I'd like to believe it's not just me, and that I've just become cynical and jaded, but I hear a lot of other people complaining about the same thing with new movies. What do you think, and do you think movies will ever have the specialness and magic they once had? And yes, I realize that not every movie from 20 or 30-years ago was a masterpiece or even good, but I feel like way more effort went into creating something fresh, original, and of a higher quality. Now, it just seems like films are almost pumped off an assembly line rather than being a creative vision of a passionate individual. What the hell is happening?
Ok, so the first thing I have to ask is; what are you watching that makes you feel this way? Because I can
somewhat understand the feeling if all you are looking at is major studio releases, but
I wouldn't say anything close to 98% myself, there's still a lot of really good movies out there, and even the "assembly line" stuff can be quite enjoyable, though there are definite problems for sure. For every mishandled franchise like Star Wars, or unnecessary sequel like Fast and the Furious, we get something awesome like Pacific Rim, The Raid, or Annihilation, or a bunch of other good stuff. Even sequels/reboots can have their day with the likes of Planet of the Apes, Mad Max: Fury Road, Blade Runner 2049, etc...
I think we certainly are in a weird place, but to me, it's a situation of it being both the best things have been in a long while, but also possibly the worst in a long while.
I agree with this assessment 100%. I'd even throw Marvel into the ring. While not everything is amazing, I'd say that they haven't released a film yet that was worse than "OK".
And if you venture outside the major releases there is incredible stuff all over the place. The Best Picture race at the Oscars this year was the strongest it has been in years, with the weakest of the year probably being
Joker and
Jojo Rabbit, which were still both pretty widely beloved.
Then you've got productions studios like A24, who has, arguably, yet to release a bad film. Blumhouse is more hit or miss, but they are giving money to young, new, hungry filmmakers to try an make their mark. I'd say that these two companies alone have brought us into a new golden age of horror with stuff like
Get Out,
Hereditary, and
Midsommar.
Hell, the last year alone has seen the release of easily the best two video game movies of all time - while they aren't great, they are a damn sight better than anything we have gotten before.
And this may be a controversial opinion, but "I didn't like this movie" =/= "This movie sucks". I like plenty of movies that are close to objectively awful, and am bored by some that are supposed to be masterpieces. I've also found that a lot of people that like to say things like "This is the worst movie ever!" don't have a huge well of experience to dig from. I think more people need to watch something truly horrendous to really get their expectations in line or as a 'palette cleanser'. Check out
The Room or
Troll 2 or
Plan 9 from Outer Space or
Birdemic and then come back to me about how [your Star Wars of choice] is the worst thing you've ever seen.