Theres always been a lot of crap movies, the good ones are timeless so you remember those.
I really liked Poor Things, would watch again
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/// 20 caratteri of porcodio ///
I don’t think movies are any worse, unless you judge the blockbusters of today against the critical darlings of yesteryear.
How many of those movies from 1999 were as good a movie as Chinatown? Or The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly? Or Pee Wee’s Big Adventure?
(Certainly not The Sixth Sense).
Mind you, there was a lot of garbage in that era, too. Armageddon (1998), Pearl Harbor (2001), Godzilla (1998), The Phantom Menace (1999), Tarzan (1999), The Mummy (1999), and Wild Wild West (1999).
There was always a lot of crap - some of that crap made a lot of money.
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I’m not as plugged in to the movie scene these days, since I spend more time with my kid as opposed to in a movie seat. But there are plenty of exciting film makers these days. Robert Eggers, Brandon Cronenberg, Panos Cosmatos, Denis Villeneuve, Ben Wheatley, Gareth Edwards, Alex Garland. That’s just off the top of my head
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Just sniffed on my Vinyls now im fine.
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Hollywood has always been about propaganda. At least it used to be fun.
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I don’t like most of that stuff either but plenty of people did, as you point out regarding the box office take. A lot of people watch movies (and TV) as escapism and they just want to be entertained for 2 hours. They don’t want to be educated or have to think too hard after a long day at work, and what’s wrong with that?
I’ve studied film and so much of what we were taught about was so-called “arthouse” films, many of which were painfully dull, overlong and clearly made so the film-makers could impress their own peers and not the audience.
It’s always interesting to see the (quite common) effect of the professional critics being miles out of sync with the audience. Joe public doesn’t want to dissect every film, they just want to be entertained.
Which is all fine so long as there’s room for some art to be made along the way. I think that’s still happening in film right now (though it doesn’t look like it did in the 80s or 90s - but should it?).
Like others said, television has become a major force to be reckoned with in terms of storytelling and impressive effects, and the “small screen” isn’t so small anymore.
The era of prestige TV may be ending, though, as little of it seemed to make much money. That’s a shame, but hopefully it will be possible for some great things to be done on small budgets.
Back in movie land, Everything Everywhere was only a 25m budget, for example - and while that movie isn’t perfect, it shows how far a budget like that can go.
There are parallels in gaming, too (and that market is now much larger than cinema and music combined) - the flagship AAA games are, generally, pretty trashy. Sometimes there are exceptions and there are some batshit auteurs like Kojima still doing whatever it is he wants to do. The trends are still heavily influenced by technological change there, but soon enough all three (Movies, TV, Games) will be in a feedback loop. We can just hope that all of it isn’t designed by committee but of course some of it always will be.
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A lot of modern films are shit, but there are still some great ones, and that was the same in the previous decades too.
I really can’t stomach overly CGI reliant films, the MCU being the prime example, which seem so ridiculous that they look like parodies. But that is hardly new, and can often spoil an otherwise ok movie/storyline.
Also the whole forced diversity politically correct nonsense - if it looks/feels tacked on then it is, if it is authentic then no problem with it, but that is rare. Same for sex scenes, often they are extremely cringey, unless a key part of the plot I find them a massive cliche and completely pointless and unnecessary, just tacked in to get people talking, rather than you know a good story.
I do find a lot of modern movies forgettable too, often when looking through a streaming platform I can’t always remember if I already watched them or not, though of course there are definitely plenty of exceptions. It could just be the sheer volume of movies available though and the often very indistinct thumbnails, titles, usual actors etc.
TL:DR Do Movies Kind of Suck Now? Some do, some don’t, same as it ever was.
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I am an avid cinema lover/goer and I do also agree with OP, movies do kind of suck now. I remember a decade ago, I could go weekly and enjoy a good movie, but lately its been really poor. I mean there still are good movies, just not as often.
TV on the other hand also is falling short lately, quality is going down. I just finished True Detective S04, and its the worst season of any show I watched in last decade. I also don’t trust the critics anymore at all, most of them is heavily subsidised by either companies that make these series (hbo, netflix, etc) or have a political agenda to carry out.
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I just have a need to comment here - I’m not saying these aren’t great movies, I can’t tell because 90% of them never came to major cinemas in my country (Croatia).
Critical Drinker has pretty well laid down the reasons why modern movies absolutely suck.
Politics.
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There’s good movies but just like the past, you’ll have to watch some garbage to get to the gems!
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Could be an excuse in 1999, not in 2024.
He’s a right wing grifter scum.
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Problem is the budget for these movies are ridiculous, its why these movies are neuteured to an extent to get the maximum audience.
For example Godzilla Minus One is a god tier movie released now, and it cost $10 million. Madam Web by Sony cost $90-100 million!! which is utter trash.
I went to see a Movie about Vodoo Jürgens, an austrian country singer in a 20 seat cinema last week, if you have these littel cinemas around, have a visit, the movie was with undertitels, and really touching.
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I think he’s on point.
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That’s exactly what has happened to movies lately.
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/// 20 caratteri of porcodio ///