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I've been having a really hard time watching new movies lately. I've had five late-night attempts with my wife, and every time I end up with the same feeling: bored, disconnected, as if I've wasted two hours of my life. Empty scripts, soulless characters, plots that lead nowhere... Where are the movies that tugged at your heartstrings or left you thinking for days?
I don't even want to take a chance on something new anymore. I spend my time reading reviews and trailers, and they still disappoint me. It seems like today's industry no longer makes movies with weight, meaning, or a story worth telling. Everything feels rushed, superficial, and recycled. Maybe the art of telling a good story is being lost... or maybe I just don't fit in with this era of disposable entertainment.
Is it just me, or is this happening to someone else?
It's all super hero movies....
I'm not sure if our phones have given us shorter attention spans, or movies just suck now, but I'm in the same boat.
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The Chinese market is enormous and what my Chinese friend explained to me is that all Chinese people want from a movie are
  1. CGI
  2. Action
  3. Monster
  4. Beautiful lady
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The decoupling of US and China should be good for the film industry
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Perhaps for US consumers of the film industry
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"Good for the art," is what I meant
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completely agree lmao but 6. no subtitles (especially in other languages)
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  1. no thinking
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I always forget one of them
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Super hero movies appeal to the primal connection with biblical stories and archetypes, but are marketed to an infantilized soyciety that prioritizes individual escapism or fandom culture over collective moral reflection.
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Do you feel the same about tv shows and series?
Ripley was good, if dark.
Better Call Saul was excellent (but I guess it's a little old now), but it's hard to forget.
Severance was okay...season 1 had a great concept but was a bit of a tease. Season 2 did not deliver. However, I still find myself thinking about it every once in a while.
My wife and I both enjoyed The Residence. Light-hearted but fun.
I've heard good things about Shogun but haven't watched it.
The streaming services have put a lot of energy into mini-series and shows. Perhaps this has diminished the movie scene (because I largely agree that there hasn't been an interesting movie in a long time -- or I'm somehow missing all of them).
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107 sats \ 0 replies \ @nichro 22h
This. It used to be shows were a lower art form to movies, and actors/producers wouldn't want to go from movies to TV shows.
Now shows are on the same level. One of the best things of the streaming era is that they no longer need to fit in near 23min blocks per episode AND no longer have to write scenes that work around expected commercial breaks. Makes timing and flow better. Also one show can have 6 episodes while another has 8, or 10 or wtv
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Shogun was excellent.
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I totally agree. That's why I've been rewatching things that are truly worthwhile, like Band of Brothers, The Pacific, or classics like Blade Runner. They're well-told stories, with soul, depth, and without the forced agenda or algorithmic script we see today. Sometimes, returning to good cinema is better than risking new garbage.
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One of the last series I really enjoyed was "Dark", the German series, the first season, the second not so much.
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I keep hearing about that one. Need to check it out.
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try to see it, you'll like it a lot, very good, it will blow your mind...!!
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Is not just you, movies nowadays suck, with few exceptions.
In a year there are probably 2 good movies worth watching in English, and a few in foreign languages we never hear about.
I suggest you look for old movies, even black and white ones, plenty of gems over there. You just have to adjust initially to a slower pace, but the writing, and acting were excellent. I would say until 1990 when digital effects were not the norm you can find pretty good movies. Many.
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I recommend you watch Karate Kid: Legends
and A Minecraft Movie (although somewhat glitchy VFX)
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5 sats \ 1 reply \ @Rezn8 3 Jul
The way I've avoided this is by playing the "did it age well ?" game & mostly watch movies before a certain year unless the director is someone I deem trustworthy
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I think I'm going to experience that trend. In fact, what I've been doing lately is rewatching movies I already know are good and that my wife has never seen before.
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The studios made a very obvious push to combat the power of movie stars by investing heavily into IP. Why pay Tom Hanks a crazy amount of money and market him as the attraction when the IP itself can be the marketer and who gives a shit if Spiderman is played by Toby, Tom, or Andrew if people will go and see it regardless? It's less risky business wise to go with known IP then to attract people to new IP where you need to build an audience from scratch. As a result we lost all new creative motivational because the big studios only want to invest in known IP with replaceable actors, leading only to iterative story telling instead of new innovative ideas. Sad.
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Waste two hours at life it is not when you share moments with family.
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It's a disaster, everything is a worse version of an old idea. Maybe 1-2 decent movies a year come out, for the last 10 years at least.
Good news is there's so many great old ones to revisit or discover, old ones I find have become more enjoyable as a trip back to less dark times.
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It's very true what you say, cinema 🎥 or the art of making good films has been lost, being able to enjoy a good film has become difficult, especially because as you say everything is recycled, but there are always exceptions, stories for children, literary novels brought to the cinema, but the films are no longer good.
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I think it's multifaceted. Part of it is that English departments, where writers are traditionally trained, have emphasized social activism over classical storytelling. The writers entering into the workforce thus aren't as equipped to write meaningful stories make us think.
Another part of it is that many people don't go to the theatre anymore unless the movie is a visual spectacle. People are content to watch everything else at home. Most of the best cinema I've seen lately have actually been series that were made for streaming from the get-go.
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I disconnected from cinema long time ago. Imo It's been shitty since 2000 with the odd good film (peaked with the Matrix in 1999.) This movie time I spend now on my own creative work.
However I do watch old movies and you can stream mostly everything for free on yts.
Yesterday I watched the 1953 Roman Holiday with Audrey Hepburn & Greg Peck. Quite adorable if I may say so myself. It's interesting bc it's old.
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Last time I saw a decent movie was early 1990s. They don't do good movies anymore, IMO
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New movies are dull, maybe it is the attempt at being all politically correct, or overly censored, most of them seems like a copy of a copy, that is why I share that same feeling of boredom and wasting my time watching them, fortunately sometime I found little gem like this skit https://youtu.be/bl8Z7Dl7P9A and it feels so refreshing
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @orto 10h
Me too. That's what happens when everything is bespoke. I've been watching Netflix for a long time. Common point in all productions: Black white love or marriage Female senior executives Same-sex intercourse And the topic will not be immediately understood. Towards the middle of the movie or at the end, you will understand what happened. Of course, Netflix's end is near. I hope...
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It really is like that...full of characters forced to fulfill an agenda.....!!
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Get woke, go broke!! The movies got woke and they lost all appeal to the general audiences that have to be brought in to make them profitable. The studios are operating on another business model than pleasing the audience! To me, it looks like they are trying to piss off the audience with all of the indoctrination. Who goes to a movie to see indoctrination and propaganda?
It seems that the old movies are the best but this is before they are updated for the modern audiences! This move towards updating for modern audiences ruins the movies, for instance, Han Solo shot first in the bar scene before changes and after being shot at in the latter edit. Totally changes the character of Han Solo!
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