Will there be steaming piles?

[Shadow Reaper]

I once walked up on a steaming pile while hunting “the Mountain Ghost”, otherwise known as Roosevelt’s Elk, and I can tell you apart from the smell, the primary sensation or realization one gets is that they missed their opportunity.

So it is with The Witcher. This sayith the mighty sage of our day, Drinker:

View: https://youtu.be/ZAyhyVSIfmo

 

[Shadow Reaper]

Since I haven’t read the Witcher books, I thought it would be interesting to hear a review of season 3 from someone who has. Far as I can tell, he ain’t wrong. Main point being, there is indeed this prevailing notion now common in Hollywood that it is not the writer’s job to give the audience what they want, but rather what the writer wants.

This reminded me of two decades ago when I was studying screenwriting. (Dunno if I ever mentioned I won a Remi at Worldfest before I suddenly sidetracked into aerospace, but storytelling has always been a passion.). During my time learning screenwriting, I probably read 300 times that if you’re going to write for a living, you can’t have romantic notions arguing that you won’t prostitute your work by giving others what they want. That’s a narcissistic, bullshit story that professionals cannot afford. If you’re getting paid, you write for your audience, not for yourself.

Well, this guy is saying the same thing. The writers for The Witcher failed, because they knowingly pandered to their own preferences and ignored what the audience wants.

So if you had to sum up, it’s fair to say these projects are failing due to narcissism.

View: https://youtu.be/bJLevUygkUg

 

[Lorddarthvik]

Haven't read the books, don't care to really so I can only say that my extremely normie friends quit on ep3 and my wife quit halfway through ep2. I still didn't care to watch any of it, most likely never will.


I stopped watching all kinds of "movie critics" for a couple of months now cos it got so boring. It's not that they are wrong, it's just that it's always the exact same shit, word for word, no matter which channel's review I watch. It's like watching mainstream media news at this point lol...
Anyways, holywood is in deep shit, and all of em chalk it up to shit writing, ESG scores and yada yada. Which is true. But none of them talk about something that's also a huge contributor to the failure at large.
False Expectations.
Think back to a year when you went to the movies and seen more than 5 life changing hyper über record breaking world shattering blockbusters in a single year. You can't cos it never happened. And it never will happen. Yet both the industry and the audience is acting like every single movie put out will be on that life-changing level.
Of course it won't , it's just absolutely unrealistic to expect that, when studios keep shitting out movie after movie after movie, each with budgets over multiple hundreds of millions of dollars. What the fuck were they thinking?? Especially now that they have to contend with streaming platforms pushing out insane amounts of mid tier trash along with some actually good movies as well. How could they expect anything else to happen than what is happening right now?

There's always been like 2-3 huge mega hits a year at best, a couple of "it's alright'" flicks, and the rest was garbage! This is still true to this day, nothings changed! This year we get what, Oppenheimer (probably, haven't seen it yet), MI:n+1, and what else is there? Is Dune2 coming out this year? That might not make the cut and just land in the "it aight" pile, even though the first one was good the middle part is supposed to be way more slow and boring in comparison if they follow the books... Was Avatar2 this year? I heard it made bank but otherwise it only made it into the mid-tier list, no one was talking about it 2 weeks after it launched. So that's it then, the roster is filled for this year. Yet they expect all of the 6 or more superhero movies they release this year to be the next biggest hit the world has ever seen, along with all the raped reimagined oldies which they releas like 12+ / year? And they also expect every single franchise TV-show they release to dominate as well??

It's just absurd. Totally nonsensical to expect every single one of these to be worth the nearly half billion dollars they pump into them each. Both holywood and the audience needs to chill the fuck out. Realize that most movies will be mid tier at best and allocate the budget accordingly, and aim to have a good time instead of expecting every single movie to be the next Matrix or Titanic...



Overall I'd much rather listen to a long and detailed breakdown of why and how we got to this point, mainly focusing on the studios and whatever else took part in the cultural changes that led to such unrealistically inflated audience expectations cos I'm sick and tired of listening to yet another "ma diversity" rant, no matter how true (and sometimes funny) it is.

 

[Shadow Reaper]

I understand what you’re saying and agree with most of it, but I would point out failures with films and failures with TV series are very different things. Fads come and go and I’m wary of huge generalizations about where all the failure has its root. It may after all be because of more than one influence.

I think it’s much more fruitful to look at properties that have all the signs of success and yet fail. Was it the production—they just didn’t spend enough to get an A team writing staff and good effects? I think that’s what happened to the Shannara Chronicals a decade or so ago. The original writing was easily good enough but what came out the butt hole of the writers was nothing like the source material, and the people directing don’t even much seem to have cared what they were putting on screen. The end product was horrible.

But. . .Peter Jackson’s LOTR made Hollywood sit up and recognize that High Fantasy was not just the sub genre of kids. People love fantasy, and not just sci-if. There is money to be made there, so we have GoT. It worked. So what happened with Willow, and RoP and The Witcher? How did three very successful properties all fail when the market said they should not?

Personally I think it’s pretty obvious it was today’s weird brand of radical feminism that people are rejecting. No one thinks a “stong woman” means what we got in any of these three. No one bought Galadriel. That character is a horror, not a hero. People are rejecting the radical philosophy here, and the way it distorts storytelling.

While I hesitate to make broad generalizations about the whole industry, I think it’s pretty obvious all three of these failed because they’re too invested in “the message” to tell good stories. No one in their right mind thinks a 100 lbs Elf maiden can grab four 200 lbs soldiers in steel armor and flip them about casually, as if they’re rag dolls. No one thinks Galadriel was a good character, nor even emotionally healthy. Eowyn, she was a strong, kind, compassionate, brave and true woman, driven by the need to serve others, not some sick twisted witch who abandons her comrades first thing, hoping to prove she’s tough.

This writing failed because the writers don’t know good from evil. All they know is the radical ideology they’re serving up. That’s truly sad. If you honestly don’t know what is honorable, good, right, and just; you certainly can’t write it into a script.

Eowyn was written 80 years ago, was before modern feminism gave us the twisted version of Galadriel.

View: https://youtu.be/dQ_-rmuPZC4

 

[Lorddarthvik]

Hehe, seems like it's not just me who noticed the trend I wrote about above, pushing trash with insane budgets:

View: https://youtu.be/9FQgp_sLGjg

 

[Shadow Reaper]

Drinker has always seemed to me to have uncommonly good common sense. I’m not sure exactly where his writing credits come from but I do recall he’s penned some scripts and is still at it. Good for him. Great analysis.

What he didn’t say that I think needs to be said is that the film schools seem to be camping out on teaching the skills for derivative works, and not really pressuring writers to have unique stories. There’s some blame to be had here. While it used to be writers had to have original stuff to offer, there isn’t much of that now. I think part of the blame here is that by focusing so much on technique and standard, the film schools are robbing us of really new creations. In fact, they’re even robbing us of creative derivations.

Where are the crazy fairy tales like Princess Bride and Enchanted? Where are the crazy swashbucklers like Pirates of the Caribbean? Where are the Westerns, the war films, and the period piece noir detective flicks? We can’t get just one of each in a year from over 150 films?

 

[Shadow Reaper]

The Witcher producer blames audiences for falling ratings. He says it’s the lack of attention span in the audience that explains falling numbers. However, the audience has not changed appreciably. If the audience has an attention deficit disorder, seasons one and two seem to have managed it well.

This is just more of the same refusal to take responsibility. These writers, producers and directors seem to want to blame everything except the choke and puke storytelling they’re trying to force feed the public.

View: https://youtu.be/X7lBJ9gSre0

 

[Shadow Reaper]

 

[Mudhawk]

View attachment 24811

Okay. You got me.
NOW I'm scared!

 

[Shadow Reaper]

This is epic, watch till end 😂. Despite the media (owned by the Elite and powerful) labeling it a Qanon conspiracy theory, Sound of Freedom was #1 at the box office beating Indiana Jones, and the groomers at Disney are mad! The only big publications that covered it we’re Rolling Stones and Variety. GOD’s CHILDREN ARE NO LONGER FOR SALE #SOFMovie | Joshua L Melton | Zero Damage Blonding & Express Extensions👨‍🎨 | joshualeebeauty · Original-Audio

This is epic, watch till end 😂. Despite the media (owned by the Elite and powerful) labeling it a Qanon conspiracy theory, Sound of Freedom was #1 at the box office beating Indiana Jones, and the...

www.facebook.com

 

[Shadow Reaper]

Mandalorian Couples Therapy | Mandalorian Couples Therapy | By The Warp Zone | Facebook

Mandalorian Couples Therapy

fb.watch

 

[Shadow Reaper]

The complaints about the Snow White project are multiplying at an alarming rate. First there were the complaints that the Dwarfs have been replaced with what looks like homeless people from Portland. Then there were the complaints that Rachel Zegler was mocking the original story, true love’s kiss, etc. Then there was the boasting that the new story has completely replaced the romantic storyline with feminist grasping at power, and now the complaints that Zegler wants a raise. Why did she sign a contract and then decide she needs to be paid more? Crazy.

I can’t see why anyone would want to watch a film that intends to make a mockery of a classic. What is the point, unless you’re pumped full of radical feminist hatred?

 

[Brictoria]

I found this video interesting, regarding the direction various movies\TV shows\etc. have been going recently.

 

[Shadow Reaper]

Well said.

 

[Lorddarthvik]

#kickvee!!!
My mortal enemy! Well, according to history books and actually far right extremist nationalists at least.

Jokes aside he does have some good or rather slightly different and thus interesting takes on media. Shame about his stance on SC though. He is a firm believer that we are all the stupidest suckers the universe has ever seen. He was nice enough to have a chat with me about it and while I do understand where he is coming from and what he is saying is valid up to a point, he will still owe me a 1000bucks when SC finally releases in 2025.. 26..27.....

The shit show surrounding Snow brown and diverse cast of anything but dwarves, who are apperently rogues, is ramping up to the levels where Disney should just scrap the whole project, like that other company did with the Batgirl movie. Or was it a new catwomen? Can't even remember. And that's the point. It's fallen out of the public conscience so fast that it doesn't even matter that it existed, thus it can't do any damage.
Disney should learn from that, especially now that they are bing sued for misrepresenting profits and hoarding the cash to bolster their failing streaming service.

 

[Shadow Reaper]

If we could but convince them to leave Acolyte in the can and the Jedi tradition unmolested. Ah. . .Hollywood.

 

[Dirtbag_Leader]

Posting here cause this is probably the most appropriate thread for it. Just finished Season 2 of Wheel of Time and I'm am extremely impressed with how much Amazon managed to step it up from Season 1! While easily better than RoP (yeah, doesn't say much), S1 was par-for-the-course-not-that-great and even with tempered expectations not what I was hoping for. Yet somehow with everything else stuck in a persistent backwards slide (Witcher, Star Wars, Marvel, etc.), I was quite taken aback but not only how much of an improvement S2 was, but also - finally - how much I genuinely enjoyed watching a big-budget series for the first time in quite a while!

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

I've been thinking about this for a while and have had a thought today when the following movie popped into my mind:

The Song Of The South (1946)

Movies can be products of their time but what if today they aren't being made just for us, but also as texts which are intended to last the test of time and while not being astounding box office successes are being designed not to damage the reputation of the company making them, going forward into the future?

Once upon a time a there was a movie I can't find anywhere any more called The Song Of The South. Uncle Ramus, Br'er Rabbet etc. To 6 year old me it was just a cartoon film with bits that had people in and it was definitely a product of its era but...

Song of the South came out in 1946. (worth noting even in '46 it did cause some cinemas to be picketed)
US segregation with the ending of the Jim Crow laws ended in 1964.
Apartheid was ended in Africa in 1991.

The word definitely isn't the same place it was when that movie was made and as society has progressed, attitudes, and laws, changed and The Song Of The South's theme, setting and tone sit out of joint with society as it exists today. I'm guessing most of the people who would have been alive in '46 and old enough to remember watching the original release will be in their 80's by now if not many of them being gone already... I saw a VHS copy in the 80's, the last time it was released.

So perhaps part of the consideration for making socially aware content in the 2020's is not necessarily that it'll be a sure-fire box-office smash today but that it won't smash the studios reputation and standing X amount of years in the future?

 

[Shadow Reaper]

There’s little doubt that woke advocates believe they’re “on the right side of history “. Thing is so do all but their most extreme opponents. Historians will note that the woke confusion elevating equality of outcome above freedom, responsibility, equality of opportunity and in general, a realist world view that values private property, truth, honesty, hard work, etc. . .woke hates all this stuff of Western Civilization. . .the woke exhalation has been tried before and always fails because at its core it is perverse. It is a perversion to set aside things like truth.

Woke, transthisandthat, social justice are all like shock therapy and labatomies. They seemed right for a while until we discovered we were insane to ever so indulge, and should have known better.

So yeah. Movies made with people all pretending a guy in the room is a girl are going to be an embarrassment for decades. There’s no way around this. Disney is going to cringe when they start to see what history makes of all their finely forced idol worship.

 

[Aramsolari]

Posting here cause this is probably the most appropriate thread for it. Just finished Season 2 of Wheel of Time and I'm am extremely impressed with how much Amazon managed to step it up from Season 1! While easily better than RoP (yeah, doesn't say much), S1 was par-for-the-course-not-that-great and even with tempered expectations not what I was hoping for. Yet somehow with everything else stuck in a persistent backwards slide (Witcher, Star Wars, Marvel, etc.), I was quite taken aback but not only how much of an improvement S2 was, but also - finally - how much I genuinely enjoyed watching a big-budget series for the first time in quite a while!

This.

The missus and I just finished Season 2 of the Wheel of Time as well. Pleasantly surprised since Season 1 was kind of a hot mess. The actor who plays Rand is a lot better in Season 2 for one. In Season 1 he had the charisma of a man who enjoys watching wet blankets dry.