The Endless failure of Hollywood & why they'll continue to fail... 

I watched an interview with Orson Welles that was very insightful in this area. People who succeed in Hollywood make films that producers want to produce. It’s not about what the public wants. It’s about power and ego. No one goes into the film industry simply because they want to make a lot of money. It’s easier to earn money in other industries. It’s more about control.

Short and to the point, I agree with everything you said. The only thing I would add is the massive pressure by investment companies like Blackrock or Vanguard forcing other companies and businesses to push for their messages via "DEI" goals they have to meet, and not granting them funding if they don't adhere to them. This is also why money is continuously lost, but things are still being kept going by the funding of these invenstment companies, even though bankruptcy should have set in for many ( under normal market circumstances ).

Wokeness and nepotism have brought a lot of incompetence and arrogance in Hollyweird.

Great video, especially that closing statement at the end. ❤

Eventually companies that keep creating products that lose money go out of business. Sadly, we have no idea how long that will take.

Love the editing. 🎉 Those clips must've taken a while to procure.

As the greatest elf in Middle-Earth, I approve of this video. - Glorfindel, Second Age

I feel that a lot of what we are seeing these days is a product of misconceptions writers and creators have developped from previous works. They see a good story with a message in it and believe that it is the message that make the story good. A sort of cart before the horse situation where this one small element of the vast art of story telling is being focused on above all else, thus making a poor product overall.

Awesome video. ❤

You make a lot of good points, keep up the good work. ❤

I know it’s kinda off topic, but I’ve been waiting so long, for you to bring your next video of the second age series. When is it coming out? Cuz it was so amazing and I really want to see more.

An interesting topic, definitely worth thinking about. ❤

Top Gun Maverick was the only film I really loved in the last 4-5 years.

I can't believe Hollywood has fallen so low... Honestly, humanity is a race of astronomical ineptitude.

👍

the issue isn't the "art" of filmmaking, or the nature of artistry- blockbuster companies have largely forgone that in favor of franchise blockbuster films spat out in a board room. Hollywood is by and large not creating any new ideas or art, they are resurrecting, adding too, and changing established titles and stories, all with huge followings already. After gutting them they stuff them full of a different (and ubiquitous) message, tone, and meaning- removing the things about the story, characters, and world they don't agree with, then pumping it full of unsubtle nods and propoganda that espouse the same mantras, idioms and tropes we hear from corporations, governments and news stations. escapism at its best LOL... fit for a "modern audience". It's 2024 guys- you have to think like us now. This is why people get up in arms about small choices like casting, because the already established fan base can see they're already "ticking boxes" and know that the end result will look and feel totally different than the thing they already enjoy (with very rare exceptions). I'm all for new stories and movies and ideas coming out- what I have a problem with is when they take a beloved thing that already exists, have zero respect for the source material, and try to "art" all over it with their lame formulaic Macguffin method of writing while focusing on DEI quotas. Stories like LoTR or Star Wars were already loved by "a diverse global audience" as they were. If you don't want to tell a Tolkien story, then make a new world, characters and story: then we can judge it on it's own merit... it still is (most likley) gonna suck because of the execs and politics of moviemaking right now, but you can't fault fans for being upset or offended that something they would have loved and looked forward too (see Peter jackson films for an example-changes and all) completely derailed and unrecognizable, stuffed full of sociopolitical dogma.

It's all about media being the bully pulpit for the "message" of the hour, that message superseding any artistic or economic value of a work. ='[.]'=

Happy Tolkien Reading Day/Night.😁👍

You are right! Hilarious to see Aragorn, Rohirrim, the Witcher blood origin and even a tiny bit of Robyn Hood in the same video! Hope you’re doing well! ❤

Cardolan is the best!

Godzilla-1 and the current Shogun are a gem in the rough and they are making money, unlike all the crap coming out of Holytard

I 💯 agree with everything you said. Not to say that there isn’t room for preachy types of movies and other forms of entertainment but it’s ridiculous to think that everything has to be filled with a certain political agenda and that everyone is going to be ok with it.

I think the greatest problem lies when companies get greedy and want to overuse something. Like when we get movie 4, 5 6, etc, of a series or theme, just because the first and second ones did well financially. Some great examples of this are star wars, marvel and of course lord of the rings universe. One recent rare exception is Dune I & II imo, but I wouldn't be surprised if they decide to extend it to dune 4, 5... Which is definitely going to fall in the same formula of generic entertainment because the first movies were profitable unfortunately

You say that "wokeness" is only part of the problem, but the reason they don't care about or listen to the audience is because of their political agenda. They see their cause as "noble" and anyone who doesn't like it is a toxic manbaby. They even see the fans as toxic.

I don't watch movies. I have Amazon Prime. I could watch hundreds of movies if I wanted to. I have watched about 4. So, I don't care what happens to the movie industry. It won't affect my life at all.

In my opinion the main reasons are: 1: forcing political ideologies into movies (wokenes for example) 2: CGI instead of practical effects 3: less talented actors (there are good, but most of the big modern hollywood stars are just medicore imo and no comparison to actors like Anthony Hopkins, Sean bean or Jeremy irons) 4. No unique or new ideas, so just producing remakes and spin offs to allready existing and much better movies/series 5: don't listening to the fans and branding every critism as toxic

Yes, that's what we need; more business people in charge of creative industries.... I think it's that kind of thinking that got us here in the first place. Art pushing agendas as products. Trying to forecast buying trends. Morals within narratives unchecked and unchallenged, just presented as whole or complete. Completely removed from reality. I wholeheartedly disagree with you.

ESG.

Because it’s no longer about… the story, the characters, it’s about what they can allegorize and represent to make everyone feel “included” in what is supposed to be Mythology for Northern Europe! It’s sad, I do not wish to sound so hateful sometimes, the fact isn’t that the character is different, it is the reason. Often it’s not because of something written, but because they want to make it different, betraying the work. It’s insulting! Sure it’s called “adaption” but I’ve always found the word “adaption” insulting to other peoples’ works because it means the director believes the story is insufficient. And no longer means a transformation from book to screen in the best way possible. Instead of attempting adherence to what is painted for you, modern directors and whatnot wish to take cans of black and white paint tear apart the painting and start over. At that point… you’ve… lost the point! Look at John Wick for instance, it is inspired by a Book Series which is drastically different, but the word is “Inspired”, it was a creative formidable aid, not what they’re presenting which offered them lease to do as they please. What’s wrong with Rings of Power and many other works is that “Adapted from the Book” is said or so. And sometimes even “Inspired” when it shouldn’t say inspired, inspired doesn’t mean copy paste elements and names. Inspired implies originality with subtle hints and yet they have the gall to connect it after saying they were inspired,because perhaps they knew they were not going to follow Tolkien’s work. Arguably, You find Galadriel’s Journey in the Unfinished Tales, but the counter to that is you find Galadriel’s Journey in the Unfinished Tales. You Learn of Durin’s Folk in the Hobbit, Silmarillion AND AT THE END OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS… I’m sorry…sorry! 😂 sometimes I want to make a video, but I realize there’s little point, because… well… Rings of Power was something many liked and every director believes in “Hey, if it made money, who cares” That’s why true storytelling is hard to find, because so many take the easy route of a backdrop, nostalgia, and representation! It’s why it’s hard to write my own stories sometimes because I can think it’s beautiful, but I’m horrified when thinking about what directors will do to my children, tear them apart, stitch them together into disgusting patchworks and puppet them around…for one who loves his writing it’s enough to make me want to adhere to the difficulty of making it in the storytelling world and simply give up. But, I’m impertinent. I know there’s someone out there who likes a good story, that doesn’t fall on cliches and nostalgia and representation. I wish it wasn’t so easy to fall on for others, I wish people tried, directors, and whatnot, to understand, to feel.

Why Hollywood fails in our time is a difficult question with no easy answer. I think there multiple factors in play. 1. The first factor is the politics. You can call it wokeness. But modern writing seems to put as many minorities as possible into a movie. But these characters often end up bland and boring, because you can't potray them as problematic. Basicly the characters are a minefield. Why is the bad guy often white? Because any other race is apparently problematic. The sideeffect is that white characters are oftenthe most compelling characters, because they are not a minefield. 2. The second factor is the lack of politics. It sounds ironic but keep in mind that these movies are released internationally. Even in unfree countries. Hollywood wants to release their movies in these countries because money. Look how many movies have been censored in china. Also it isn't only china that likes to censor movies. The result is another minefield of stories. The result is that studios are even more risk averse than before. The third part is cgi. This is more an indirect problem. Cgi is used to fix the product in post production. In the era of practical effects you couldn't hope that the vfx artists bail you out, you had to understand your craft. How often do you hear that the studio put someone without experience in charge of a high budget movie? Without cgi it would be unthinkable. I think they are many more factors that play a role.

The problem isn't about people pushing their messages, all art contains messages within. If it meant nothing to people, art would be worthless. The problem is what kind of messages the artist wants to convey (dumb or not) and the way they do it through their creation. Is it a natural part of the creative piece, or does it force itself into the piece and so the piece has to bend itself around the message, so as to become just a packaged message, instead of an art piece. As an actual leftist (not the liberal Hollywood kind) who also loves Tolkien, I think the problem with today's Hollywood comes from the corporate political class of the US. The US liberals, in an effort to differentiate themselves both from the right and the left, have created an ideology comparable to an empty suit, performative stuff with barely any substance, that is comfortable for the megacorporations to get behind without changing any of the status quo that made them, that can also work as a good marketing tool. Unfortunately, most of the Hollywood liberals are part of that corporate class that either produces these pieces or writes for them and because their ideology is more performative than substantive and it acts more as a corporate tool, they end up being so on the nose that they have barely any depth that art requires to really be art. This is also greatly exaggerated by the way modern corporations operate, the hunt for quarterly profit is so relentless, that there is no more longterm vision and no space for actual art that will speak for itself. Products are now made by marketing checklists of what sells, instead of art that has a soul and that will speak to our souls.

The woke-joke will continue to play until it really hurts.

RoP S2 soon, woooohoo

wokeness and modernism

Rings of Power is trash, but I fundamentally reject the premise of this video. Art can and should be challenging, you're advocating for mass appeal, which is broadly what corporations do and is the opposite of challenging and rewarding art. Poor Things is not a film made for mass appeal because it has salacious and difficult content and themes, but it's also a brilliant piece of art. Art being about something is the nature of art, the problem is hiring talentless hacks to make shows that are in those positions through either nepotism or executive stupidity on who is actually a brilliant writer and mind, or executive meddling in the final product to make it less worthwhile. No one complained about changing the race swap of the Velaryons in House of the Dragon because the show was also extraordinarily well conceived and executed, while in Rings of Power it was seen as pandering (because it was). The problem is not that art shouldn't be about something or have a moral or ethical core, the problem is hackery.

Proper business people? Like BlackRock? They're playing the long game, sooner or later the the moviegoer will come around, because they're banking on the younger generations. Rebellion is a teen's first duty, anything that upsets the old heads, they young embrace.