AVATAR 2: THE WAY OF WATER (2022)

[Cephus]

No one has a problem with McDonald’s selling everywhere. It’s when McDonald’s gets treated like it’s anything other than what it is—empty calories, not that great, but popular with the masses.

And getting more expensive by the day. Most fast food is as expensive as a sit-down restaurant these days.

 

[TazMan2000]

No one has a problem with McDonald’s selling everywhere. It’s when McDonald’s gets treated like it’s anything other than what it is—empty calories, not that great, but popular with the masses.

Exactly.

The Romans built the Colossuem not for theater, but gladiator battles. If the Romans wanted to watch acting, they'd go to the Forum or theater which was built to hold hundreds. The Colosseum was built to hold tens of thousands.

The gladiator battles satiated the masses with what they craved the most...violence. Obviously it was more popular than watching actors. Not much has changed.

TazMan2000

 

[CT1138]

Didn't realize this site was so dedicated to its arthouse cinema.

You guys know, when Star Wars came out, it was mostly praised only for its special effects. Don't believe me, go digging through the old newspaper archives. And they're not wrong. Star Wars didn't make money on its dialogue, story, or characters. It made its money on the effects. Let's face it, the story has zero inspiration. It's effectively King Arthur in space with a little western thrown in. Hell, the starfighter footage is practically a trace of old WWII fighter plane footage. The characters are as shallow as a puddle in Death Valley. None of them have much backstory, and lemme guess who rhe bad guy is... oh, must be the guy dressed in all black with rhe ominous theme music. Gee, how'd I miss that! And the good guys are dressed in... all white? Oh, how original.

Yes, even some of the most popular movies on the planet is shallow, mindless, flashy entertainment for the masses. And that's not a bad thing. It's okay to shut your mind off for a few hours, forget that the world sucks, and enjoy the flashy effects.

 

[HMSwolfe]

delete

 

[Riceball]

Didn't realize this site was so dedicated to its arthouse cinema.

You guys know, when Star Wars came out, it was mostly praised only for its special effects. Don't believe me, go digging through the old newspaper archives. And they're not wrong. Star Wars didn't make money on its dialogue, story, or characters. It made its money on the effects. Let's face it, the story has zero inspiration. It's effectively King Arthur in space with a little western thrown in. Hell, the starfighter footage is practically a trace of old WWII fighter plane footage. The characters are as shallow as a puddle in Death Valley. None of them have much backstory, and lemme guess who rhe bad guy is... oh, must be the guy dressed in all black with rhe ominous theme music. Gee, how'd I miss that! And the good guys are dressed in... all white? Oh, how original.

Yes, even some of the most popular movies on the planet is shallow, mindless, flashy entertainment for the masses. And that's not a bad thing. It's okay to shut your mind off for a few hours, forget that the world sucks, and enjoy the flashy effects.

I agree, wholeheartedly. I don't get where the expectation of blockbuster movies to be high art came from. What happened to popcorn flicks being just fun entertainment? Why are so many here dissecting movies like they're failed film school grads or film critics? I don't care if a movie is a cinematic masterpiece with spectacular writing, high caliber acting, and so on, all I care is that I'm entertained for the hour and a half to 2 hours that I'm watching it for.

I also wonder where this expectation for the major movie studios to care about producing high art came from too. I see all of these complaints about cash grabs, reboots, prequels, sequels, and lack of originality as if they're something new. They aren't, all of the big studios have been doing this since there was a Hollywood. Stage plays got adapted into slient films, silent films were remade as "talkies", b&w films were remade in color. Hollywood has always recycled ideas because, by and large, they don't care about the art of filmmaking, they're not in the business of making art, or really even movies, they're in the business of making money. And as far as Hollywood is concerned, things like reboots, remakes, sequels and prequels are an easy, relatively low risk way of making money. And when a studio does decide to take a chance on something and it succeeds, that often results in other studios jumping on the bandwagon and making their own version of that movie thinking that's what audiences want. The same goes with the studio that made the original, they now want more more of the same because the first one did so well. It's all part of business 101, trying to make the most money while spending the least, along with trying to deliver what the consumer/customer wants, or at least what they think they want.