Why are there so few good films now?

[Katya98]

Each of the films can be reviewed many times, but how many of the 10 films released in 2021 deserve the same? Include a caption fo

Especially compared to the past. Let's take 1999 for example.

1) "The Matrix"
2) "The Green Mile"
3) "The World Is Not Enough"
4) "Deep Blue Sea"
5) "Fight Club"
6) "Stuart Little"
7) "The Sixth Sense"
8 "The Bone Collector"
9) "American Beauty"
10) "End of Days"

Each of the films can be reviewed many times, but how many of the 10 films released in 2019 deserve the same?

[NamerOfStars]

What is it that makes a good movie? Well, that's a rather elaborate question. Here's a more easily answerable one: what makes a *profitable* movie? That, too, has complications, but the smoothest answer is: one that releases in as many places as possible. You can only make so much money in the US; go international, and the sky's the limit.

But humor is very subjective and local; what gets belly laughs in Houston won't in Sao Paolo, and probably won't even run in Shanghai. Nor do complex character interactions work as well when you have to cross cultural lines. What gets the widest appreciation (and thus, the most studio approval) is flat and bland.

"Rambo: First Blood" is a story about a Vietnam vet returning home to find his country no longer has a use for a crazed killing machine, and his struggles to readapt. It's a SCATHING condemnation of a culture and a government that took those horrible actions towards its own citizens, and it would never get made today.

"Rambo: First Blood, part 2" is a story about that same vet, brought back into action to verify the existence of (but not rescue) POWs in Vietnam. He sees them, snaps as his psychosis reasserts itself, frees those he finds, and goes on a rampage when his would-be rescuer bails. It's pretty much the exact opposite of the first movie: rather than condemning a society that horribly abused its soldiers by turning them into killing machines, it says "killing machines are AWESOME!" and glorifies in the violence the first movie decried. It doesn't ask you to think; just to enjoy the explosions and guns. There would be NO problem with making another one of these.

This leads into the second problem: ballooning costs mean studios are incredibly risk-averse. Nobody wants another Zardoz. The sad part is that movies that are risks can not only be excellent, but make INSANE amounts of money; Joker made over a billion on a $50 million budget (more than you or I will ever see, but that's peanuts, by Hollywood's standards), and that's *without* a release in China. The ideas it used were simple and universal, and the acting and writing were nothing short of phenomenal. Most such gambles don't pay off, but let's look at one that did- Star Wars.

Star Wars was the biggest IP in human history, and there are a lot of reasons for that- reasons that are as much about luck and timing as skill and craft, but the latter were present in abundance. The books, the movies, the video games, they all combined to create a juggernaut that seemed unstoppable- and then Disney stepped in. The expanded universe of the books? Gone. The LucasArts game studio that produced incredible classics? Gone. For the record, here's what the two produced in a given six-year period, side by side:

Grr...

If we expand that to the current day (3 more years), Lucasarts gets 12 more games- EA gets 2. And that's not counting the "Lucas Learning" early childhood ones. Yes, this isn't about movies directly, but I'm still bitter.

The movies show the simple truth. TFA was a shallow retread of ANH, and TLJ an abomination unto the sight of gods and men alike. Disney thought the name alone was enough, and care and effort didn't need to be put in; they clearly didn't even have a plan for what the story of the trilogy was supposed to BE, and so they let a dolt insert hamfisted messages into the second move- irrelevant messages, at that. Now? Now the brand is so mangled that even I, who spent thousands of hours playing the games and reading the books and can quote the first three movies from memory, didn't even bother to watch the third. "Did they fix things?" I ask myself, and think that I don't know- then realize that I don't care.

[MrOracle]

Two main reasons:

1. All but one of the films you listed was an original work - a new story never told on film before. For the last 15-20 years, Hollywood has been obsessed with sequels, reboots, and franchises, believing that the path to success was telling the same stories over and over again. And while some stories definitely have potential to be franchises IF they are properly managed and focus on telling the story above all else, most of what Hollywood has been doing has really just been cheap retreads, putting minimal focus on the story and just trying to polish up the special effects a bit and hoping for a big return. Mostly, that hasn't worked out well for them - yet they haven't grasped the lesson.

2. Hollywood has always leaned Left, but since the Obama presidency, they've been both moving even further left, but also been more and more and more blatant in their far-left activism. Many executives literally didn't care how much (investor's) money they lost, as long as they were pushing their woke narratives.

Take Warner Brothers, who also own HBO, DC Comics and most DC characters, particularly Superman, Batman, and Aquaman. They also had major franchises like Harry Potter and Game Of Thrones, which made billions for them. But by going woke over the last decade, Warners put themselves $180 BILLION into debt, making film after film that lost money, destroying multiple franchises, and constantly backing the wrong projects because the message was more important than the customers (who they held in contempt). DC Comics, which was overflowing with woke activists, has seen sales fall more than 80% and had to be downsized to the point that the few people left are working in temporary, shared offices, being forced to give up their high-end office space. Warners supporting "woke partners" like Amber Heard and Ezra Miller, despite LOTS of problems from both, has set them up for a number of projects that are certain to lose lots more money, and the Harry Potter-spin-off Fantastic Beasts franchise is dead, following their firing of Johnny Depp due to false allegations from Heard and generally mediocre work.

The results were predictable: Warner got sold to Discovery Media (the owners of the Discovery Channel), and Discovery came in this past week and swung a very long sword, sending all of the major players' heads rolling right out the door. In another time, they'd have likely landed a good job someplace else, but most of the other studios are in similar positions (the exception being Sony - but Sony doesn't want them), most other industry jobs they find will give them little real influence.

Universal and CBS/Paramount are doubling-down on Woke - destroying their own franchises in the process (the BBC as well), and Disney is doing the same despite current CEO Bob Chapek trying to get Disney out of politics. The previous CEO, Bob Iger, filled the company with Far Left activists, who are actively trying to get Chapek fired, even though Disney's woke projects have all been financial losers. Chapek lacks the support inside the company to clean it out all at once, so he can only make cuts here and there, which means that Disney will continue with projects started and supported by Iger for a good while yet, and will continue to lose money and customers in the process.

Sony - probably due to Japanese ownership and being more focused on business than US politics - has largely avoided Wokeism, and has been the most financially successful studio as of late, and Discover is likewise about making money rather than politics, and aren't afraid to swing the sword, so Warners will get better with time. The other studios have big, big problems.

[gabby100]

Depends on what you class as a goo film.. Sadly any of mine are not in your choice..

[ADFSDF1996]

Politics and lack of originality

[exitseven]

There are way too may streaming services and they cannot invest in a really expensive blockbuster movie. The movie theaters have been closed for the last two years so the audiences are not there either.

[HighValue]

Because Hollywood is more focused on pushing a liberal agenda than they are with making an enjoyable movie.

[OneNineZero]

Coz it's not the movies that are pure 🐂 bull
It's the people making them

[DarkWinterNights]

Because Hollywood has run out of ideas and would rather parrot woke BS than put out a decent movie without a political undertone.

[Anonymous]

They are forced to abandon good storytelling in favour of woke messaging and intersectional politics.

[JuanVeIasco]

Avengers: Endgame, Frozen II, The Lion King, Toy Story 4...

[KrakenAttackin]

Because everything is so wokey woke that good films that challenge or disrupt can't be made.

[OnyxianGhostsLove]

Writers are less interested in developing plots, than pushing certain narratives.

[Iron_Man]

I agree it’s totally awful even before COVID-19

[Dchrls78104]

Too much PC and too little real quality.