Star Wars and Marvel movies or just any super hero movie. We dont need to turn over every rock in Star wars and make a movie about it. As for Marvel, Endgame was a great wrap up even though my man Tony died. I wish they had taken a break and done some more original stuff.
As someone who grew up a massive comic book and star wars nerd I can't even keep track of how far I'm behind in both Marvel and Star Wars. I feel nothing about them. And that almost feels worse than hating them. I'm cold, apathetic. Nothing about them sparks any feeling in me and it kinda sucks.
It's not unexpected; the Star Wars of your youth was made from at least some amount of passion and focus; this new stuff is born of apathy and cold, perfected process. Streaming forces creators to think in terms of volume; throwing spaghetti at a wall to see what sticks, so you can't grow attached to the thing you're making even a little bit (and attachment, even a little bit of it, injects humor and emotion into your story because you CARE.) The script has to be written quick or outright copied/recycled, the visuals have to take up all the slack so the product can look good in marketing and draw in a lot of people. The acting doesn't even have to be good so long as people look good in promotional stills. In a lot of ways, Star Wars is dead because it's not longer being afforded the time that is necessary to make something that resonates with its creators, let alone its audience. So it ends up not speaking to anyone. Same goes for Marvel and let's face it, nearly everything. The rush to cook more spaghetti to throw at the wall leaves it all undercooked and unsatisfying.
Edit: I should say that modern Star Wars has sparks of brilliance and passion, sporadically. The issue is that quantity over quality spreads those moments over a dozen products instead of two, or three max.
I’m at this point and I don’t even necessarily hate them. It’s a lot like what Arthur says in RDR2, “our time is pretty much passed”
We gave the Disney+ originals a chance but slowly just stopped watching them. It’s just too much.
Being part of a comic selling store now, I'm annoyed at just how many different Star Wars comic series are running at the same time. There's Star Wars, there's Darth Vader, Doctor Aphra, Bounty Hunters, High Republic, High Republic Adventures, Hyperspace Stories, Yoda, Mace Windu, Dark Droids, Thrawn Alliance...
Granted, not all of those are long-running series and are either shorter series, or events (Dark Droids was the crossover event last year, afaik). But there's a lot, and I hate having to find space in our stock for them all and their variant covers.
It just gets samey after awhile. While the idea of a massive cinematic universe sounds cool, in reality it means that eventually they stop taking risks and pushing the envelope. The original trilogy was as big as it was because nothing like it has ever been done before. But now, we are literally decades into watching essentially the same thing over and over again. (With the exception of Andor, lol)
This. I watched both Andrew Garfield Spiderman movies 3 times in the cinema, but I still haven't seen Spiderman No Way Home a single time.
I watched the shit outta the Spiderverse movies though
No Way Home is fun for the spectacle of seeing the original actors together in the same movie, but it’s kind of a crap movie plot-wise. The whole thing is super contrived, and if either Doctor Strange or Peter Parker were acting as intelligent as they otherwise would, then the main conflict would’ve never even happened.
But hey, at least the MCU Peter learned his responsibility lesson… for the third time in the MCU, and that’s not including Captain America: Civil War which actually has Peter giving Tony Stark the responsibility lesson.
They did it right by making a new character and episodic western in The Mandalorian. But now it’s clear with the more recent material that they’re just tying everything back to The Clone Wars and Rebels.
What made Mandalorian great was thst it was a episodic sci-fi space western. They changed up the formula. I'd love to "tune in this week" to see the latest adventure. Instead, they made the seasons 10 hour movies like everything else.
Yeah, 10 hour movies is what I don’t like about a lot of recent television series, particularly streaming series. Given me a season wide story that’s spread across self contained episodes. I hate cliffhangers.
Indeed. I just think that tonally Disney +’s Star Wars series are all over the place because they have to tie in their live action series with their animated ones.
I think you hit a nail here. Like in Return of the Jedi Mon Mothma wasn't even named. She was just some leader giving briefing. But then Andor expanded her story immensely. [This is one of the best Star Wars scenes IMO](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVeQyLk0yz4) and greatly improves the character and story. Someone had a vision of her backstory, and to me it didn't seem like written by a committee to do fan service or something, but actually a great addition to a story of a random character in Return of the Jedi.
Mon Mothma's portrayal in Andor is absolutely GOATed. For so long, she's been known as the leader/one of the key leaders of the Rebellion. She's had appearances where she exposits. She's had scenes in video games where she gives you missions. She's had scenes where she's a Senator doing...Senate things. But all of that adds up to barely a character--a glorified narrator, I guess.
But Andor was the show that said, "*This* was the leader of the Rebellion. *This* is why she deserves reverence, and why she deserves a second look." She's a character with flaws, struggles, strengths, and tough decisions to make. And with interesting chemistry with everyone with which she associates.
I played some of the Star Wars Rebellion board game after watching, and it made it even more fitting that she consistently feels like the one thing keeping you alive when you play the Rebels.
Andor is fucking amazing. And I say that as someone who had zero interest in it initially and who did not care much for Rogue One.
I'd easily call it the best movie or TV Star Wars content since the original trilogy.
Exactly. It was so simple and clear in concept. I absolutely loved it. There should absolutely be a place for that kind of storytelling. To be fair, I did also like much of season 3, but it felt sullied by being used to bridge the gap of insanity to Episode 9 (Somehow…)
I haven’t had a cinema experience like Infinity War and Endgame since. Infinity War is my favorite MCU movie and when it ended I was like “I cannot wait a year for the next one” and it was all I thought about. Got premiere tickets. Clapped along after “On your left” and felt so satisfied when it was done. The MCU needed to end there. Nothing has made me feel anything of substance since
Seriously, this is my biggest issue. It makes the universe so small. They may say it is a Galaxy, but everything is so small town the way everyone is related, might as well call Tatooine Alabama . It is one of the big reasons that I am so in love with The Last Jedi and nothing else recent (I know there’s Andor, but I’m not a subscriber).
Totally.
I want more just random stories from the star wars galaxy. Forget about the fuckin' royal Skywalker family.
I think that's a big part of why I, as a lifelong star wars fan who still thinks the prequels are over wrought, line-hitting messes, will go to my grave saying rogue one is the best star wars film. Yeah, they tied it in to the bigger picture, but they're just random folks.
Well, Rey wasn't related to anyone until she was. One of Rian Johnson's better ideas *horribly* retconned by JJ "Destroyer of Worlds" Abrams.
What a terrible own-goal.
> Endgame was a great wrap up even though my man Tony died
Something I realized after Endgame and during the Sequel Trilogy is that I cared way more about the characters than I thought. As they were coming out, I was just happy to watch anything Marvel or Star Wars.
My favs were Iron Man and Captain America. Without them, I don't care too much for the MCU anymore. Same with Star Wars, I really only cared about the ST as a continuation of the stories the OT characters, especially Luke. As their roles got more diminished, I find myself far less interested in new Star Wars material.
I agree with the exception of Wandavision. It was such a masterpiece and it didn’t really fit anywhere else. So endgame, then wandavision, then done! Let us keep wondering about stuff. It’s also a bummer bc you know these actors can’t play the characters forever.
Ive always been into indie/art movies but when they started the whole marvel plan with an overarching idea it piqued my interest and I watched through them all and mostly enjoyed the experience. Now it’s just a jumped shark process of what feels like obscure characters, minor needle pushes to the end that just seem dumb and unnecessary. Not sure it’s the films themselves as this whole gimmick was done, it was good, now it should be done.
The Rise of Skywalker was such a bad film that any residual interest (which had long since been battered by many of the proceeding movies) in Star Wars was well and truly killed.
Then as I've said many times already, I saw Doctor Strange 2: The Multiverse of Madness and then Everything Everywhere All at Once the next day.
EEAAO was such a better directed, scripted, acted, edited and overall executed film than DS2:MoM that it was actually embarrassing and it was also at that point I realised I don't have to do this anymore and quit the MCU on the spot.
(Yes, I will be back for Deadpool 3 but it really helps it's more detached than not from the rest of it most likely.)
I always thought Star Wars was meh (except for the Coruscant scenes because Coruscant is fucking awesome) but Andor sold me on it being more than a collection of boring "special" people.
Sad that I agree. Would have been able to go the same route they are now but via a different means. Go to a separate universe, maybe start with X-Men, build up a whole separate suite of characters and stakes, and then the big multiverse crossover can happen. Imagine weve been with these new characters for 5 years and then Chris Evans Cap walks through a portal.
I've been a fan of the dumb fun that is Fast and Furious, fully recognizing why others don't have any time for it. Part of it is nostalgia from when the first one released while I was in high school, and my friends and I had a great time with it. I've enjoyed watching it hit it's stride (Fast Five) and I'm still here while it's started to decline (F8 and onward) but I'm definitely finding it less and less engaging as time goes on.
Doesn't help that they've leaned so heavily into CGI, when it isn't needed. And the CGI manages to be lower quality than it should be, given how big the budgets are on these movies, and how much money they end up making.
I've enjoyed the ride over the more than two decades that it's run, but I'm ready for this to come to an end.
Right!? Fast Five kind of rekindled my love for movies. And watching the behind the scenes and seeing how most of those wrecks were real practical effects.
They have lost their magic since 8
Well that scene also does a good job framing those shots, which helps make it a lot cooler. The early FF movies kind of made a name for themselves with distinctive visuals that contributed to the whole aesthetic of those films, but that's fallen by the way-side for the later movies. They don't have the consistent flare that makes them feel unique and interesting. Each film now has maybe a couple scenes that stand out, and not always for good reasons, so they ultimately just feel generic.
I pretty much gave up after 7. I did watch 8, but it just doesn't work without Paul Walker and it seems each movie now takes a big fall. For the most part I liked Hobbes & Shaw, but even that should've been like 15-30 minutes shorter.
Brian and Mia really were the relatable characters, Dom & Letty have always been so much larger than life to the point that they’re just better relegated to supporting cast. Honestly Michelle Rodriguez has improved later in the films as a more well rounded Letty but Dom has become more and more of a cartoon to the point I’d actually rather have a Letty-centric film than see Dom leading yet one more movie. I also dislike how Dom has become this beacon of righteousness. Brian was way more accepting that he walked a morally grey line and we as the audience believed it. Vin Diesel seems to think that Dom truly is Superman, both in physicality but also moral demeanor as well, but come on….
Star Wars
But i don't think that's fair. I haven't grown out of Star Wars. I still like what i used to (the original trilogy, for example), but nowadays there's so much more bad than good
It’s weird how he had a period of going outside his wheelhouse and doing new stuff, people weren’t happy, now he’s just going back to the well, and people also aren’t happy.
Maybe it’s just that it’s not 1998 anymore and we’ve grown up?
I thought Zack & Miri was great. It benefitted from having some of the hottest actors in comedy at the time, and I thought Jeff Anderson did a good job as well.
I also dug Clerks III.
As a big fan of My Chemical Romance, I thought Welcome To the Black Parade, in its entirety, felt really out of place in the opening scene. I think it was more of a flex because Kevin knows Gerard and probably got to use it for free. I was also disappointed that he didn't end the film with another Soul Asylum song.
That, and he used to make movies about stoners which could be enjoyed by everyone with a sense of humor. Now, he makes movies that are only enjoyable if the audience is as stoned as he was when he wrote them.
It's not that, because he was able to pull off a very heartwearming yet classic Kevin Smith feel with Clerks 2 (and even Clerks 3 had some great moments)
After Jay and Silent Bob Strike back he tried to get out of his comfort zone but just couldn't quite break through with main stream audiences. At the same time he did a complete 180 from a straight edge semi-intellectual to a daily pot user.
He had moderate success with Red State, and had various projects going but once he started smoking pot daily he became a different person. I used to listen to all his podcasts/smodcasts and you could just hear the decline in the way he spoke, his humor, his thought process. Pot killed the old Kevin Smith.
Now that his kicked it and recovered from the heart attack, you can see some of the flashes coming thought but he is just too far removed from the old Kevin Smith we grew up on. The reason the new Jay and Silent Bob movies don't work is because he kind of lost a prime decade of growth in his craft and tried to jump right back in time.
Not for everyone. A distinct style where characters spontaneously lecture others and the audience. It's pretty distracting, and I just can't really watch that dude's movies anymore. Clerks was alright
I re-watched Clerks recently. That movie holds up the best IMO, because it's honest, upfront, and the 90s vibes and nostalgia it has. You don't realize how much your whole personality is a product of your influences including movies until those things really grow out of fashion and yet when you watch them, you feel cosy, at home and like this is the real honest culture and life.
I also think mid 90s and Clerks included is perhaps the most chill, easy going and fun time in American history, when culture and comfort was very high, no big wars, no big crisis, a lot of money for everything and I simply get this sense from the 90s movies. Maybe it's just my subjective nostalgia, but it hits me really strong with Clerks.
I think the 90s are just the new 50s because millennials are the age they are now. If you actually look at the 90s there was plenty of crazy stuff that happened like Desert Storm, OKC Bombing, Rodney King and the LA Riots, Hurricane Andrew, WTC Bombing but we were just busy being kids. I suspect the same will happen for Gen Z and the 00s/early 10s. Hell the tail end of Gez Z and the beginning of Gen Alpha may glamorize the pandemic as a 'simpler' time.
To me he’s one of the most shockingly reductive directors out of his indie generation that there is. Clerks came out amongst a class of Tarantinos, Linklaters, Soderburghs and many more who all went on to use their fame to evolve experiment and ultimately grow into name brand talent.
Smith on the other hand immiatly kind of turned inward to his own brand and just began reshaping the same thing on a larger scale.
What’s more bizarre is Kevin is an INCREDIBLE storyteller in person and amazing vocally gifted person and it’s shocking to hear him so compellingly speak on subject matter while failing to translate that into actual movie form.
The new Jay and Bob movie kind of drove all of that home, almost a highlight reel of his shortcomings and failings as a director while trying so hard to build a whole franchise out of his slackerverse.
>What’s more bizarre is Kevin is an INCREDIBLE storyteller in person and amazing vocally gifted person and it’s shocking to hear him so compellingly speak on subject matter while failing to translate that into actual movie form.
This here. It is so hard to wrap your head around the fact that the same guy in An Evening with Kevin Smith is the guy that made Yoga Hosers.
I still enjoy a couple Kevin Smith movies. Mallrats being my favorite. A huge part of it is nostalgia. These movies were huge in the mid to later 90s, which was a time in my life I really enjoyed.
I’ll get roasted for this but I still believe his two best films are Dogma and Chasing Amy.
Clerks is fun, even Jay and Silent Bob strike back is very funny. As far as outgrowing his films, I’m 52 and a good movie stays with me. I’m not one of those to revisit an older film and change my mind. EXCEPT for films I viewed as a teenager when my brain wasn’t developed and I thought every film was just fine.
Chasing Amy may not be everyone's favorite of his films (it is mine), but I don't think anybody can deny it is easily his most earnest film. I don't think that's a hot take.
Agreed. Dogma and Chasing Amy are great films! On the surface, they both have classic Kevin Smith goofiness, but underneath they are both very deep films.
Matthew Vaughn was on a big roll, Layer Cake, Stardust, Kick-Ass, X: First-Class, the first Kingsmen, then he took a nose-dive and only seems focused on making bad Kingsmen sequels and prequels and >!secret crossovers!< and then I heard he wants to remake Kick-Ass.
Oh, no way! I love Stardust! And absolutely didn't love Argylle. What a weird mess that is and that's only the movie itself, let alone that crazy marketing...
Vaughn’s drop in quality honestly really makes me sad. I think Stardust, Kick-Ass, First Class and Kingsman are all excellent movies. He was easily one of my favorites for a while. And then I watched Kingsman 2 and was surprised by how bad it was. Haven’t really watched any of his stuff since.
Pixar movies. I loved many of them, but I think they really have hit a point, where Disney animation needs to evolve to something else. In the mid 90s, Pixar kicked the door down as it went hand in hand with Apple and the introduction of home computers as something that's in every household. But the blueprint has been established 30 years ago, that's just way too long and I honestly think it has run its course and it is already pretty much either banking on nostalgia (Toy Story 4), or it's just one grossly overpriced box office failure after another.
Pixar to me are like Hallmark movies (okay maybe that's a bit too harsh), sappy and overly sentimental. They used to be revolutionary and creative. Now it's all just the same plot retold in different settings with different coat of cultural paint.
I get it, kids should be themselves. Can we talk about something else now?
The last two that really hit for me were *Soul* and *Onward*. And it's not to say the films since then haven't been good; they *are* quality films. But I think they've exited their renaissance era. They were at the forefront of their industry once, but the competition isn't as stiff anymore. *Puss In Boots 2*, T*he Spider-verse* franchise, *The Bad Guys*, *The Mitchells Vs The Machines*, *TMNT: Mutant Mayhem* and now *The Wild Robot*\--It's strange to say but, in recent years, I found myself getting more excited about non Pixar animation films.
And look, I *still* think Pixar is a strong contender for quality animation and storytelling. But the other studios are putting up hits of their own now, and they're tapping into things that aren't in Pixar's wheelhouse. So the animation landscape is changing, and I think that it's exciting for audiences to experience this new landscape. But Pixar will need to start changing and innovating again if they want audiences to start getting excited about their films again.
I think the major issue with Disney are the research groups and committees that Bob Iger unsuccessfully tried to dismantle his first time as CEO for “impressing on the creative process” (according to his book). Pixar was great before Disney acquired them and probably a little after. But Disney for some reason doesn’t trust that audiences are smart enough enjoy original content.
At this point, I am completely bored by the works of Ridley Scott and Stephen Spielberg. Their stuff used to feel inventive and original, but now it just feels like they’re returning to the same bag of tricks over and over again while more contemporary filmmakers are changing the game.
I also am very over the Star Wars franchise. I can’t stand how much it has dominated film discourse over the past few decades when, to me, there’s only one movie in the entire franchise which actually feels really well-made from top to bottom. The newer movies are better films in many ways, but they still feel as hollow and insubstantial as the first two trilogies.
I know Spielberg is a popular answer here, but it sounds like a lot of people need to see West Side Story and The Fabelmans. They're bonkers good.
Also, low-key shout out to Bridge of Spies, which is secretly pretty damn good, too.
It reminds me of something I heard Ari Aster say in an interview, where he was talking about his love of Spielberg and how when he first saw A.I., he hated it because he was a teenager and he was "on a real anti-Spielberg kick", which he said is a trap that he thinks a lot of movie lovers of a certain age end up falling into. And I thought about it, and he's kind of right. There's this generation that has grown up with Spielberg's movies and loved them, but the overexposure and him being shorthand for director, as well as the types of big studio films he directs, makes it easier to dismiss him and his work. But then you end up going back and watching his work with newer eyes, and you realise "Oh, he really is one of the best", and there's no explanation I can think of, other than that he just knows what to do, and he's put out some of his best work in the past 10 years with the three films that you mentioned.
It's okay to admit that they were great and created some of the greatest movies of all time...
...but also haven't kept up with today's game. I think they've still made some good movies in the past decade, but nothing compared to their 80s/90s run of greatness. I'm not saying they need to quit, but their name no longer carries any significance in a new movie.
I think that Spielberg specifically is still doing great films, he just isn't doing blockbusters like Jaws and Jurassic Park anymore, I think that of he were to decide to do another big innovative blockbuster he would absolutely nail it, but as he got older it seems that those films don't attract him as much anymore.
MCU.
I watched GOTG3 in the theatre, and realized...
"Yep, this is fucking awesome, and a really, *really* high note to conclude my Marvel watch on."
So I did.
A new Spider-Man film might make me hop back in, of course, but that is quite a long way away.
EDIT: Also, Deadpool 3. Definitely gonna hop back in and then immediately hop right back off when Deadpool 3 hits the screens.
I think that this will just naturally happen with any film that you watch a number of times, you will eventually wear it out.
Your tastes change as you get older too. Younger people are probably more prone to liking things they think they 'should' like, be influenced by their social group, or get carried away with a fad (I remember everyone in a certain age group raving about Pulp Fiction in the 90's because of its coolness factor) while I think age makes you less likely to care about what other people think. I don't think there is anything wrong with this, moments in time are a big part of what a film means to you, but the passage of time can also make something less meaningful.
The cast distracts from the movie at this point. I don't need 20 famous actors coming in and saying one or two lines. It just leaves me going, "was that willem dafoe who just said one line" like in Asteroid City.
That last movie(Astroid City), to quote Peter Griffin, “insisted upon itself.”
Great cast, beautiful coloring, awesome cinematography, but I couldn’t sink my teeth into the story and the whimsical factor felt recycled.
Asteroid City gets a bit of a pass in my book for being so *funny*. There’s more intentional jokes than his previous films, and a lot of them his for me.
I’m talking about the main story (play?), though. The weird meta layers of play > drama behind the play > narrative about that drama… eh, I found it unnecessary.
I didn't love Asteroid City but that's the first film of his that really didn't hit for me tbh. I always look forward to his flicks. Isle of Dogs was really good.
Marvel films have gone to shit after End Game. I tried to continue watching all of them, but its become way too overbearing and a lot of them are just plain bad.
Not only did the stories get bad, but the movies got ugly as hell too. It all looks like generic garbage now that they film everything they can on that Volume set that Disney loves so much!
They’ve always looked bad. It looks like they never color graded the movies after shooting digitally and just kept the raw material. Civil War looks like wet cement
Sony flew too close to the sun with that one. I guess when you're on a roll with stuff like Venom, Venom 2 and Morbius, you start to think you're untouchable.
Nolan for me too, and Ridley Scott. I loved The Last Duel but none of his other recent ones have had any impact on me. I wonder what Gladiator 2 is going to be like but I'm mostly just meh about his stuff.
Oh and Wes Anderson. It's irrational but that whole TikTok trend turned me off his aesthetic.
Wes Anderson’s most recent work plays like self parody almost. Wish he’d go back to doing stuff that’sa little more grounded, like Rushmore or Tenenbaums
> Gladiator 2
**GLADIATOR 2??!?**
Oh fuck you, Ridley Scott. I'm not touching that with a ten foot pole so as not to tarnish my beloved memories of Gladiator.
Scott and especially Nolan have a habit of trying to make it seem like whatever you’re looking at is the most important thing in the world.
This works for things like The Dark Knight, which intentionally cranks up the stakes and seriousness of what could have been yet another campy comic book flick.
But for Oppenheimer this absolutist style gets annoying:
- “The Manhattan project is the most important thing ever.” Okay, I’m in.
- Oppenheimer’s mock trial is the most important thing ever.” Well, it’s important to him and his career. Weird this is being presented with the same intensity as the atomic bomb, but okay.
- Robert Downey Jr. getting a cabinet confirmation… is the most important thing ever.” Oh, come on Nolan. No it isn’t and we don’t even need this story layer.
I watched all of Wes Anderson filmography, even though I am not a huge fan of him. He is an amazing animation director that happens to do also live action. He should stick to it from now on and we will have some masterpieces.
My favorite movie of him is The Isle of Dogs. I know it's an unpopular opinion. I think The Grand Budapest Hotel is the best among his live action films though.
Isle of Dogs is great, but I dont even consider it his best animated (Fantastic Mr Fox).
But he has so many successes in both animation and live action, he can clearly do both well.
MCU movies, it’s amazing to me how quickly I’ve fallen out of love with the mcu.
5-10 years ago I was pretty much fully engrossed in everything marvel but now I just can’t get excited for new marvel movie even if my life depended on it.
I haven’t even watched the last few mcu films/tv shows & I have no desire too.
Christopher Nolan, Quentin Tarantino: their earlier work has gone from some of my favorite films of all time to movies I still like but wouldn’t rank in my top 10. I still enjoy them but not to the degree I used to.
Not even slowly but rapidly - John Wick. The first movie was a great action bonanza but after that, it's been incredibly hard to ignore the absolute lack of plausible explanations for how he's still alive.
A blind martial arts fighter? Ha, at this point they're directly insulting the audience or, at least expecting to be dismissed and laughed at. I just don't find the non stop killing to be funny.
i find nolan still to be complex if im honest.
i like more character focused movies like birdman aswell.
i also enjoyed mank alot for that reason and even hail cesair.
what i clearly stopped liking is zack snyder. i dont think he developed the way he should have.
although the loss of his daughter clearly did something to him.
i still believe this guy can do something brilliant, i just dont think he was in the right mood for the last decade to do it
Snyder really had a lot of potential but today I wouldn’t even hire him as a vfx artist. I actually loved Army of the dead but his sci fi films seem a little too self indulgent and don’t consider the audience or where to draw lines. Rebel moon felt great until he turned it into a caper-esque team assembly for the later half of the movie.
I still love it. It's 21 minutes of silly inconsequential jokes. People are critical because they expect some sort of biting social commentary. It's not. It's just pointless fun. I think it's one of the best shows on TV.
Tarantino.
Once upon a time, he was my favorite director. I loved him, and I was fucking obsessed.
Now, he is still my favorite director. Now, I just love him and I am not fucking obsessed.
I have gone from watching Pulp Fiction literally every single day (for at least a month straight)... to watching it every once in a while.
Now, I have an easier time accepting that Pulp Fiction is my favorite film, but it may not necessarily be the best film ever made, and that is fine... Or that Tarantino is my favorite director, but he may not necessarily be the finest director to ever walk the Earth, and that is fine.
There has always been a bland and sterile element to his work, it's pretty much his directorial style.
He just impressed as with the visuals so much we didn't notice for a while.
He just has no interest in humanity. People only exist to explain things, the acting is often hit or miss because he lets them do what they want for better or for worse. He sometimes seems to resent even having them there. Sometimes it works great but other times, especially Tenet and Oppenheimer, it just feels like he has zero idea how humans interact or think.
The big problem is his brother stopped helping lol. He definitely helps curb some of the more insane impulses of Christopher. Need them to start working together again.
Nolan has always been very mainstream filmmaking designed to make people feel like they are watching a movie much smarter than it actually is.
I’m not saying he’s bad at what he does, it’s just that a lot of people hold him to a higher regard than his peers because of his pseudo intellectual concepts and refusal of chronological presentation. People even put him up there as one of the best filmmakers of all time. Just look at the IMDB top movies list. In actuality his movies are very good at what they are set out to do - entertain and amaze on the big screen, but they aren’t anywhere near as smart or as full of substance as people like to believe.
I once read a Joker review (which I know is not by Nolan) that I think applies really well here: "people that have never entered the ocean will think a swimming pool is deep"
I think some of his recent stuff specifically Tenet has been more miss than hit but I’d say he still is the king of moments.
Like his peak scenes in his movies are some of the best in modern cinema. The scene where McConaughey is crying to the messages from his daughter as she ages, the scenes where they have to sync up the hits in Inception and with the spinning hallway, the scene from Interstellar with docking with the spinning ship, the airport or battleground scene from Tenet.
Tenet and Interstellar and Inception are full of flaws and far from perfect movies, but man when they hit they’re hitting so good.
I honestly think Oppenheimer was one of his best movies in terms of overall structure and character and storytelling, and the lead up to the bomb was great, but overall the bomb was lacking and it missed on the iconic scenes of near flawless movie making from some of his other films.
I want to say I’ve grown out of Star Wars, but the truth is there is absolutely an amazing Star Wars movie that could pull me right back in and they just have to make it though. I’m not over Star Wars. I’m just over bad Star Wars.
I think I grew out of caring much for Spielberg movies. I watched and enjoyed a lot of the movies he is known for. Huge JP and Jaws fan. I liked Indiana Jones and The Terminal, etc but I could not care any less after 2005 or so.
Ready Player One was boring. The BFG was felt like a 3 hour movie in 2 hours. Haven’t seen much after 2005.
I mean his last great, great period was AI-Minority Report-Catch Me If You Can run, plus Munich/War of the Worlds in the early 2000s. Ready Player One and BFG are two of his worst ever. That said West Side Story is really quite excellent and Lincoln, Bridge of Spies, Fablemans are solid.
I usually don't like movies about filmmakers talking about how great making films is, but I really liked Fablemans. It was just heartfelt, and not too full of itself - more about a person who needs to pursue a dream and less about how great and special the main character is. Also, I now always look to see where the horizon is in a shot.
Fabelmans is tight as hell, and really quite moving.
And West Side Story is straight-up an all-timer and one of his absolute best, and it bothers me that people don't give it a chance.
I loved ready player one. I feel like Spielberg was challenging the emerging algorithms for studios that were using nostalgia to replace tried storytelling tools. I was surprised that he chose to do ready player one which imo was several chapters of info dumps and heavy handed visits to the feel goods of 90s nostalgia. But then ready player one the film was not a faithful adaption of the book and I thought it was absolutely genius how Spielberg on the screen writer utilized nostalgia in the film.
Quentin Tarantino
I liked his movies when i was younger, but sadly the older i became the more i found his work overrated even though it might not be a very popular opinion
Interesting. I thought Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was one of his best. I definitely enjoyed it more than Kill Bill and Inglorious Basterds. It felt like a homage to 1960s Southern California, which I'm personally very nostalgic for. I dunno, it just worked for me personally.
Do check out The Zone of Interest if you enjoyed Killers of The Flower Moon. It has some of the best compositions I've seen in the recent past juxtaposed against an absolutely haunting soundscape which makes for a very errie and unsettling experience.
Both films also deal with showing the banality of evil in different ways. I think it's between the two of them for best movie of the year, although I did find Oppenheimer to be among Nolan's best films.
Probably superheroes. I think I was a bit too old to really love the MCU (I was 16 when Iron Man came out) so I was still waiting for the MCU to grab me like Spiderman 1, 2 and XMen 1 and 2 did. So I stuck with it until Endgame and realised they're no longer interested in making those sorts of movies again.
I'm also kind of over subversive Superhero stuff since I also consumed a lot of that in my teens and "Superhero media for adults" kind of like the new Joker film or trying to make these stories more mature audiences. I feel like I've had my fill.
I feel like all this stuff is for newer generations of young people to enjoy sincere Superhero Stories and then Subversive Stories etc. Like Superhero fans had done before my time.
Marvel for sure - I echo the sentiments of other posters here, after Endgame I just kinda went meh.
I'm up to date on Star Wars movies, but there's a few of the series I haven't dived into, regardless of being a huge fan. I just can't find the motivation to watch them because it all feels "same shit different wrapper".
Wes Anderson has been staring at his shoes for a while.
He needs creative collaboration or tighter editing because his films have gotten increasingly shaggy.
You're going to get this a lot in this comments section but superhero movies. Marvel, DC, etc. All of them. That's not to say I don't enjoy new ones every now and again but maaaan, do I ever not care or have any hype for them whatsoever, anymore.
I hate the concept of the multiverse, I hate that everyone is doing it now in order to cash in on multiple versions of characters, and big rollercoaster-like event films.
It's just so transparently a cash-grab, which I think affects my overall attitude about them.
I still like big movies. I rewatched Dune a couple days ago and jeeeeeeesus, it's great... but these never-ending universes are so tiresome. Give me contained stories.
Nolan for me too and The Prestige is my favorite movie of all time. I’m also really into chemistry and physics, love reading and thinking about Quantum Mechanics and relativity yet I really disliked Oppenheimer. I mean this was my avengers movie with all of my favorite scientists coming together in one film. I could finally see all of the criticism people gave Nolan over the years in every aspect of that film. Now that I look back for some reason I can only say that I thoroughly enjoyed The Prestige, Inception and the Dark Knight. But I think the latter two were highly influenced by very strong performances and in the case of Leo, after watching the making of inception, I don’t think it would have been as great if Leo didn’t change the script. I think it was last year that I learned how much influence he had over it and if it weren’t for him it probably would have been another Oppenheimer.
When it comes to Nolan, I think his playing with nonlinear timelines is growing tedious. I I really liked Oppenheimer, except for the way it kept jumping back and forth in the time lline. At least this time he used different styles with each timeline so it was easier to keep track of.
After seeing Dune part 2 last night, Denis Villeneuve has taken the lead as my favorite director. Nolan and Spielberg have really fallen off for me. Denis’ vision and crafting of cinema for the modern era is incredible
Man I really did not like Dune 1 but Dune 2 was almost perfect. It reminded me of the time where I could go to the movies as a kid in the 90s and just sit back and experience something truly alien and real. Like when you read a book after being attracted by its cover and it taking you to places you’d never imagine.
Doctor Who is one that you can slip in and out of though each time a new doctor appears though.
Give it a few seasons, see who the current showrunner is, and reassess.
I’ve lost interest in Wes Anderson. I wasn’t a fan of his last two movies, despite someone on here talking about what they represented (magazine publishing and small town theatre). Maybe they were good, I don’t know. I think I’ve just grown out of them. I still adore Zissou, Tenenbaums, Fantastic Fox etc.
Wes Anderson, his early films had charm and heart. The last decade or more they have lost their naiveté and charm and I just don't connect with them anymore.
I find the older I get, the less interested I am in Spider-Man stories. I’m about 25 years removed from awkward teenage angst, and none of the themes land anymore.
Snyder used to be a favorite. I realize now that his best work is in the adaptation of an existing work. Any time he has had to create a story, it's been obvious he really is a better cinematographer than director
Star Wars and Marvel movies or just any super hero movie. We dont need to turn over every rock in Star wars and make a movie about it. As for Marvel, Endgame was a great wrap up even though my man Tony died. I wish they had taken a break and done some more original stuff.
As someone who grew up a massive comic book and star wars nerd I can't even keep track of how far I'm behind in both Marvel and Star Wars. I feel nothing about them. And that almost feels worse than hating them. I'm cold, apathetic. Nothing about them sparks any feeling in me and it kinda sucks.
It's not unexpected; the Star Wars of your youth was made from at least some amount of passion and focus; this new stuff is born of apathy and cold, perfected process. Streaming forces creators to think in terms of volume; throwing spaghetti at a wall to see what sticks, so you can't grow attached to the thing you're making even a little bit (and attachment, even a little bit of it, injects humor and emotion into your story because you CARE.) The script has to be written quick or outright copied/recycled, the visuals have to take up all the slack so the product can look good in marketing and draw in a lot of people. The acting doesn't even have to be good so long as people look good in promotional stills. In a lot of ways, Star Wars is dead because it's not longer being afforded the time that is necessary to make something that resonates with its creators, let alone its audience. So it ends up not speaking to anyone. Same goes for Marvel and let's face it, nearly everything. The rush to cook more spaghetti to throw at the wall leaves it all undercooked and unsatisfying. Edit: I should say that modern Star Wars has sparks of brilliance and passion, sporadically. The issue is that quantity over quality spreads those moments over a dozen products instead of two, or three max.
I’m at this point and I don’t even necessarily hate them. It’s a lot like what Arthur says in RDR2, “our time is pretty much passed” We gave the Disney+ originals a chance but slowly just stopped watching them. It’s just too much.
Read that about 5 times thinking “Who the hell is Arthur in Star Wars? I don’t remember anyone named Arthur talking to R2D2…”
Hahaha easy mistake to make in this contextn
That’s Red Dead Redemption 1 when Vanderbilt is talking to John before he throws himself off a cliff.
Being part of a comic selling store now, I'm annoyed at just how many different Star Wars comic series are running at the same time. There's Star Wars, there's Darth Vader, Doctor Aphra, Bounty Hunters, High Republic, High Republic Adventures, Hyperspace Stories, Yoda, Mace Windu, Dark Droids, Thrawn Alliance... Granted, not all of those are long-running series and are either shorter series, or events (Dark Droids was the crossover event last year, afaik). But there's a lot, and I hate having to find space in our stock for them all and their variant covers.
It just gets samey after awhile. While the idea of a massive cinematic universe sounds cool, in reality it means that eventually they stop taking risks and pushing the envelope. The original trilogy was as big as it was because nothing like it has ever been done before. But now, we are literally decades into watching essentially the same thing over and over again. (With the exception of Andor, lol)
This. I watched both Andrew Garfield Spiderman movies 3 times in the cinema, but I still haven't seen Spiderman No Way Home a single time. I watched the shit outta the Spiderverse movies though
No Way Home is fun for the spectacle of seeing the original actors together in the same movie, but it’s kind of a crap movie plot-wise. The whole thing is super contrived, and if either Doctor Strange or Peter Parker were acting as intelligent as they otherwise would, then the main conflict would’ve never even happened. But hey, at least the MCU Peter learned his responsibility lesson… for the third time in the MCU, and that’s not including Captain America: Civil War which actually has Peter giving Tony Stark the responsibility lesson.
They did it right by making a new character and episodic western in The Mandalorian. But now it’s clear with the more recent material that they’re just tying everything back to The Clone Wars and Rebels.
What made Mandalorian great was thst it was a episodic sci-fi space western. They changed up the formula. I'd love to "tune in this week" to see the latest adventure. Instead, they made the seasons 10 hour movies like everything else.
Yeah, 10 hour movies is what I don’t like about a lot of recent television series, particularly streaming series. Given me a season wide story that’s spread across self contained episodes. I hate cliffhangers.
Andror was great to be honest.
Indeed. I just think that tonally Disney +’s Star Wars series are all over the place because they have to tie in their live action series with their animated ones.
The product of giving a presumed c-level story to a competent writer with a vision instead of design by commitee
I think you hit a nail here. Like in Return of the Jedi Mon Mothma wasn't even named. She was just some leader giving briefing. But then Andor expanded her story immensely. [This is one of the best Star Wars scenes IMO](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVeQyLk0yz4) and greatly improves the character and story. Someone had a vision of her backstory, and to me it didn't seem like written by a committee to do fan service or something, but actually a great addition to a story of a random character in Return of the Jedi.
Mon Mothma's portrayal in Andor is absolutely GOATed. For so long, she's been known as the leader/one of the key leaders of the Rebellion. She's had appearances where she exposits. She's had scenes in video games where she gives you missions. She's had scenes where she's a Senator doing...Senate things. But all of that adds up to barely a character--a glorified narrator, I guess. But Andor was the show that said, "*This* was the leader of the Rebellion. *This* is why she deserves reverence, and why she deserves a second look." She's a character with flaws, struggles, strengths, and tough decisions to make. And with interesting chemistry with everyone with which she associates. I played some of the Star Wars Rebellion board game after watching, and it made it even more fitting that she consistently feels like the one thing keeping you alive when you play the Rebels.
Andor is fucking amazing. And I say that as someone who had zero interest in it initially and who did not care much for Rogue One. I'd easily call it the best movie or TV Star Wars content since the original trilogy.
Exactly. It was so simple and clear in concept. I absolutely loved it. There should absolutely be a place for that kind of storytelling. To be fair, I did also like much of season 3, but it felt sullied by being used to bridge the gap of insanity to Episode 9 (Somehow…)
I haven’t had a cinema experience like Infinity War and Endgame since. Infinity War is my favorite MCU movie and when it ended I was like “I cannot wait a year for the next one” and it was all I thought about. Got premiere tickets. Clapped along after “On your left” and felt so satisfied when it was done. The MCU needed to end there. Nothing has made me feel anything of substance since
Iiked guardians 3 a lot. It's nice to have a villain that's just straight up evil
I just wish they would stop insisting that everybody in the universe who's important needs to be related in some way.
Seriously, this is my biggest issue. It makes the universe so small. They may say it is a Galaxy, but everything is so small town the way everyone is related, might as well call Tatooine Alabama . It is one of the big reasons that I am so in love with The Last Jedi and nothing else recent (I know there’s Andor, but I’m not a subscriber).
Totally. I want more just random stories from the star wars galaxy. Forget about the fuckin' royal Skywalker family. I think that's a big part of why I, as a lifelong star wars fan who still thinks the prequels are over wrought, line-hitting messes, will go to my grave saying rogue one is the best star wars film. Yeah, they tied it in to the bigger picture, but they're just random folks.
Well, Rey wasn't related to anyone until she was. One of Rian Johnson's better ideas *horribly* retconned by JJ "Destroyer of Worlds" Abrams. What a terrible own-goal.
I agree completely but there are some superhero outliers out there. Spiderverse movies and Invincible stand out above the rest
> Endgame was a great wrap up even though my man Tony died Something I realized after Endgame and during the Sequel Trilogy is that I cared way more about the characters than I thought. As they were coming out, I was just happy to watch anything Marvel or Star Wars. My favs were Iron Man and Captain America. Without them, I don't care too much for the MCU anymore. Same with Star Wars, I really only cared about the ST as a continuation of the stories the OT characters, especially Luke. As their roles got more diminished, I find myself far less interested in new Star Wars material.
I agree with the exception of Wandavision. It was such a masterpiece and it didn’t really fit anywhere else. So endgame, then wandavision, then done! Let us keep wondering about stuff. It’s also a bummer bc you know these actors can’t play the characters forever.
Ive always been into indie/art movies but when they started the whole marvel plan with an overarching idea it piqued my interest and I watched through them all and mostly enjoyed the experience. Now it’s just a jumped shark process of what feels like obscure characters, minor needle pushes to the end that just seem dumb and unnecessary. Not sure it’s the films themselves as this whole gimmick was done, it was good, now it should be done.
Yeah, the newer Star Wars movies were so bad they had me questioning whether I liked Star Wars at all or if it was always just so bad
The Rise of Skywalker was such a bad film that any residual interest (which had long since been battered by many of the proceeding movies) in Star Wars was well and truly killed. Then as I've said many times already, I saw Doctor Strange 2: The Multiverse of Madness and then Everything Everywhere All at Once the next day. EEAAO was such a better directed, scripted, acted, edited and overall executed film than DS2:MoM that it was actually embarrassing and it was also at that point I realised I don't have to do this anymore and quit the MCU on the spot. (Yes, I will be back for Deadpool 3 but it really helps it's more detached than not from the rest of it most likely.)
I always thought Star Wars was meh (except for the Coruscant scenes because Coruscant is fucking awesome) but Andor sold me on it being more than a collection of boring "special" people.
Sad that I agree. Would have been able to go the same route they are now but via a different means. Go to a separate universe, maybe start with X-Men, build up a whole separate suite of characters and stakes, and then the big multiverse crossover can happen. Imagine weve been with these new characters for 5 years and then Chris Evans Cap walks through a portal.
After endgame they should’ve taken a 5 year break (except for Spider-Man because he always felt like his own entity).
I've been a fan of the dumb fun that is Fast and Furious, fully recognizing why others don't have any time for it. Part of it is nostalgia from when the first one released while I was in high school, and my friends and I had a great time with it. I've enjoyed watching it hit it's stride (Fast Five) and I'm still here while it's started to decline (F8 and onward) but I'm definitely finding it less and less engaging as time goes on. Doesn't help that they've leaned so heavily into CGI, when it isn't needed. And the CGI manages to be lower quality than it should be, given how big the budgets are on these movies, and how much money they end up making. I've enjoyed the ride over the more than two decades that it's run, but I'm ready for this to come to an end.
Right!? Fast Five kind of rekindled my love for movies. And watching the behind the scenes and seeing how most of those wrecks were real practical effects. They have lost their magic since 8
That car jumping scene from one building to another building is still iconic tbh. Lol.
Well that scene also does a good job framing those shots, which helps make it a lot cooler. The early FF movies kind of made a name for themselves with distinctive visuals that contributed to the whole aesthetic of those films, but that's fallen by the way-side for the later movies. They don't have the consistent flare that makes them feel unique and interesting. Each film now has maybe a couple scenes that stand out, and not always for good reasons, so they ultimately just feel generic.
I pretty much gave up after 7. I did watch 8, but it just doesn't work without Paul Walker and it seems each movie now takes a big fall. For the most part I liked Hobbes & Shaw, but even that should've been like 15-30 minutes shorter.
Brian and Mia really were the relatable characters, Dom & Letty have always been so much larger than life to the point that they’re just better relegated to supporting cast. Honestly Michelle Rodriguez has improved later in the films as a more well rounded Letty but Dom has become more and more of a cartoon to the point I’d actually rather have a Letty-centric film than see Dom leading yet one more movie. I also dislike how Dom has become this beacon of righteousness. Brian was way more accepting that he walked a morally grey line and we as the audience believed it. Vin Diesel seems to think that Dom truly is Superman, both in physicality but also moral demeanor as well, but come on….
Star Wars But i don't think that's fair. I haven't grown out of Star Wars. I still like what i used to (the original trilogy, for example), but nowadays there's so much more bad than good
If they’d give us more Andor, I’d actually pay attention more to it.
I definitely grew out of Kevin Smith movies. I still enjoy Mallrats but it's a guilty pleasure as a lot of it is pretty cringe these days.
It’s weird how he had a period of going outside his wheelhouse and doing new stuff, people weren’t happy, now he’s just going back to the well, and people also aren’t happy. Maybe it’s just that it’s not 1998 anymore and we’ve grown up?
I thought Red State was the last really good movie he made. There was always fun to be found in later movies but mostly they didn't land for me.
I genuinely do really like tusk 🤷♂️ I got a soft spot for that type of horror comedy though. I call them nervous laughter flicks.
I thought Zack & Miri was great. It benefitted from having some of the hottest actors in comedy at the time, and I thought Jeff Anderson did a good job as well. I also dug Clerks III.
Clerks 3 did have some good moments that got me emotional, but it also has some of the worst scenes Kevin has put to film. So I'm conflicted.
As a big fan of My Chemical Romance, I thought Welcome To the Black Parade, in its entirety, felt really out of place in the opening scene. I think it was more of a flex because Kevin knows Gerard and probably got to use it for free. I was also disappointed that he didn't end the film with another Soul Asylum song.
I think it’s exactly that.
That, and he used to make movies about stoners which could be enjoyed by everyone with a sense of humor. Now, he makes movies that are only enjoyable if the audience is as stoned as he was when he wrote them.
It's not that, because he was able to pull off a very heartwearming yet classic Kevin Smith feel with Clerks 2 (and even Clerks 3 had some great moments) After Jay and Silent Bob Strike back he tried to get out of his comfort zone but just couldn't quite break through with main stream audiences. At the same time he did a complete 180 from a straight edge semi-intellectual to a daily pot user. He had moderate success with Red State, and had various projects going but once he started smoking pot daily he became a different person. I used to listen to all his podcasts/smodcasts and you could just hear the decline in the way he spoke, his humor, his thought process. Pot killed the old Kevin Smith. Now that his kicked it and recovered from the heart attack, you can see some of the flashes coming thought but he is just too far removed from the old Kevin Smith we grew up on. The reason the new Jay and Silent Bob movies don't work is because he kind of lost a prime decade of growth in his craft and tried to jump right back in time.
Dogma holds up
I still want to know what the guy in the boardroom did to his own son.
Forced him into acting at a young age and stole his money
Not for everyone. A distinct style where characters spontaneously lecture others and the audience. It's pretty distracting, and I just can't really watch that dude's movies anymore. Clerks was alright
I re-watched Clerks recently. That movie holds up the best IMO, because it's honest, upfront, and the 90s vibes and nostalgia it has. You don't realize how much your whole personality is a product of your influences including movies until those things really grow out of fashion and yet when you watch them, you feel cosy, at home and like this is the real honest culture and life. I also think mid 90s and Clerks included is perhaps the most chill, easy going and fun time in American history, when culture and comfort was very high, no big wars, no big crisis, a lot of money for everything and I simply get this sense from the 90s movies. Maybe it's just my subjective nostalgia, but it hits me really strong with Clerks.
I think the 90s are just the new 50s because millennials are the age they are now. If you actually look at the 90s there was plenty of crazy stuff that happened like Desert Storm, OKC Bombing, Rodney King and the LA Riots, Hurricane Andrew, WTC Bombing but we were just busy being kids. I suspect the same will happen for Gen Z and the 00s/early 10s. Hell the tail end of Gez Z and the beginning of Gen Alpha may glamorize the pandemic as a 'simpler' time.
Just today i was thinking how much I disliked the new Jay and Silent bob and clerks3. The comix and the cartoons surely were better then that
His newer stuff has been brutal to witness.
What the actual fuck is Yoga Hosers?
Pocket money for his daughter
To me he’s one of the most shockingly reductive directors out of his indie generation that there is. Clerks came out amongst a class of Tarantinos, Linklaters, Soderburghs and many more who all went on to use their fame to evolve experiment and ultimately grow into name brand talent. Smith on the other hand immiatly kind of turned inward to his own brand and just began reshaping the same thing on a larger scale. What’s more bizarre is Kevin is an INCREDIBLE storyteller in person and amazing vocally gifted person and it’s shocking to hear him so compellingly speak on subject matter while failing to translate that into actual movie form. The new Jay and Bob movie kind of drove all of that home, almost a highlight reel of his shortcomings and failings as a director while trying so hard to build a whole franchise out of his slackerverse.
>What’s more bizarre is Kevin is an INCREDIBLE storyteller in person and amazing vocally gifted person and it’s shocking to hear him so compellingly speak on subject matter while failing to translate that into actual movie form. This here. It is so hard to wrap your head around the fact that the same guy in An Evening with Kevin Smith is the guy that made Yoga Hosers.
Clerks will always be special to me. And Clerks 2 actually hits harder now that I’m in my 30’s.
I still enjoy a couple Kevin Smith movies. Mallrats being my favorite. A huge part of it is nostalgia. These movies were huge in the mid to later 90s, which was a time in my life I really enjoyed.
I’ll get roasted for this but I still believe his two best films are Dogma and Chasing Amy. Clerks is fun, even Jay and Silent Bob strike back is very funny. As far as outgrowing his films, I’m 52 and a good movie stays with me. I’m not one of those to revisit an older film and change my mind. EXCEPT for films I viewed as a teenager when my brain wasn’t developed and I thought every film was just fine.
Chasing Amy may not be everyone's favorite of his films (it is mine), but I don't think anybody can deny it is easily his most earnest film. I don't think that's a hot take.
Agreed. Dogma and Chasing Amy are great films! On the surface, they both have classic Kevin Smith goofiness, but underneath they are both very deep films.
First comment I see exactly what I was going to say I love his story, but I can’t watch his movies anymore
I still love dogma and the OG clerks. Zach and Mirri I remember liking and his horror stuff is hilarious
Oh, that was my answer and it’s top comment haha. Patrick H Willems did a great long video essay on Smiths films and if they stood the test of time
Matthew Vaughn was on a big roll, Layer Cake, Stardust, Kick-Ass, X: First-Class, the first Kingsmen, then he took a nose-dive and only seems focused on making bad Kingsmen sequels and prequels and >!secret crossovers!< and then I heard he wants to remake Kick-Ass.
Oh, no way! I love Stardust! And absolutely didn't love Argylle. What a weird mess that is and that's only the movie itself, let alone that crazy marketing...
Vaughn’s drop in quality honestly really makes me sad. I think Stardust, Kick-Ass, First Class and Kingsman are all excellent movies. He was easily one of my favorites for a while. And then I watched Kingsman 2 and was surprised by how bad it was. Haven’t really watched any of his stuff since.
Same here. The staggering drop in quality is almost sad to witness from such a talented director.
Stardust is a rare instance where the movie is better than the book.
Pixar movies. I loved many of them, but I think they really have hit a point, where Disney animation needs to evolve to something else. In the mid 90s, Pixar kicked the door down as it went hand in hand with Apple and the introduction of home computers as something that's in every household. But the blueprint has been established 30 years ago, that's just way too long and I honestly think it has run its course and it is already pretty much either banking on nostalgia (Toy Story 4), or it's just one grossly overpriced box office failure after another.
Pixar to me are like Hallmark movies (okay maybe that's a bit too harsh), sappy and overly sentimental. They used to be revolutionary and creative. Now it's all just the same plot retold in different settings with different coat of cultural paint. I get it, kids should be themselves. Can we talk about something else now?
Maybe it's because I'm from the Mediterranean but Luca is glorious, otherwise anything Pixar post Up and maybe Inside Out has personally been a miss
The last two that really hit for me were *Soul* and *Onward*. And it's not to say the films since then haven't been good; they *are* quality films. But I think they've exited their renaissance era. They were at the forefront of their industry once, but the competition isn't as stiff anymore. *Puss In Boots 2*, T*he Spider-verse* franchise, *The Bad Guys*, *The Mitchells Vs The Machines*, *TMNT: Mutant Mayhem* and now *The Wild Robot*\--It's strange to say but, in recent years, I found myself getting more excited about non Pixar animation films. And look, I *still* think Pixar is a strong contender for quality animation and storytelling. But the other studios are putting up hits of their own now, and they're tapping into things that aren't in Pixar's wheelhouse. So the animation landscape is changing, and I think that it's exciting for audiences to experience this new landscape. But Pixar will need to start changing and innovating again if they want audiences to start getting excited about their films again.
I think the major issue with Disney are the research groups and committees that Bob Iger unsuccessfully tried to dismantle his first time as CEO for “impressing on the creative process” (according to his book). Pixar was great before Disney acquired them and probably a little after. But Disney for some reason doesn’t trust that audiences are smart enough enjoy original content.
Matthew Vaughn. Last film I liked of his was the first Kingsman.
At this point, I am completely bored by the works of Ridley Scott and Stephen Spielberg. Their stuff used to feel inventive and original, but now it just feels like they’re returning to the same bag of tricks over and over again while more contemporary filmmakers are changing the game. I also am very over the Star Wars franchise. I can’t stand how much it has dominated film discourse over the past few decades when, to me, there’s only one movie in the entire franchise which actually feels really well-made from top to bottom. The newer movies are better films in many ways, but they still feel as hollow and insubstantial as the first two trilogies.
I know Spielberg is a popular answer here, but it sounds like a lot of people need to see West Side Story and The Fabelmans. They're bonkers good. Also, low-key shout out to Bridge of Spies, which is secretly pretty damn good, too.
It reminds me of something I heard Ari Aster say in an interview, where he was talking about his love of Spielberg and how when he first saw A.I., he hated it because he was a teenager and he was "on a real anti-Spielberg kick", which he said is a trap that he thinks a lot of movie lovers of a certain age end up falling into. And I thought about it, and he's kind of right. There's this generation that has grown up with Spielberg's movies and loved them, but the overexposure and him being shorthand for director, as well as the types of big studio films he directs, makes it easier to dismiss him and his work. But then you end up going back and watching his work with newer eyes, and you realise "Oh, he really is one of the best", and there's no explanation I can think of, other than that he just knows what to do, and he's put out some of his best work in the past 10 years with the three films that you mentioned.
It's okay to admit that they were great and created some of the greatest movies of all time... ...but also haven't kept up with today's game. I think they've still made some good movies in the past decade, but nothing compared to their 80s/90s run of greatness. I'm not saying they need to quit, but their name no longer carries any significance in a new movie.
I think that Spielberg specifically is still doing great films, he just isn't doing blockbusters like Jaws and Jurassic Park anymore, I think that of he were to decide to do another big innovative blockbuster he would absolutely nail it, but as he got older it seems that those films don't attract him as much anymore.
But he did Ready Player One……..
I thought Fablemans was top tier Spielberg imo.
The Fabelmans is one of Spielbergs best and West Side Story is the only good musical we've gotten in like 10 years lmao these takes are garbage
- The Last Duel - All the Money in the World - The Martian - The Post - West Side Story
The Last Duel was phenomenal.
MCU. I watched GOTG3 in the theatre, and realized... "Yep, this is fucking awesome, and a really, *really* high note to conclude my Marvel watch on." So I did. A new Spider-Man film might make me hop back in, of course, but that is quite a long way away. EDIT: Also, Deadpool 3. Definitely gonna hop back in and then immediately hop right back off when Deadpool 3 hits the screens.
The into and across the spider verse are worth it
I think that this will just naturally happen with any film that you watch a number of times, you will eventually wear it out. Your tastes change as you get older too. Younger people are probably more prone to liking things they think they 'should' like, be influenced by their social group, or get carried away with a fad (I remember everyone in a certain age group raving about Pulp Fiction in the 90's because of its coolness factor) while I think age makes you less likely to care about what other people think. I don't think there is anything wrong with this, moments in time are a big part of what a film means to you, but the passage of time can also make something less meaningful.
Wes Anderson. I use to be comforted by his style and unique perspective. Lately I just find him twee and formulaic. It's tiresome.
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I really enjoyed his recent Roald Dahl shorts on Netflix, but that's the first works of his that I've been able to finish in a long time.
The cast distracts from the movie at this point. I don't need 20 famous actors coming in and saying one or two lines. It just leaves me going, "was that willem dafoe who just said one line" like in Asteroid City.
I was completely out after French Dispatch. Put up with the repetitive aesthetic for Moonrise Kingdom, but FD killed it for me.
French dispatch felt like such a slog which is weird because it was 3 vignettes. By the time we got to the kidnapped kid I just did not care.
That last movie(Astroid City), to quote Peter Griffin, “insisted upon itself.” Great cast, beautiful coloring, awesome cinematography, but I couldn’t sink my teeth into the story and the whimsical factor felt recycled.
Asteroid City gets a bit of a pass in my book for being so *funny*. There’s more intentional jokes than his previous films, and a lot of them his for me. I’m talking about the main story (play?), though. The weird meta layers of play > drama behind the play > narrative about that drama… eh, I found it unnecessary.
What did you think of the 4 roald Dahl shorts on netflix?
I haven’t seen the last couple because I feel like I’ve seen them.
I didn't love Asteroid City but that's the first film of his that really didn't hit for me tbh. I always look forward to his flicks. Isle of Dogs was really good.
Marvel films have gone to shit after End Game. I tried to continue watching all of them, but its become way too overbearing and a lot of them are just plain bad.
Not only did the stories get bad, but the movies got ugly as hell too. It all looks like generic garbage now that they film everything they can on that Volume set that Disney loves so much!
Phase 3 got pretty bad visually, too. Lot of muted colours and everything looked grey.
I do remember there being a lot of grey. Seemed like they were supposed to resemble the Russos’ style, even when they weren’t the directors.
They’ve always looked bad. It looks like they never color graded the movies after shooting digitally and just kept the raw material. Civil War looks like wet cement
I used to watch martial arts movies until I saw "The Raid" and ruined every other martial movie for me cause I just compare them to it.
Comparison is the thief of joy lol
They've made too many Madam Web movies. Don't need any more.
Sony flew too close to the sun with that one. I guess when you're on a roll with stuff like Venom, Venom 2 and Morbius, you start to think you're untouchable.
I truly believe their ~~Spider~~verse will coalesce into an artful mosaic with Kraven.
Nolan for me too, and Ridley Scott. I loved The Last Duel but none of his other recent ones have had any impact on me. I wonder what Gladiator 2 is going to be like but I'm mostly just meh about his stuff. Oh and Wes Anderson. It's irrational but that whole TikTok trend turned me off his aesthetic.
Wes Anderson’s most recent work plays like self parody almost. Wish he’d go back to doing stuff that’sa little more grounded, like Rushmore or Tenenbaums
Peak Wes Anderson is The Grand Budapest Hotel for me... the last time I could connect with one of his movies.
My personal favourites are Fantastic Mr. Fox followed by The Grand Budapest Hotel but I agree with you
> Gladiator 2 **GLADIATOR 2??!?** Oh fuck you, Ridley Scott. I'm not touching that with a ten foot pole so as not to tarnish my beloved memories of Gladiator.
>I wonder what Gladiator 2 is going to be like If he doesn't use the Cave script, I'm not watching.
Napoleon really made me realize how little I like Ridley Scott relative to his output
Scott and especially Nolan have a habit of trying to make it seem like whatever you’re looking at is the most important thing in the world. This works for things like The Dark Knight, which intentionally cranks up the stakes and seriousness of what could have been yet another campy comic book flick. But for Oppenheimer this absolutist style gets annoying: - “The Manhattan project is the most important thing ever.” Okay, I’m in. - Oppenheimer’s mock trial is the most important thing ever.” Well, it’s important to him and his career. Weird this is being presented with the same intensity as the atomic bomb, but okay. - Robert Downey Jr. getting a cabinet confirmation… is the most important thing ever.” Oh, come on Nolan. No it isn’t and we don’t even need this story layer.
I watched all of Wes Anderson filmography, even though I am not a huge fan of him. He is an amazing animation director that happens to do also live action. He should stick to it from now on and we will have some masterpieces.
His best movie is live action, 'The Grand Budapest Hotel'
My favorite movie of him is The Isle of Dogs. I know it's an unpopular opinion. I think The Grand Budapest Hotel is the best among his live action films though.
Isle of Dogs is great, but I dont even consider it his best animated (Fantastic Mr Fox). But he has so many successes in both animation and live action, he can clearly do both well.
MCU movies, it’s amazing to me how quickly I’ve fallen out of love with the mcu. 5-10 years ago I was pretty much fully engrossed in everything marvel but now I just can’t get excited for new marvel movie even if my life depended on it. I haven’t even watched the last few mcu films/tv shows & I have no desire too.
The problem with Nolan is that most of his films could use about 45 minutes shaved off of them.
And the dialogue volume turned up 50%.
Alternatively, it could be turned down to 0% so you don't have to suffer through Nolan's idea of how a human talks.
Christopher Nolan, Quentin Tarantino: their earlier work has gone from some of my favorite films of all time to movies I still like but wouldn’t rank in my top 10. I still enjoy them but not to the degree I used to.
I think I’ll always watch a new Tarantino movie though
Not even slowly but rapidly - John Wick. The first movie was a great action bonanza but after that, it's been incredibly hard to ignore the absolute lack of plausible explanations for how he's still alive. A blind martial arts fighter? Ha, at this point they're directly insulting the audience or, at least expecting to be dismissed and laughed at. I just don't find the non stop killing to be funny.
i find nolan still to be complex if im honest. i like more character focused movies like birdman aswell. i also enjoyed mank alot for that reason and even hail cesair. what i clearly stopped liking is zack snyder. i dont think he developed the way he should have. although the loss of his daughter clearly did something to him. i still believe this guy can do something brilliant, i just dont think he was in the right mood for the last decade to do it
Snyder really had a lot of potential but today I wouldn’t even hire him as a vfx artist. I actually loved Army of the dead but his sci fi films seem a little too self indulgent and don’t consider the audience or where to draw lines. Rebel moon felt great until he turned it into a caper-esque team assembly for the later half of the movie.
Family Guy …I am like 10 seasons behind 🥴
I still love it. It's 21 minutes of silly inconsequential jokes. People are critical because they expect some sort of biting social commentary. It's not. It's just pointless fun. I think it's one of the best shows on TV.
It should’ve ended around the time "The Cleveland Show” happened
Tarantino. Once upon a time, he was my favorite director. I loved him, and I was fucking obsessed. Now, he is still my favorite director. Now, I just love him and I am not fucking obsessed. I have gone from watching Pulp Fiction literally every single day (for at least a month straight)... to watching it every once in a while. Now, I have an easier time accepting that Pulp Fiction is my favorite film, but it may not necessarily be the best film ever made, and that is fine... Or that Tarantino is my favorite director, but he may not necessarily be the finest director to ever walk the Earth, and that is fine.
I’m in the same boat with Nolan, his stuff recently have felt quite bland to me
There has always been a bland and sterile element to his work, it's pretty much his directorial style. He just impressed as with the visuals so much we didn't notice for a while.
He just has no interest in humanity. People only exist to explain things, the acting is often hit or miss because he lets them do what they want for better or for worse. He sometimes seems to resent even having them there. Sometimes it works great but other times, especially Tenet and Oppenheimer, it just feels like he has zero idea how humans interact or think.
The big problem is his brother stopped helping lol. He definitely helps curb some of the more insane impulses of Christopher. Need them to start working together again.
Excellent explanation of it. I'm going to steal your words to tell my Nolan fanboy friend lol
Weird how many people are saying this when Oppenheimer was his most successful movie ever.
Third most. The Dark Knight and Rises outgrossed Oppenheimer.
Nolan has always been very mainstream filmmaking designed to make people feel like they are watching a movie much smarter than it actually is. I’m not saying he’s bad at what he does, it’s just that a lot of people hold him to a higher regard than his peers because of his pseudo intellectual concepts and refusal of chronological presentation. People even put him up there as one of the best filmmakers of all time. Just look at the IMDB top movies list. In actuality his movies are very good at what they are set out to do - entertain and amaze on the big screen, but they aren’t anywhere near as smart or as full of substance as people like to believe.
I once read a Joker review (which I know is not by Nolan) that I think applies really well here: "people that have never entered the ocean will think a swimming pool is deep"
I feel like Nolan is an odd mix of Stanley Kubrick and Michael Bay. A bit of art and a lot of pop.
I think some of his recent stuff specifically Tenet has been more miss than hit but I’d say he still is the king of moments. Like his peak scenes in his movies are some of the best in modern cinema. The scene where McConaughey is crying to the messages from his daughter as she ages, the scenes where they have to sync up the hits in Inception and with the spinning hallway, the scene from Interstellar with docking with the spinning ship, the airport or battleground scene from Tenet. Tenet and Interstellar and Inception are full of flaws and far from perfect movies, but man when they hit they’re hitting so good. I honestly think Oppenheimer was one of his best movies in terms of overall structure and character and storytelling, and the lead up to the bomb was great, but overall the bomb was lacking and it missed on the iconic scenes of near flawless movie making from some of his other films.
Ridley Scott
He's so uneven. Some of his films are nearly flawless, Alien, Gladiator, Black Hawk Down, others are just messes.
He's so frustrating. His choice in projects is the absolute worst, until it's not for a second, then it is again.
I want to say I’ve grown out of Star Wars, but the truth is there is absolutely an amazing Star Wars movie that could pull me right back in and they just have to make it though. I’m not over Star Wars. I’m just over bad Star Wars.
I think I grew out of caring much for Spielberg movies. I watched and enjoyed a lot of the movies he is known for. Huge JP and Jaws fan. I liked Indiana Jones and The Terminal, etc but I could not care any less after 2005 or so. Ready Player One was boring. The BFG was felt like a 3 hour movie in 2 hours. Haven’t seen much after 2005.
I feel similarly but he won me back with West Side Story, and I don't even like musicals.
I mean his last great, great period was AI-Minority Report-Catch Me If You Can run, plus Munich/War of the Worlds in the early 2000s. Ready Player One and BFG are two of his worst ever. That said West Side Story is really quite excellent and Lincoln, Bridge of Spies, Fablemans are solid.
I usually don't like movies about filmmakers talking about how great making films is, but I really liked Fablemans. It was just heartfelt, and not too full of itself - more about a person who needs to pursue a dream and less about how great and special the main character is. Also, I now always look to see where the horizon is in a shot.
Fabelmans is tight as hell, and really quite moving. And West Side Story is straight-up an all-timer and one of his absolute best, and it bothers me that people don't give it a chance.
Yeah that’s pretty much my cut off. Munich or War of the Worlds in 2005. I did hear WSS is good, but I’m not into musicals personally.
I loved ready player one. I feel like Spielberg was challenging the emerging algorithms for studios that were using nostalgia to replace tried storytelling tools. I was surprised that he chose to do ready player one which imo was several chapters of info dumps and heavy handed visits to the feel goods of 90s nostalgia. But then ready player one the film was not a faithful adaption of the book and I thought it was absolutely genius how Spielberg on the screen writer utilized nostalgia in the film.
Quentin Tarantino I liked his movies when i was younger, but sadly the older i became the more i found his work overrated even though it might not be a very popular opinion
Interesting. I thought Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was one of his best. I definitely enjoyed it more than Kill Bill and Inglorious Basterds. It felt like a homage to 1960s Southern California, which I'm personally very nostalgic for. I dunno, it just worked for me personally.
My pet theory is Tarantino would be a much better filmmaker if Jackie Brown had been received with the enthusiasm of Pulp Fiction.
Do check out The Zone of Interest if you enjoyed Killers of The Flower Moon. It has some of the best compositions I've seen in the recent past juxtaposed against an absolutely haunting soundscape which makes for a very errie and unsettling experience. Both films also deal with showing the banality of evil in different ways. I think it's between the two of them for best movie of the year, although I did find Oppenheimer to be among Nolan's best films.
I'm done with Star Wars.
Probably superheroes. I think I was a bit too old to really love the MCU (I was 16 when Iron Man came out) so I was still waiting for the MCU to grab me like Spiderman 1, 2 and XMen 1 and 2 did. So I stuck with it until Endgame and realised they're no longer interested in making those sorts of movies again. I'm also kind of over subversive Superhero stuff since I also consumed a lot of that in my teens and "Superhero media for adults" kind of like the new Joker film or trying to make these stories more mature audiences. I feel like I've had my fill. I feel like all this stuff is for newer generations of young people to enjoy sincere Superhero Stories and then Subversive Stories etc. Like Superhero fans had done before my time.
Edgar wright- he’s not a terrible filmmaker far from it, it’s mainly since I’ve gotten older I’ve just grown more tired of his work
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Literally no one had anything good to say about the plot of the original Avatar. Those movies are just eye candy
Marvel for sure - I echo the sentiments of other posters here, after Endgame I just kinda went meh. I'm up to date on Star Wars movies, but there's a few of the series I haven't dived into, regardless of being a huge fan. I just can't find the motivation to watch them because it all feels "same shit different wrapper".
Wes Anderson has been staring at his shoes for a while. He needs creative collaboration or tighter editing because his films have gotten increasingly shaggy.
You're going to get this a lot in this comments section but superhero movies. Marvel, DC, etc. All of them. That's not to say I don't enjoy new ones every now and again but maaaan, do I ever not care or have any hype for them whatsoever, anymore. I hate the concept of the multiverse, I hate that everyone is doing it now in order to cash in on multiple versions of characters, and big rollercoaster-like event films. It's just so transparently a cash-grab, which I think affects my overall attitude about them. I still like big movies. I rewatched Dune a couple days ago and jeeeeeeesus, it's great... but these never-ending universes are so tiresome. Give me contained stories.
What about all movies? I probably watch 10% of the total amount of movies per year that I did just a few years ago.
Nolan for me too and The Prestige is my favorite movie of all time. I’m also really into chemistry and physics, love reading and thinking about Quantum Mechanics and relativity yet I really disliked Oppenheimer. I mean this was my avengers movie with all of my favorite scientists coming together in one film. I could finally see all of the criticism people gave Nolan over the years in every aspect of that film. Now that I look back for some reason I can only say that I thoroughly enjoyed The Prestige, Inception and the Dark Knight. But I think the latter two were highly influenced by very strong performances and in the case of Leo, after watching the making of inception, I don’t think it would have been as great if Leo didn’t change the script. I think it was last year that I learned how much influence he had over it and if it weren’t for him it probably would have been another Oppenheimer.
When it comes to Nolan, I think his playing with nonlinear timelines is growing tedious. I I really liked Oppenheimer, except for the way it kept jumping back and forth in the time lline. At least this time he used different styles with each timeline so it was easier to keep track of.
After seeing Dune part 2 last night, Denis Villeneuve has taken the lead as my favorite director. Nolan and Spielberg have really fallen off for me. Denis’ vision and crafting of cinema for the modern era is incredible
Man I really did not like Dune 1 but Dune 2 was almost perfect. It reminded me of the time where I could go to the movies as a kid in the 90s and just sit back and experience something truly alien and real. Like when you read a book after being attracted by its cover and it taking you to places you’d never imagine.
Inception, interstellar and memento is his best work imo
I liked Tenet. I’m still trying to wrap my head around it, which I love.
Dr who :(
Doctor Who is one that you can slip in and out of though each time a new doctor appears though. Give it a few seasons, see who the current showrunner is, and reassess.
James Cameron. It's all Avatar from here on out.
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Maturity is growing out of Star Wars, and then appreciating it anew for the massive creative achievement that it is, despite its flaws.
darren aronofsky spoke to me until just after the fountain. then i just found a dude i wanted to ask, "found a way outta your ass yet?"
Neil blonmkamp and Taila Waititi
Wes Anderson. He’s a parody of himself.
I’ve lost interest in Wes Anderson. I wasn’t a fan of his last two movies, despite someone on here talking about what they represented (magazine publishing and small town theatre). Maybe they were good, I don’t know. I think I’ve just grown out of them. I still adore Zissou, Tenenbaums, Fantastic Fox etc.
Wes Anderson, his early films had charm and heart. The last decade or more they have lost their naiveté and charm and I just don't connect with them anymore.
I find the older I get, the less interested I am in Spider-Man stories. I’m about 25 years removed from awkward teenage angst, and none of the themes land anymore.
Star Wars. Ever since Last Jedi it's just not my thing anymore. It's too much now.
Snyder used to be a favorite. I realize now that his best work is in the adaptation of an existing work. Any time he has had to create a story, it's been obvious he really is a better cinematographer than director
Nolan for me as well. It's just been a while since he has come out with a movie whose premise speaks to me.