Since when did movies get so rotten?

[PakledHostage]

A lot of what made old movies great was the suspense they engendered in the viewer, they couldn't rely on special effects and action scenes so they had to be clever.

I think that is precisely the problem! A lot of movie producers/studios these days seem to hitch their cart to the special effects horse when making a movie rather than rely on good story telling. This is why I said in another thread recently that I tend to avoid movies that are advertised as having "great special effects". Too often, that is synonymous with "it has a crappy plot".

[razark]

I think that is precisely the problem! A lot of movie producers/studios these days seem to hitch their cart to the special effects horse when making a movie rather than rely on good story telling.

This is exactly how I've felt about a lot of movies in the last two decades. A lot of them seem to be less about telling a story and more about finding a way to string together a bunch of car chases, action scenes, explosions, and other special effects. I'm not against special effects when they are used as a device to convey the plot, but too often the plot seems secondary to the effects.

[Nuke]

A lot of what made old movies great was the suspense they engendered in the viewer, they couldn't rely on special effects and action scenes so they had to be clever.

Take the original Alien, very tense, very scary, can you think of a modern movie that makes your skin crawl in quite that way? I can't.

event horizon (probibly not modern enough by most of your standards though)

[Drunken Hobo]

It's the same problem we're seeing with many video games. More interested in making it look shiny for trailers than making a functional game.

[Dispatcher]

Every one has acquired tastes in movie and television entertainment. I have lately taken to broadening my exposure to "classics" which span nearly a century of movies, and many genre(s); half of them are in color and most of them have sound. There is some really good stuff out there and its interesting to see what has changed and what has remained constant in storytelling and entertainment; as well as cultural variety and shifts. I highly recommend this approach.

[PakledHostage]

There is some really good stuff out there and its interesting to see what has changed and what has remained constant in storytelling and entertainment; as well as cultural variety and shifts.

That is an important point. I don't think I have made it very well myself yet:

There are still some really good movies being made. I've seen some recently that were properly brilliant. Everybody's tastes vary so I won't say what they were, but I can assure you that they weren't hyped up blockbusters. They were the hidden gems that you stumble across. (And I say that from the perspective of an engineer; I assure you that I am not a hipster.)

Edited November 30, 2014 by PakledHostage

[megatiger78]

pacific rim is good. no one going to disagree with that.

[vger]

Can't say I agree with the Titanic argument at all. A heck of a lot of love went into making that film, but it is one of the few where the special effects actually worked with the story instead of completely taking over for it.

I was at the HEIGHT of being obsessed with anything that was action/horror/disaster. A pretty stereotypical teenager who didn't get 'fazed' by anything.

I didn't give a darn about Jack and Rose's love story, and already had been turned off of Leo DeCaprio altogether thanks to all the goo-goo/ga-ga swooning over him from the girls at my school. I spent the first however many minutes thinking, "Let's get to the iceberg already!" Yeah, as pointed out, I knew what was coming. Everyone knew what was coming. Then it came and my jaw hit the floor and stayed there. I had seen just about everything movies had to offer for shock and awe, but this was a completely different animal. I felt like I was really there. I saw death, terror and impending doom in an entirely new light. I saw the total collapse of human civilization as everyone retreated to pure primal survival instinct. Knowing that this was made to be as historically accurate as possible only made it even scarier. I went up to my room and sat at the edge of the bed, emotionally paralyzed for somewhere between 30 minutes to an hour, trying to process what I had just seen.

Yeah, Titanic was designed to an insanely epic special effects blockbuster, but it didn't want for substance. Cameron wasn't CGI-obsessed either, which helped a LOT. They built a model replica of the ship that was something like 95% to scale, and then built a water tank big enough to immerse it. They could've resorted to a 100% CGI film and possibly made twice as much in profits, but they didn't. They actually gave a darn.

[Kinglet]

pacific rim is good. no one going to disagree with that.

Ugh... No. The robots would not be able to walk in real life because physics, and WHY THE HECK DID THEY CHOOSE ROBOTS WHICH WALK AND ONLY DO MELEE ATTACKS? A massive Flying Fortress full of guns would be cheaper, more powerful and awesomer. Plus, the aliens could have just teleported hydrochloric acid through the portal, leading to world destruction.

[astropapi1]

Dude, sarcasm.

[Kinglet]

Dude, sarcasm.

Poe's law

Your argument is invalid.

[EdFred]

I'm curious can you watch family guy? Because they both use the exact same humor.

Not really. There are funny parts here and there, but I've seen less than 10 episodes, maybe less than 5.

[Nuke]

thats one of those shows i was really trying to avoid getting into. anything with as much hype as family guy must not be good. but then i ended up doing so anyway. i regret nothing.

[segaprophet]

Modern film needs more Reb Brown.

[KerbMav]

Can movies based on books really be hold accountable for plot holes? Anyway.

The Rock had a car chase, guns and explosions, the plot was straightforward, they had three big(ger) names on the payroll, fast cuts - but it was a good and fun action movie. I can enjoy this kind of movies.

But I also want to be taken serious. If the movie is not set out to be a popcorn action flick, then it should well try to challenge the viewer to follow the story and get into the plot.

I do not want a character to explain the obvious <20 minutes after the fact has been shown plainly on screen.

I do not want a recap of the first hour of the movie so I do get why the clever (not) trick of the main character at the end worked!

If it is a movie with a plot twist/mystery I am OK with a short montage - if the mystery really was a mystery, or at least a good one.

A Beautiful Mind catched me off guard, because I did not follow anything about this movie before-hand, although some parts really had me raise an eyebrow, I did not get it; same with Fight Club, Sixth Sense, Dark City, The Thirteenth Floor ... when The Village came out, I guessed the background after half an hour. (Years of exposition to scifi, fantasy, x-files, outer limits etc. will leave you with enough experience and "knowledge" to have at least three valid guesses as to what is really going on.)

Shutter Island still was enjoyable.

My brain seems do differentiate between movies and books. A book giving me nothing more than guns and explosions will probably be left behind - I even once returned one! Had the sales clerk asked for a reason (she did not, I was almost disappointed to not be able to tell her) I would not even have lied, I would simply have said "It is sh**, please give me a real book and throw this one away so it cannot hurt anyone else!"