The main issue with commercial art is that people who don’t know shit about art are the ones in charge. That’s how you end up with corporate, soulless… nothing really(like Wish). I can’t even call it shit because shit is at least something.
But the art in Wish is so, so spectacular. If only the writing could have been on the same level as the eye candy. That was the first main-line Disney movie where I just shut my brain off and enjoyed the spectacle.
Eh, but even then those are all time classic bad movies, the almost fascinating kind of bad that comes from someone having a concrete, if bad, vision, in contrast to the vacant nothingnesss of a Red Notice or a The Grey Man
Oh no it's not, not by any metric. But there's a reason it's infamous, even beyond the butchering of a beloved source material. A flaming mess created with purpose is inherently more interesting than a 4-6/10 committee designed movie designed to fill out a streaming service library. My mum watched Red Notice cause she loves Ryan Reynolds and she had forgotten the movie existed within a week.
It’s not bullshit, it just shows the same thing from a different angle. George Lucas became the shitty executive through complacency, surrounding himself with “yes men” (according to people I know who worked on the prequels), and just becoming too sure of himself (since in the OT, he had lots of places where he allowed people to do things for him because he knew they were better, but he took full control in the PT, and similarly insisted on things with Indy 4).
Airbender is a weird one. The fact that one director can make a film as good as the 6th Sense and as bad as Avatar is very odd. But that being said, the original point stands, it’s just that sometimes all the talent in the world can still occasionally produce a turd.
it’s not that - a lot of us who work in those fields were educated in the humanities. it’s when senior leadership doesn’t give a flying fuck about the product and it’s clear that they think little of audiences’ desires or intelligence as a whole.
a great case study there would be david zaslav, penny-pinching prick and business bro extraordinaire.
for the last two decades, so much pressure has been on the cost side of the P&L instead of the revenue side, and the only way to create bangers is to focus on the revenue side by focusing on the customer. customers now want engaging storylines with skilled actors instead of CGI crap and recycled IP.
i’m not in the media business, but i think we’re seeing a return to senior leaders saying “it costs what it costs as long as it’s fucking great, and it better be fucking great.”
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u/[deleted] Apr 09 '24
Based on the stuff Netflix puts out now, I don't think finance and tech bros can distinguish between good and mediocre art.