@@gnarkillguch I agree, and I think itis a good plan. It saddens me some that I hear rumour that the 20th Century Fox movies might not be out in ciculalation any longer.
Not like selling cigarettes to non-smokers. More like selling porn to monks. They do want it, but it’s not cool for them to admit it. GoT did in fact produce a ton of new fantasy fans.
That’s the problem when you take an art form and try to run it like an infinite growth business (which, since Disney is a publicly traded company, it has to do.)
The people who were writing stories and creating new IPs in the 60s, 70s, and 80s were mostly men who had experienced the world before creating their great works. These were war veterans, race car drivers, working men, etc. So they brought their unique life experiences with them when creating new characters and worlds. The GenX filmmakers grew up watching the movies and television shows, or reading the comic books, created by those men and then went straight into making their own movies instead of experiencing life for themselves.. So most of the GenX guys' "creativity" is just reimagining or mashing-up other people's ideas. They don't have any original ideas of their own and they don't know how to craft a proper story, they just know how to get a reaction out of an audience. They remember something from an episode of a TV show and how it made them feel when they were kids and they craft their stories with the intent of recreating that feeling, regardless of how it affects the narrative. I'm sure Generation X had its George Lucas, or Stan Lee, or Gene Roddenberry; but those guys got overshadowed by snake-oil salesmen like JJ Abrams and Rian Johnson (who sure does get super defensive on Twitter for someone who claims that he wants half of his audience to hate his movies).
Everyone is influenced by what they experience as a child, you think Lucas and Spielberg weren’t influenced by the movies and serials they saw as kids and teenagers? Humans have been copying, recycling, remaking and rewriting similar stories, legends, myths and yes even religions throughout history. Even JRR Tolkien based his stories in myths and legends of the past as well.
@@AvelierPlays Of course they were, but men like Lucas, Spielberg, Tolkien, etc. also had influences from outside of popular culture. Whether conscious or unconscious, the lives they lived affected their creations. Modern filmmakers seem to only be influenced by other films and haven't really lived a life outside of the Hollywood system. At least that seems to be the case for guys like JJ and Rian.
Could you ever imagine Ford or Lean or Capra or Wilder or Coppola or Spielberg or even Lucas saying, "I hope that half the audience hates my film." I don't understand the decisions being made in choosing the people that are making the decisions. You're absolutely correct in pointing out how against corporate interest that attitude ultimately is.
I'm born in 1974. I've grown up with al these great movies , Star Wars , Ghostbusters , Indiana Jones , you know the list. To me , al these Franchises will forever remain the Franchises from when i was a kid , when i loved them (and still love them). Franchises from the 70ies and /or 80ies. I couldn't care less about any modern adaptations , because i know they will inevitably fxck it up. Today's "creatives" are nihilistic , self absorbed , corporate stooges that haven't got the first clue at how to make a Great movie. I'll catch a modern remake or reboot or whatever when its on tv , and when i have some dead time on my hands at that moment. But i sure as hell will never , ever buy a theatre ticket to go see one ! Marvel aside (and i can't judge on that because i'm not a Marvel fan) i really think "The Golden age" was back when all these Franchises were actually born. Even if they somehow would improve , they will never ever be as good as the originals. So in the end...why even bother ?
I was born 1968 and was the perfect age for the GOLDEN AGE of Hollywood Sci-Fi. What a time to grow up !!. Unfortunately I was a little to old to buy Star Wars toys for ROTJ..(But that didn't stop me)
I knew a guy at Uni who was basically full of crap. All his fellow class mates of his year knew he was. His lecturers knew he was. His work was mediocre at best and I was told my work was way better than his. But he had a talent. He knew how to walk into a room and bullshit people into convincing them he was the man with the plan. Hence, why straight after Uni, he got to work at a bigger studio and found work straight away. Unlike me who still struggles to this day. The talent he had to sell "Viagra to nuns" is basically something that sums up why all these morons get these funding at big studios.
We’re ultimately dealing with a sterile, almost lab-like environment wherein Hollywood tries to artificially create hits by co-opting the work of more creative people. Either these people are out of their elements against their will, or they want to turn established things into dark reflections of themselves. Skilled, creative people will thrive even when out of the element or given less to work with (Beast Wars is a great example of that; as neither of the main writers for that show were Transformers writers). Corporations exist to manufacture; not create.
It's a lot more sinister than that. They want to erode and destroy all the classics we enjoy, so they purposely remake them in hopes os sullying the originals. Because an enjoyable original sheds light on the sheer lack of talent in Hollywood right now, and harkens back to much better days. They need to rewrite history to make themselves look competent, and it's working.
It occurs to me that Gene Roddenberry sold Star Trek to the suits as a "space western", which at that time was the most mainstream genre, but he actually wanted to bring very sincere science fiction to television. You can debate how well he succeeded, but it was made out of a sincere love of the genre, that's a far cry from the cynical self-serving "geek chic" that's taken over entertainment today.
And I'm glad he didn't make it purely hard sci fi. The show draws you in with it's lovable, relatable characters, but then delivers some great thought-provoking sci fi stories. The episodes get peoples' imaginations stimulated, but what we come back to the original show for time and again are those great characters....the human element.
@@demoskunk Star Trek for me as an adult today is enjoyable science fantasy. The moment I mention that, Trekkies get rather defensive, angry and hot under the collar when I say this, but it's true. It's the characters and worldbuilding that make the shows, not the weird science. That's why I enjoy DS9 so much for those very reasons.
I was speaking about this with a friend of mine the other day after Church. We're both religious Christians. Grew up on the entertainment of films and shows from the 70s, 80s, 90s, but I'd say I never limited my tastes to just then, however I really like it. He on the other hand prefers stuff from the past more than I do. So we're having this conversation, and he brought up a similar point about the nihilism point you brought. Just a heads up, we're not the kind of guys who believe in censorship so much or that the more non-religious themes in films are what's ruining cinema. From how he explained it, and how I understand it, he thinks that when a generation of people grow up with a faithless view of reality, where magic is fleeting, and the world is dark and grim because of world events and personal ones they've faced to solidify a faithless and nihilistic and cynical view of the world, then the wonders of fantasy and adventure and serialization that was popular from the 20th Century will not be suffice to them. To not believe in a Spirituality, whether your own or of a religion, then you lack the soul that goes into making art. And we've seen it today. We have people are technical and very exquisite as to how to point with a camera and capture visuals that do outdo some of the stuff made in the past, but that's like saying we admire a Computer Science student for knowing how to meddle with a computer. It's cool, sure, but he's basing it on how others do it. The real praise comes in what he does with those skills and techniques to advance the field of computer science or find a right combination of code that requires creativity to make something new or feel new. The same goes for everything else, including Cinema. Now I'm not saying you need to be Christian to appreciate art or create art. Many of the Silent Generation and Boomer Generation of Directors who made the movies we love were of other faiths or atheistic or agnostic. However, if you think its dumb to look at life from a beyond perspective, beyond you, me, or anyone else, then you're stuck on one side of the brain, and completely forgetting the other side you've got that can tell you so much more. I don't doubt these people are creative, but its creativity from a mindset to strip away the magic of simplicity, and basic explanations. The real world needs to understand the fabric of the universe, and we won't understand it all, but in fiction, you don't need to grasp everything and how everything works IF it is explained poorly and boring. Also, if your storytelling is about getting to points a, b, and c with barely any meat in between them ... then you're a material person. Material people make material products. The past decade of reboots and return to old franchises have been done like that.
Absolutely spot on Michael. I thank God that I was a kid in the 70's, a teenager in the 80's, and a young adult in the 90's. People from my generation got the best of everything new and amazing... the movies, books, music, toys, hobbies, etc. And... we got the best of what the generations before handed down to us. The traditions of the past melded with the classics of the past made certain we were a more well rounded generation than the ones that followed. Shout out to Mr. Eriksson, my 5th grade teacher, for turning us on to JRR Tolkien, Estes Rockets, and The Beatles.
@@LPTV84 How so? That certain members of our generation, like Michael and myself respect and hold reverence for the people and things that informed our development as adults, and other members of our generation embraced a nihilistic deconstructionist worldview that boarders on iconoclastic destruction of the classics? And unfortunately those members of our generation are the ones who came into positions of power? We get the point.
I don’t know man, you Gen Xers are all a sorry lot in my personal experience (old Millenial here 39 yo). Gen X really ain’t that different from the boomers.
"There is something about their inherent personalities that is toxic to these genre movies but is appealing to the people who green-light the projects. And so, we're in a perfect storm of dysfunction at this point." Michael, thank you for this video. It's really wonderful when someone else vocalises (brilliantly) what you've personally thought yourself. Cathartic and comforting. Thank you.
“And I told Rian, you have to think of the fans. And he said, ‘No, you have to think about the film.’” - Mark Hamill on a live panel, recounting his words to Rian Johnson, and Rian Johnson’s response. And then you watch Mark Hamill’s head drop down like he is about to be ill at Rian’s total lack of understanding of what Star Wars is about. And you hear the crowd cheer as Rian begins to babble about how wonderful The Last Jedi is. And the camera stays focused on Mark for a few seconds more ... on the one man who knew Luke Skywalker better than any of us because he WAS Luke Skywalker. And you see the pain that Mark Hamill feels and that he is warning all of us fans that TLJ will be so destructive to the fan base, the mythos, and to the actual intellectual property that is Star Wars. “I only want to make movies that half the viewers will like, and the other half of the viewers will hate.” - Rian Johnson And Kathleen Kennedy thinks Rian Johnson is awesome. Gives him his own trilogy for fucks sake! Corporate Hollywood knows NOTHING about Star Wars. Or how to make decent movies.
WOW! -That's the 1st time I heard that! And it DOES sound like something Hamill would say since he always disagreed with Johnson's treatment of Luke Skywalker.
Yep, Star Wars lost me permanently after The Last Jedi + the way Lucasfilm has treated fans after the fact. Now they've lost me AND my 2 boys, who don't know anything about the ST. Oh well, saves me money!
@J. C. Of course they know the OT! I said they don't know anything about the ST. The OT they love, one is being Obi Wan for Halloween 😂. Star Wars for us will be 1977 - 2012. I'm good with that right now.
Fans were treated fine, except for the toxic ones that were harassing actors and directors, etc. In think it's okay to call those people out for their bad behaviour.
Toxic? Like the Kelly Marie Tran story? That's mostly all media BS, it was probably just a few idiots on the internet. As for the directors/writers, they should be able to take criticism without insulting fans AT ALL. Lucas did it, Rian Johnson should have no problem. Like the saying goes, the customer is always right - in Hollywood they don't seem to follow that motto at all anymore. Not good!
@@thebaron7960 Uhh no she most definitely got a ton of harrassment. It's why she left social media. She wrote a whole article about it. And the only time I recall Rian "insulting fans" was when he said "when I talk about man-babies" and linked to the story about Kelly Marie Tran. If anything Rian was very diplomatic. He talked about reading these long emails from fans about their issues with the movie. Customer is alright saying is BS. If the customer is acting like a POS, they deserve to be thrown out and potentially have the cops called on them. By the same token, "fans" that insult, harass, and do worse to actors and crew should be called out for their behavior. Remember that Lucas retired and sold Star Wars due to all the fan hate. We would have got Lucas sequels if the fans hadn't run him off. Fans drove Jake Lloyd to literal madness and ruined his life. Ahmed Best became suicidal. It's these people that can't separate fantasy from reality and think that someone's life should be made a living hell because they didn't like a movie. And now they're still doing it today. So yeah, those customers aren't right.
@@Benjamin0119 Rian Johnson diplomatic? I completely disagree. He's proven time and time again he's an arrogant douche bag who had no right being given free reign on a Star Wars movie. That will go down as the worst decision in cinema history. Its more then the manbaby BS, the guy's a first class troll. KMT got about 3 nasty, racist comments on Instagram I believe, and decided to shut her social media down. Yes, no one should ever speak to anyone like that, but its the Internet, a disgusting place. Roundhead blew it way out of proportion and mobilized her into an attack on anyone who hated his "movie". He knew what he was doing, he's a dirty Hollywood scumbag. As for the customer is always right, that's 95% true unless the company doesn't like money. Of course there are cases of complete asshole customers but this really doesn't apply to criticizing a multi million dollar movie that people pay to see. Rian is on video saying he enjoys when half the viewers love his movie, while the other half thinks its the worst movie ever made. He got exactly what he wanted, and then plays victim. The guys a buffoon.
Michael, first off thank you for your insightful comments. It is easy to see how if the current studio environment existed in the 70's, Star Wars would never had been made because it would have been too much of a gamble. The companies that own the studios now are more concerned with maximizing profit in the short term and that means going with intellectual property that has a built in fan base from which to build on. It means starting without a finished script in order to make a coveted release date that is tied in with millions in advertising and promotions. It means locking down designs for toys early enough to get in the stores before the Christmas holiday. The movie itself has become an afterthought in many ways now instead of the driving force it was when it was the only tickets the studios wanted to sell.
The major malfunction is that they are not hiring competency but hiring ideology. It does not matter if you are the best person to do the job but the best person to inject the ideological belief into the work.
Great video. One of the worst things is that there are VERY talented people that could make great original movies/shows, but they are ignored or their ideas get completely massacred by non-creatives. I used to work in the TV industry and it happened there too. It's sad and frustrating.
Well said, Michael! I agree wholeheartedly with every word. Two of my all-time favorite IPs, Star Trek and Star Wars, have been completely destroyed by these "filmmakers," and any amount of decent writing is nonexistent. Seems like no one cares about the source material anymore, or have any respect for what has been done in the past. It truly breaks my heart. That being said, I'm ever thankful for IPs like The Expanse, and The Orville!
And you see tons of fans who are ADDICTED to these franchises who STILL support this crap. I've had words with some of these guys but they're just too thick-headed and you can't get through to them no matter what arguments and examples you use let alone mentioning how disrespectful the studios and filmmakers are towards the fans. You gotta call these people who support Star Wars and Star Trek at the cost of BAD PRODUCT "delusional." There's really no other term that fits their mindset.
Remember when comics became really good in the mid to late 80s because people like Alan Moore and Frank Miller decided to make them more realistic? And how most creatives and especially management only saw the gore and grit and totally missed the characterization, nuance and reinvention of the genre? And how every fucking comic book in the early 90s (with a few exceptions obviously) became deliberately savage and mindless and irony-free, entirely missing the point? I think that's kind of what's happening to the film industry now. They've seen what works, but they don't understand why.
@Jason Godwin Very good anology(?) and point. I remember that time too and agree.They have seen the result, and want to mimick it, but do not understand the mechanics behind it, which brings disaster. The message in lost in glossy surface, form over function sort of thing.
It's verisimilitude versus veracity. They want to capture the image or the flash or the style of something that was successful, without caring enough to be consistent with the fundamental elements of that successful thing. Their work is meant to connote something else, but it isn't really based on or connected to that something else. They are not true to the source material, so their product will never truly work. It might achieve a big following initially with enough hype, but that fizzles quickly. After a 3-year live action series and a cartoon series, the original Star Trek crew then got 6.5 movies; the New Trek's shields failed with 2 and then the whole thing suffered a warp core breach with their 3rd.
You know, when they made "The Wizard of Oz," "Citizen Kane," and "It's A Wonderful Life," or "The Sound of Music," "Psycho," and "Jaws," or "Star Wars," "The Terminator," and "Superman: The Movie," and even "The Mummy," "The Matrix," and "Forrest Gump," they didn't think - hey, we're making some of the greatest films ever made. They just did their job, making some entertainment they thought would entertain others; as well as themselves. They had fun, made mistakes, and tried as hard as they could. But most importantly of all, they respected the medium, respected the source material/concepts, and especially respected the audience. Now, Hollywood just wants to push out mediocre follow ups to proven franchises for quick cash grabs. And the directors/producers/actors aren't any better. The majority of them are perfectly content with making episode after episode, film after film, filling in their quota to make a cinematic universe, television season, or whatever - with only the bare minimum amount of creativity and effort - all just to sucker in mainstream audiences into watching season after season, film after film, just to get the bigger picture. I mean, you said it yourself in a previous video how movies used to actually have a beginning, middle, and end. A movie was a complete experience. Now it's just a thrown together puzzle piece akin to a cheap pencil. Once you've used it up, you just gotta get another... and another... and another. It's like Hollywood blockbusters have become a drug. It's unhealthy, your time would be spent better doing something else, but you've just gotta keep doing it. Well, I've stopped. Filmmaking's been around for well over 100 years now. Television a bit shorter, but certainly the better half of a century. There's hundreds if not thousands of undiscovered gems out there, and I'm much more content with checking them out for myself than sitting through any more of the current wave of boring and untalented. I'll go out and watch Star Wars when they actually start making good Star Wars films. I'll start watching Fantasy television when they actually make a show for Fantasy fans. The only way Hollywood listens is with their wallets. If you really want a change, you gotta hit em where it hurts. I'm not calling for a "boycott" here or anything. I'm just saying - you don't like, don't keep giving them your money and getting disappointed. There's better content out there. Heck, even content like this, RetroBlasting, is great! I'm just sorry for the kids, teens, and now young adults who've known nothing more than this. They don't know Star Wars like we do. And they might never will...
This is exactly why the MCU succeeded while every attempt at a subsequent MCU failed: the MCU wasn't _trying_ to be the MCU, it became the MCU _organically_ one hit film with consistent continuity at a time and _eventually earned_ eventual sequels and crossovers instead of starting with the crossover and working backwards from trying to manufacture entire movies as episodes of sequential storytelling.
I've come to believe there are at least two types of people - people who can do things and people who are great bullshitters. For some reason, bullshitters seem to be more prevalent and they cling together and support one another.
1978 - Dick Donner had an essentially silly and kid friendly property, took it seriously, and made the world believe that a man could fly in blue tights. Was pulled off the sequel. 2000 - Bryan Singer is given control of one of the most versatile properties ever, down grades characterization, shifts focus from the team dynamic to one person, puts them in black leather to make characters with laser beam eyes & weather powers "more realistic", mocks the fan base for liking something so "silly". He gets overly praised for two, at best, average films because of one action sequence.
That’s the one thing about my generation I could never stomach: the “too-cool-for-school” attitude. Everything has to be done with a wink-wink to ease all the basics, just so they don’t have to be embarrassed by liking Star Wars, Star Trek, etc.
Plus, the "too-cool-for-school" attitude has created 2 (going on 3) generations of English speakers who don't know the difference between there, their, and they're; your and you're; where and were; have and of... I could go on. We've got a world full of stupids now because only NERDS pay attention in school.
On RU-vid too: many people that talk about B-movies do it with a sarcastic and disrespectful attitude as to show they're superior. Luckily this doesn't happen with the local B-movie youtubers of my country, they usually are respectful and professional.
I'm not sure about that, I mean, I couldn't name any of the people I know who think they're "too-cool-for-school" I couldn't name any of the people I know who doesn't know the differences between they're, there, their etc. But bro, we learned the differences of they're, there and their in kindergarten and 1st grade, so, yeah. And I agree about the not bringing up likeing star wars.
I never would have thought when I was a kid that they would ruin all of my favorite fictions . They’ve managed to make Star Wars a bad joke , and Ridley Scott ruined ALIEN all by himself . It’s just sad . At this point I want a new I.P. but I’m not sure it’s possible after what happened to Game of Thrones
At least George Miller made another good Mad Max movie with Fury Road. Everyone else is deconstructing their own legacies. Ridley Scott does it with Alien. James "And Then I Start To See Things I Recognize" Cameron with Terminator. Tim Burton with almost every movie he made after the turn of the millenium.
The very public suicide of Ridley's brother, director Tony Scott, greatly affected Ridley. Ridley arrived in Hollywood during a British invasion of UK directors to Hollywood. Tony was in film school in England. Ripley talked him into dropping out and coming to California with a heavy promise, "I'll make you famous". Tony killed hinself a few months after the release of Prometheus. The brothers "spoke" to one another through their films. Something in Prometheus made Tony, who was battling cancer, kill himself. After his death Ridley changed the course of ALIEN and his other franchises to work out his grief of losing Tony. Maybe thats part of the reason the generations brought things to this point. Pride does go before a fall. Ridley was treated like royality, he had groups of sycophants following him to meetings an sometimes he played the enigma thing to the hilt and rarely spoke to anyone at these meetings. Lucas surrounded himself with yes men too scared to say anything during the filming of the prequels.
skylx08 alien is my favorite sci fi movie , and Ripley is one of the great forgotten movie heroes of that era . I’m not trolling , the whole thing really hurts me inside . These movies should have been cherished , and instead they just sucked them dry .
I'm picturing the scene in the board room at the movie studios looking something like the Simpsons episode "Itchy and Scratchy and Poochie" when the writer points out that the executives are using buzzwords like "paradigm" and "proactive" just to sound intelligent and important so he gets fired.
"Steve Jobs was known to have agreed with the famous principle “A level people hire level A people, B level people hire C level people." So as a recruiting philosophy, Apple hires only A players. There are sound reasons why this principle is so effective. When searching for talented employees, B levael players are afraid to hire people that could be better than them. They feel threatened by anyone that could surpass them, so their thinking is better to raise themselves up by keeping other people down. A players understand the benefits of hiring A players from the beginning, and prefer working with other A players. They keep each other sharp, motivated, challenged and competitively engaged. A players can better recognize other A players. They understand how they work and how they’re motivated, making them easier to spot." Must be a bunch of "B levels" at the top making these hires, Michael.
Agreed. I've rewatched Red Letter Media's Picard take multiple times because of the vitriol they direct towards Kurtzman. There is no better way to tell a movie will suck than if Kurtzman is attached to it in anyway.
I just want to say there aren't any words in the English language to describe how thankful we are of you for doing what you do with sincerity and integrity, Michael. It's a sad state of Hollywood indeed and I can't help but feel that my generation (gen-y) hasn't made things any better than the films passionless gen-x filmmakers you've mentioned in this video.
The one main thing I've learned from working nearly 25 years of my life is that almost no one knows what they hell they are doing. They just fake it til they make it. The ones that put all their resources into becoming great at faking it are the ones that rise to the top. Seems like the movie industry is no different.
Sounds like a student who does no work, spends time nattering at lectures, never attends the practicals, yet borrows everybody's coursework and notes and gets a good grade and a good degree.
Very good observation. These directors have no real creative integrity and are hired because these companies don’t understand the properties they try to cash cow. These new iterations will not hold up in the ensuing decades unlike the original films.
If everything tries to appeal to the same audience, everything will look the same. That's why most modern TV shows are soap operas, and most modern movies are action movies.
Great video Michael, I'm almost giving up on movies and my new source of enjoyment is watching youtubers like you and toy polloi, analog toys and the junkman. These things entertain me. Keep up the good work!
Bottom line is they are wanting young and "hip" directors to bring something flashy and exciting for a new generation. HOWEVER, that seems to be there only consideration and completely forgetting the mythology, and most importantly the characterization, established in the original trilogy.
When I was a kid, I used to dream of filmmaking. These guys all seem like they were spoiled and just had to be filmmakers because they had inside influence from family or money. I wanted to make movies for people like myself and my friends. It seems to me if you make a film that is honest, honest in that you weren’t thinking about how much money you could make or how cool the people who will love it are, it could still suck, but at least it would be the movie that was true to a vision.
that's beautifully said and a great reason to be a filmmaker - I was similar, but music took me away from practicing film. I still have a dream of writing a movie and directing it one day...you never know!
Like opening a comic book and drawing or writing. Maybe not very well but a true vision and wanting to put something out there. Maybe the execution is not strong but the actual passion of doing it and getting better as you do more. Or getting your friends together and filming something because you've got the passion. All this funding and little passion!
Everything that you've said sums up why I'd like to go into the entertainment industry (be it films, television, animation, or video games), one day. To make something that I and any friends I make could enjoy... if more people are brought in and they enjoy it, then that's a bonus for me.
"Nerd Culture" has been co-opted by people who do not understand the culture. When I was in HS it was nerdy to like Star Trek and collect EU Star Wars books. It did not win girls, or make you homecoming king. I got made fun of because I liked this stuff. Now, maybe because of the success of the MCU, I don't know, people think "being a nerd" is the in thing. But the problem is they are taking the superficial aspects of nerd culture and making that the substance, which it surely isn't. Myself and my friends lived and breathed our sci-fi and fantasy properties. We studied all the source books, memorized all the lines in the films, collected the toys/models. Talked about storylines and characters almost as if they were real people. We were INTO it, and we were into it genuinely, not to impress people or fit into some group. We enjoyed what we enjoyed and put it out there on our sleeve with great social risk, especially as young people where your image was everything. But we stuck to our guns and kept enjoying our hobbies even if it meant being chastised by the "cool kids". But now, every tom dick and harry and internet thot and attention seeking social butterfly has latched on to this nerd culture thing. These movie makers are absolutely disingenuous jerks who just want to milk it for market share, and deep down don't give two poops about what made these IPs viable in the first place. Real nerds who have a real interest in these stories and characters kept it alive. All they are doing in Hollywood now is milking them until they are dry, to discard them for the next fad. It's disgusting and fake, and it sickens me. And they wonder why the Fandom Menace exists.
Nearly every director they have hired, grew up watching Star Wars. Many of the people working at Lucasfilm and ILM, got into filmmaking because of Star Wars. JJ Abrams grew up watching Star Wars. Rian would watch the first film over and over in sitting. Gareth Edwards, could quote the entirety of ANH.
@@lukerope1906 My joke was in moving forward, actually. The only gripe I've had is with the decision to axe Luke off so quickly and write him so uncharacteristically.
@@johnmpowell01 I for one like that Luke has become one with the Force. And I wouldn't say he was written uncharacteristically either. But I'm not going to get into that right now.
Spot on, Michael. These hacks and flim-flammers are just killing franchises for profit and fame, and the fat cats don't care, as long as they get their paycheck. Sad situation at best.
They seek to "grow the fanbase" by pandering to people who are not typical fans because to them, the "fanboy" money is a forgone conclusion. And to an extent, from what I've seen, it's true. There are plenty of people willing to slop up whatever swill is offered up as long as it has their favorite brand name on it. There's a word for this and every time I go to write it down, it flies right off the tip of my tongue and I just can't grasp it.
It's so sad to think that the days of 70's and 80's Lucas and Spielberg are gone. By that I mean similar to what Michael had said; filmmakers who create their own new and original films, sure a lot of their work took inspiration from works of the past but they at the end of the day Star Wars and Raiders of the lost ark were still original films. My only hope can be that the next generation of filmmakers chose to be inspired by films of the past to make new ones instead of just remaking films that already worked
Christopher Perez I was just saying that it seems like everything is written by plugging in requirements into a computer program and it just spits out a random pile of crap with quotas. We have filmmakers that were inspired by filmmakers who were inspired by filmmakers. George Lucas went back to the beginning to make Star Wars: Flash Gordon, John Carter, history, myth, etc. he wasn't influenced so much by the pop directors before him (unless the were foreign filmmakers such as Kurosawa.) What we have now are copies of copies of copies. They are getting blander, and the talent and skill just fades a little more after each copy. This is why they fail.
By the time of Cleopatra, the Egyptians had forgotten how the pyramids were built. Likewise, no one in Hollywood seems to understand filmmaking, anymore. It's truly a pity.
OMG! I love this guy. I mean, I have loved this channel for a long time, but I was mentally screaming AMEN! though this video. Thank you. THANK YOU. Awesome video.
I think you hit the nail on the head when you said that good story writing is what's lacking in a lot of these films. We saw a similar thing happen to fine art in the late 90s. My opinion is that these artists lack the fundamental skills to make the art that we have become used to. It's not easy to do. It takes time, practice, and education. You don't just "become" a good story teller, or a great artist. These things take patience and dedication, and there is a slow growth toward mastery. A lot of the basic fundamentals are being lost in the educational system - art students are taught to paint what they "feel" in undergrad, instead of learning fundamentals like color theory, value, composition, figure drawing, perspective, etc. I imagine film schools are similar based on the results. What you end up with is a person who feels entitled, since they spent time in school, but perhaps doesn't even realize what they are missing. We can feel it though. Even the uneducated understand the difference between clear, direct communication and muddy, misunderstood or clumsy efforts to emulate something that was once clear, direct communication through whatever medium. I can hear people saying, "you don't need to know all the rules to make good art." True - you might get lucky once or twice, but eventually your weaknesses will show. You need to know all the rules in order to break them properly. Sorry for rambling- there are parallels here to painting, music, film, screenwriting, novelists, animation, you name it. It's all art, and art is a form of communication. You have to know how to communicate (the rules or the elements of your art form) in order to make that message clear, concise and poignant (a moving message that stays with us). So how do we get better? Learn, practice, research! Go back to the films that inspired Spielberg and the serials that inspired Lucas. Break them down and truly understand what is so compelling about them and how that translated into Star Wars and Indiana Jones, then break those films down into the basic story telling elements that made them great - I can tell you it has more to do with simple messaging than women in their underwear or fancy special effects. Thanks for the videos- really enjoy your content!
Creative people have been moved out of any decision making in Hollywood. And also pretty much of any other industry. Thats why there is dysfunction in the entire national and supranational economies...
Nice breakdown man. I’ve been in Hollywood for a long time now fighting the fight. I’ve been in creative meetings at studios. Patted on the head and chuckled at for even suggesting something original. I remember how, at one point, everyone was like “find out what Pixar is doing” because they had 100 percent hits - that people also loved. But when the simple answer came back: “the artists are the bosses”... “screw that” was the reply. So, you’re spot on dude. It’s the usual narcissists who get into power and muck it for everyone else. I could write a book about it. Ha. But, I’m just gonna keep throwing myself at the wall instead:). Please keep up what you’re doing.
Another problem that contributes to this phenomenon... it has been proven that the people who identify as fans of a franchise will consistently show up, no matter what. It's the impulse fans have to be experts on the topic. They often don't care how good or bad it is... they just want to consume everything of the IP. Michael Bay realized this with Transformers. Most of the hardcore TF fans that complained about his choices still bought a ticket to see his movies. He knew it. He said it often... "You're still gonna go see it," he would boast. So... because of this... studios and filmmakers know they only need to win over the casual audience. What they don't realize, is that there is an essence to the original franchise that made it successful, and that identifying the essence, or the soul of a property will make the reboot successful again. You don't have to copy it. You don't have to pander. You don't have to bait with fan service. You need to locate the soul of the character or the franchise or the story, and make a good movie with that soul. And remember that the design of the original thing is very much a part of it's soul. That's why unnecessary design, race, or gender changes frustrate fans. So... if you make Superman blonde... you've ALREADY missed the mark.
I watched Bayformers for free by borrowing copies from my brother. I watched the first intently out of love for the original Generation 1, but was sorely disappointed. I went into 2 reluctantly and then felt dirty and let down by myself afterward. With 3, I read a book as it was on in the background. I played a video game with 4 on. Hated them more and more as they went along. So then I resolved to stop watching them altogether, even for free, and even with something else to distract me. Didn't try New Trek 3, or Star Wars Solo/8/9. My crapdar has become well-tuned these days, and I now happily spare myself from the reboot travesties.
I feel the same way when it comes to the DC shows on Fox and CW. The showrunners play fast and loose with the characters when there is no reason for it. The source material is there so why not use it properly.
This is just right. Your thoughts are very welcome on this moment. Looks like the Bryan Johnson situation was going to repeat with these: they lack certain light of creativity. They're destroying the culture by inducing ideology and a mediocre way to watch the world.
I think you made one valid point: they make successful movies/tv shows. They make money. Only when they stop making money (e.g. Solo) studios feel the need to adjustments. Then and only then. Because a corporation naturally only cares about profit. That is NOT a bad thing. That is what a corporation sets out to begin with. Everything else, fan satisfaction, community... all that... is only a means to make money.
I genuinely think that we have the Gen-X directors we do because when the marketing teams come to them and say we need X+Y they say YES, and those that say NO are labelled as "difficult to work with" to board members and investors. Bu this is just symptomatic of corporate mechanism behind film production today. Insurance companies, financiers, investors, share holders for all intents and purposes fight against the values of creativity - risk aversion stifles modern society. Every generation if scared of not being as good as the generation before it - movies and TV made FOR Gen-X were some of the most interesting fun which does show a trend of the preceding generation adjusting their stories for the following generation - unfortunately the next generation after X are from a narcissistic remix culture - which has led to reality TV and reboots/sequels. This generation also has had the greatest access to back catalogs ever seen - Apples entire economy is based on long-tail economics as too are the streaming services - making nostalgia a massive money maker - TV networks called them re-runs - but now its "on demand". We are heading backwards, the 80s 90s we had a few free to air TV channels and cable TV (for the rich kids) but most of the good stuff was on FTA TV and cable had the rest - sports, docos, etc.. Now again we have few major players Netflix, Disney+, Amazon prime, Hulu, Apple, RU-vid and the small streaming services from FTA and sports (WWE, ESPN, DC, HBO etc etc) which one can only assume will be consolidated further as the arms war over content ownership increases. There is only so much consumer $$$ and time to go around each month so economics would suggest its easier to produce content and place on somebody elses service, than to produce content and run and support a service. P.S. Authors should be getting paid much more than they do. This is where any new IPs will emerge moving forward IMHO. Actors directors and producers get paid way too much, money that could be used by studios to produce new IPs with young up and coming talent. I think Netflix is doing a pretty good job of this with some of their movies - loved the recent movie about National Lampoons and while most films are B grade they are at least fresh and present different genres.
What I find amusing about this is the assumption that moms and footballers aren't fantasy fans. That set of classifications is, in and of itself, a misunderstanding of genre that tends to be counterproductive. It turns fantasy fandom into Mordor and fans into the mainstream culture equivalent of orcs. What follows then is a disdain for nerd culture and the tendency to hand over properties to elves (non-nerds). That's how we get DCEU.
It's been my experience that soccer mom's will watch anything you cast Jason Momoa in. And NFL fans will watch anything with titties and violence in it.
@@Necron-ez2cc Bull. Then why go to a movie to begin with? You need an imagination to enjoy it. And it's not like an imagination helps with escapism from the daily grind of life, now does it?
This is OUR fault. Hollywood will never go back to making original movies until the public stops supporting the remakes, reboots, and super-hero garbage.
17 min in. The cool comments. SO TRUE. Michael you have said it perfectly. I have been preaching this for so long and it’s fallen on deaf ears. I’m so happy you did this video. I’m gonna pass this around to everyone who needs to see it.
Ever since Disney bought Star wars they have not treated it with the respect it deserves. Instead they ruined the most legendary film franchise in history.
Let's See Muppets, Marvel, Star Wars, 20th century Fox (Disney with the Simpsons and Family guy that is Disturbing but again it been stale for Years no Big loss), ABC, ESPN, Pixar, I think Touchstone (?) as well, oh and Rotten Tomatoes don't forget Disney owns that as well
@@madmike131369, Rotten Tomatoes is just an aggregate of reviews. They don't actually do the reviewing. Also, have you seen the reviews for Maleficent, Lion King, Dumbo, and Aladdin? Those are just their most recent non-Marvel. Pixar or Star Wars movies and they all have rotten ratings.
There is no denying the political angle, is it possible that the more qualified person may not have the right politics vs someone that checks off the right boxes?
I don't care about the current Star Wars anymore. Lucasfilm has crushed my enthusiasm for this franchise by substituting good storytelling for political ideologies and agendas. I will not be seeing any more of these movies at least in the theater or renting them. The last Jedi was the last straw for me Maybe somewhere down the road when Kathleen Kennedy and her bunch are gone I might consider giving them another chance.
im 48 im done with that although to be fair the duffer brothers are generation xrs and they have done a very good job on stranger things never liked game of thrones
Geerladenlad What’s the political agenda? Female characters, minority or not, simply for the sake of having them? What political agenda do you see in Episode 9 so far? I’m curious, because the creation of certain characters were easily arguable as being socially pressured choices, yet I don’t see Kennedy’s political agenda, just her personal one. From The Force Awakens she has gotten shit from many film critics, and much of the hardcore fan base. Obviously, that film turned out to be one of the most successful ever financially, yet began the split between fans. The sad fact for us hardcore fans, who’ve been let down by the new movies, is that Disney only seem to care about the average film goer and the next generation of Star Wars kid, because they don’t care as much about being true to the original characters. I have many friends, who are about 7 to 10 years younger, and they really enjoyed Ep. 7 and 8, most of them enjoyed 8 more even. Deadpool 1 , 2, and now Joker should’ve been a clear sign, that being SJW safe doesn’t have much effect on box office, yet we’re still seeing producers tippy toe around casting and how they tell stories. It’s slowly turning around, with more and more cancel culture being called out as unethical, or even criminal, but we’re a long way before a blockbuster doesn’t have a “diversity specialist” on set influencing whether certain characters should be changed from white, and/or men, as well as story points that are may be offensive to some group, and/or minorities. Sorry for my thesis, that started as a question, but even in the films I enjoy it’s gotten ridiculous. If you want to see that extreme, check the new Batwoman show. 🤪 Holy Balls, is it a shit filled dumpster fire, well beyond the terrible casting of Ruby Rose. Compared to the DC streaming shows, animated movies, even the DCU movies, I don’t know how they were made under the same company.
@@CorbCorbin Forced diversity is a political agenda. Or if you like diversity for diversities sake. But that's not the only one. That is just one example.
@@CorbCorbin Don't get me wrong I don't have a problem with diversity in movies but if they're just doing that to make it diverse then there's the problem cuz it's interfering with the storytelling.
Geerladenlad That’s why I gave the Batwoman example. A lesbian character, so they purposely searched for a lesbian actress. That led to the decision that Ruby Rose, who just isn’t a good actress, nor is she even a good representation of the character, would lead a Batwoman series.
Producers and directors these days follow a formula. They apply psychology to woo the masses. The concept of a good story is told is beyond them; it's too risky. Also, they have to work in their product placements to make more money than the millions they expect to receive at the box office. Great review. Keep up the great work RetroBlasting.
I would dissgree on one point, the film industry has always been run by uncreative hacks and financiers. Lucas and Coppola made Zoatrope for this reason. Orson Wells got Citizen Kane by tooth and nail. This is nothing new. However, I agree on Gen X creators. They, or at least this crop, can't write and want to drag everything down. You can do this, but it only works if you hold sacred these things, so you handle with care. The only thing sacred to them is adulating the person looking at them in the mirror.
I’m a millennial but I believe I know what happened, basically sometime around the late 2000’s early 2010s as I was going into my 20s being a nerd started to become “hip” or cool or something it was weird, nerdy things became more accepted among regular crowds especially as I was getting out of high school, so what I believe is going on is that because nerdy things have become trendy and mainstream it pretty much made it so those guys that were nerds or geeks and jocks for lack of a better term to go into genre filmmaking. Before being a nerd became cool people just wanted to create something for the niche crowd such as fantasy nerds or sci-fi nerds, when those things became cool it became imperative to make things more mainstream to bring in more casual folks who didn’t have an interest. I’m pretty sure that if nerdy things never became mainstream that these directors would be working on Michael Bay-esq films where you don’t have to think much and is pure spectacle or in soap operas.
I’m 44 years old. I started seriously collecting comics in 1987, and I started with Thor #382, and collected every single issue after, and the 311 previous issues before, over the next 30 years. I have a Thor tattoo. I managed a comic store for almost a decade and made our first business cards Thor related. And guess what? I fucking LOVE Ragnarok. It’s easily the most entertaining of that entire specific franchise. I don’t need my films to be pedantic, slavish translations...I need them to be GOOD MOVIES. Yeah...I love the Walt Simonson era of comics...but Thor Dark World, which is thematically the most faithful translation of the Thor films to the source material, is EASILY the worst of the lot, and one of the worst of Marvel’s whole output. I LIKE a fun Thor. Yes, he’s not the dour, self-serious Shakespeare spouting comic version. But honestly...that shit got annoying REAL FAST in the films. But ultimately, faithfulness to the comic world aside, and your critique of his very tongue-in-cheek view on “ruining” the material...Taika Waititi is a BRILLIANT filmmaker. Not one bad film under his belt. I’d rather him direct a marvel film that someone who loves the source material but can’t actually direct a film. (BTW, with Ragnarok specifically...the visual homages to Kirby’s work alone makes it more of a love letter than any Marvel film to date. I can’t fathom how more people don’t understand this!!!)
