Weekend Actuals (Page 80) | Black Panther 111.7M | Game Night 17M | Peter Rabbit 12.8M | Annihilation 11.1M | Fifty Shades Freed 7.1M | Jumanji 5.7M

[LaughingEvans]

3 minutes ago, RRA said:

I love his work (well most of it) but fandom trying to be pretentious about his work grinds my gears. 

 

(I would say Cameron and top-tier MCU are "cookie cuttter" in that they're top of the line cookie cutting as populist filmmaking goes.)

 

What I mean by cookie cutter is that they're not ground-breaking in terms of artistic merit. Best ground-breaking feat that Cameron has is a technical one, and that turns out to be a fad as it's becoming less and less popular, rather than taking over the industry.

 

 

[grey ghost]

1 minute ago, Rebeccas said:

There's only two movies.... lol

And phase 3 is MCU with the kinks mostly worked out.

 

 

[Rebeccas]

1 minute ago, grey ghost said:

 

 

Nailed it.

 

Marvel Studios and Cameron are experts at engineering winning formulas.

 

But, as you said, both are guilty of populist filmmaking.

 

 

Yeah, there's nothing wrong with populist filmmaking. but Cameron's films aren't exactly complex or deep lol. Honestly, Nolan has the more intelligent while also populist filmography by far.

[grey ghost]

Just now, Rebeccas said:

Yeah, there's nothing wrong with populist filmmaking. but Cameron's films aren't exactly complex or deep lol. Honestly, Nolan has the more intelligent while also populist filmography by far.

I'd say Inception is Nolan's only incredibly sophisticated blockbuster.

 

TDK has the forced war on terror allegory and the "do good people exist" theme but MCU has explored equally heavy themes.

[HouseOfTheSun]

Nothing Like celebrating the achievements of a primary black cast making a record breaking movie about the African culture than obsessing over an old white guy

[MrGlass2]

37 minutes ago, grey ghost said:

Okay name a few 21st century action franchises with more critical acclaim.

 

I'll wait. 

 

Only Mad Max Fury Road and that was a one time thing.

LOTR (and it won a ton of those prestigious Oscars - as opposed to 0).

[Rebeccas]

2 minutes ago, grey ghost said:

I'd say Inception is Nolan's only incredibly sophisticated blockbuster.

 

TDK has the forced war on terror allegory and the "do good people exist" theme but MCU has explored equally heavy themes.

I'd consider Interstellar a strong attempt as well, although clearly mileage varies on how successful he was in the execution. Dunkirk isn't a typical blockbuster but it did blockbuster numbers for a film that's very atypical for its subject matter.

[grey ghost]

7 minutes ago, grey ghost said:

I'd say Inception is Nolan's only incredibly sophisticated blockbuster.

 

TDK has the forced war on terror allegory and the "do good people exist" theme but MCU has explored equally heavy themes.

To expand on this...

 

Iron Man trilogy: Military Industrial Complex critique

 

Captain America trilogy: Freedom vs Security debate

 

Thor Ragnarok: Immigration debate

 

Black Panther: Imperialism and Black Nationalism dissected.

 

 

Edited February 27, 2018 by grey ghost

[grey ghost]

2 minutes ago, MrGlass2 said:

LOTR (and it won a ton of those prestigious Oscars - as opposed to 0).

The fact that ROTK won Best Picture but TDK wasn't even nominated kinda destroys any geek cred the Academy might've had.

[Rebeccas]

1 minute ago, grey ghost said:

The fact that ROTK won Best Picture but TDK wasn't even nominated kinda destroys any geek cred the Academy might've had.

British literary classic vs. comic book adaptation.. pretty obvious for AMPAS I'd say.

 

If they had made the HP films later, I think they would've had a better Oscar record too. Not only because the membership is younger now, but literature just tends to gain much more prestige with time.

[Jake Gittes]

The Marvel movies don't explore or dissect anything as far as politics is concerned. They pay their themes lip service before solving all problems with the Power of Punching. 

[Lordmandeep]

Tha Acadamy in the past did usually show some love to the blockbusters of the year but it has become a more elitist and snobbish group and as a result less relevant and less important. 

[grey ghost]

16 minutes ago, Treeing Me Apart said:

Lord of the Rings?

Mission Impossible?

Planet of the Apes?

 

I already said I don't know their avg rating (ex. 7.7) on RT.

 

I feel like that would be a fair judge.

 

And I wish I had specified MCU phase 3 since they had to overcome a learning curve but some will say I'm moving the goal post.

[YM!]

2 minutes ago, Jake Gittes said:

The Marvel movies don't explore or dissect anything as far as politics is concerned. They pay their themes lip service before solving all problems with the Power of Punching. 

The only two that really dissected something was The Winter Solider and Black Panther.

[Rebeccas]

1 minute ago, Lordmandeep said:

Tha Acadamy in the past did usually show some love to the blockbusters of the year but it has become a more elitist and snobbish group and as a result less relevant and less important. 

Blockbusters and prestige dramas used to have a lot more crossover though. In the 70s, they were almost one and the same until Jaws/SW came along. Now there's a very strong demarcation between blockbuster movies and awards bait.

[grey ghost]

2 minutes ago, Jake Gittes said:

The Marvel movies don't explore or dissect anything as far as politics is concerned. They pay their themes lip service before solving all problems with the Power of Punching. 

This is a knee jerk response at best.

 

If you think movies like Iron Man 3, Winter Soldier and Black Panther don't explore U.S. policy in subversive, interesting and relevant ways then I'd wager you're not really paying attention to the subtext.

[Deja23]

6 minutes ago, Jake Gittes said:

The Marvel movies don't explore or dissect anything as far as politics is concerned. They pay their themes lip service before solving all problems with the Power of Punching. 

I think they do a better attempt at it than most superhero movies, but yeah, I agree with your overall point. They can’t escape from the 3rd act fist fight, which is fine since one of the reasons fans like them is for how comic book-y they are. Don’t blame them for sticking with what pleases the fans. 

[Rebeccas]

Movies that cost $200m don't really have the ability to be truly subversive though. It's usually a pretty cut and dry argument (military industrial complex - bad, imperialism - bad, greedy businessmen - bad, trees/nature - good) when you have that much money at stake.

[Lordmandeep]

8 minutes ago, Jake Gittes said:

The Marvel movies don't explore or dissect anything as far as politics is concerned. They pay their themes lip service before solving all problems with the Power of Punching. 

and a lot of awards films just throw in politics as bait. 

[titanic2187]

7 minutes ago, Lordmandeep said:

Tha Acadamy in the past did usually show some love to the blockbusters of the year but it has become a more elitist and snobbish group and as a result less relevant and less important. 

part of the reason but We can't entirely ignore that the fact of blockbuster nowadays are getting more and more chessy, dumb and insincere....and totally monies bait