Film Popism

IdleRich

IdleRich
I find it hard to disagree. I was never into the comics but I get the impression they were better than the films (or do people just have rose-tinted memories cos they were kids when they read them?) but the films I've seen are just total bollocks. One of my friends something about how there is nothing less engaging than watching indestructible people hitting each other and he's right. I really feel like this Marvel takeover is the worst thing to happen to films in years... I mean I don't care what films people watch but if ALL the films (or ninety percent or whatever it is really) are the same then that can't be good.
 

version

Well-known member
I find when I see them I'm entertained for as long as the film lasts, but once it's done I don't really think about it again or remember much of it. It's just two hours or so where I was occupied.
 

DannyL

Wild Horses
Ken Loach is laying into them as well today.

I agree with Rich pretty much. I've seen a few and generally find them fairly boring. I've enjoyed bits of them, probably Guardians of the Galaxy was the one that amused me the most. I guess they're best seen at the cinema with the sound and visuals pummelling you into submission but something about that revolts me. The way they fail to hold interest on the small screen is kinda telling. Its'a bit like having a conversation through a megaphone. I think I've only ever seen one at the cinema, Dr Strange. I've had Ant Man unfinished in my Netflix tab for about a year now - zero desire to finish it.

What I actually find more interesting is the business model, how they've managed to create such a huge dominant franchise, that's all set in the same universe, with even more content if we factor in all the Netflix series. There must be an office somewhere with whole team of people employed just to think about avoiding continuity errors.
 

pattycakes_

Can turn naughty
On a podcast I was listening to a while back they were talking about how big these things are in China. So big that it doesn't really matter to Hollywood how well they do in the rest of the world.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Do they worry about continuity errors though? Don't they just retcon things so this is the new truth/canon version?
 

DannyL

Wild Horses
I don't think so - though, that impression isn't gained from deep knowledge of the films. In the little I've read about them, they're described as all being part of this consistent universe. You'd need to ask a real MCU nerd though.
 

luka

Well-known member
On a podcast I was listening to a while back they were talking about how big these things are in China. So big that it doesn't really matter to Hollywood how well they do in the rest of the world.

This is important isn't it because it means China can censor American product simply by consuming it. Do you see Chinese villains in the way you used to see Russians (Ivan Drago)
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
On a podcast I was listening to a while back they were talking about how big these things are in China. So big that it doesn't really matter to Hollywood how well they do in the rest of the world.

There was also some stat I read/heard about the reduction in the amount of dialogue in the average blockbuster, so that the films become more universal to understand, loosening the need for pesky subtitle reading/enduring bad dubbing.
 

luka

Well-known member
Marvel often stage scenes in foreign countries (markets) completely gratuitously and without explanation. Here's Korea! Now a marketplace in Lagos! Look! Big Ben!
 

pattycakes_

Can turn naughty
There was also some stat I read/heard about the reduction in the amount of dialogue in the average blockbuster, so that the films become more universal to understand, loosening the need for pesky subtitle reading/enduring bad dubbing.

The dialog in those films is becoming more and more one liner based. It's like people talking in slogans. Someone here could explain that better. One of the last ones I watched was a fast and furious release and it felt like every scene was designed for the trailer.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Oh it didn't take long, this is what he said

Loach said of superhero films: “I find them boring. They’re made as commodities … like hamburgers … It’s about making a commodity which will make profit for a big corporation – they’re a cynical exercise. They’re a market exercise and it has nothing to do with the art of cinema.”
 

muser

Well-known member
It's a format that is to action movies in the same way Mr Bean has been to comedy. The cultural universality of mythical heroes. I hadn't considered the overly long action scenes and lack of meaningful dialogue is to make it more accessible to the international audience but makes allot of sense. I can never really get into these movies because of the over the top action scenes that just keep dragging on, normally switch off 15 mins in from when it all starts kicking off.
 

version

Well-known member
Marvel often stage scenes in foreign countries (markets) completely gratuitously and without explanation. Here's Korea! Now a marketplace in Lagos! Look! Big Ben!
I've noticed London cropping up in American films more frequently, I guess they've been offered tax cuts to film there.

 
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entertainment

Well-known member
Put some of Scorsese's works against a Marvel film and I struggle to see this big qualitative difference. Marvel is dumber, less demanding and you don't give a shit who actually made the movie, but if you're looking purely at the pictures, what do you actually take away from Goodfellas or Wolf of Wall St other than being entertained for x amount of time? Not even much at that with Goodfellas, as it's one of the most boring movies I've ever seen.

Raging Bull or Taxi Driver obviously have substance and that impregnates the technical stuff with some kind of transcendent meaning. There you feel a real artistic vision and not just that someone has paid attention in film school.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Yeah, I've got to say that I'm reading a book at the moment that features some avant-garde film makers and I was thinking as I read that that Scorsese etc isn't exactly pure esoteric art, at least not all the time. The guys in the book would look at his films as commercial money making machines with tediously conventional structures and boring old narrative etc But that doesn't mean he's wrong.

I've noticed London cropping up in American films more frequently, I guess they've been offered tax cuts to film there.
Yeah it's a two-in one package - come over and make a film plus grab part of the NHS while you're here.
 

version

Well-known member
Haven't Scorsese's last two been a bit more aware of how flashy he got in the 90s? Silence was supposed to be pretty heavy and apparently The Irishman strips away the glamour from stuff like Goodfellas and Casino and is somewhat critical of his earlier approach to the mobster thing.
 

pattycakes_

Can turn naughty
Put some of Scorsese's works against a Marvel film and I struggle to see this big qualitative difference. Marvel is dumber, less demanding and you don't give a shit who actually made the movie, but if you're looking purely at the pictures, what do you actually take away from Goodfellas or Wolf of Wall St other than being entertained for x amount of time? Not even much at that with Goodfellas, as it's one of the most boring movies I've ever seen.

Raging Bull or Taxi Driver obviously have substance and that impregnates the technical stuff with some kind of transcendent meaning. There you feel a real artistic vision and not just that someone has paid attention in film school.

Wolf of Wall St was it for me. The guy has been a hack since the early 00s. He's nowhere near a Coppola or a Lumet. But, from the 70s to the 90s he produced plenty classics wrt style and atmos. Imo, Goodfellas is very watchable even though there's not a whole lot to learn or take away from it. But after WoW he can gfhs. Putting the cast of the Irishman together to me seems like such a hack move. After Meet the Fockers, De Niro can f off too. You telling me he needed to do that? Did people just stop caring post 2000?
 
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