia. The 2nd and 3rd movies - with their larger budgets and expanded filmmaking tools - are able to make the post-apoc world look more like it should from the filmmaker's POV. Same thing with Fury Road.

[JDP]

It's set in an apocalypse, much like the sandy and dusty open spaces seen most particularly in the 2nd and 3rd movies. The physical stunts and action were all carried out for real. It's backgrounds and landscape (and the giant storms, natch) that are CGI. Similarly, as previously stated, stunt work was augmented only when it was too dangerous to do it for real as it appears on-screen (i.e. stitching together several live action plates to form a whole). For example, there's a huge explosion of a tanker with numerous vehicles and goons surrounding it - naturally that'd be simply deadly to achieve in real life, so numerous live action plates (e.g. the explosion on its own, the surrounding vehicles on their own) were shot and then composited. The main rig crashing involves CGI - mostly to remove any rigging and to provide the landscape, which didn't exist (they were shooting in areas that were basically flat nothingness - which would be fucking boring as hell, and deny various scenes to happen, such as the baddies who live in the rocky hills), and stick in the couple of elements that fly at the screen. The truck was toppled for real with a stunt driver behind the wheel performing that feat. The way the world looks in the original Mad Max looks very different from Mad Max 2: Road Warrior. In the original movie it's just outback Australia. The 2nd and 3rd movies - with their larger budgets and expanded filmmaking tools - are able to make the post-apoc world look more like it should from the filmmaker's POV. Same thing with Fury Road. Huh? The world of the first movie is the exact same one as the one of the two sequels, except that now a global war has devastated society. Everything else is the same. The three Mad Max movies plainly take place in Australia (pre and post apocalypse), not some bizarre alien world like Fury Road.

[MinionZombie]

Huh? The world of the first movie is the exact same one as the one of the two sequels, except that now a global war has devastated society. Everything else is the same. The three Mad Max movies plainly take place in Australia (pre and post apocalypse), not some bizarre alien world like Fury Road. Aye, I'm sure in a world where there are giant storms the size of mountains, that they would actually leave the land untouched so it still resembled the outback in 1982.

[Neil]