There Are So Many Reasons Movies Are Terrrible But This Is One of Them

They all feel the same, under the surface, because they’re all constructed the same way under the surface.

There’s been a lot of complaints about this trend lately. It’s accelerated in the past ten years. Sure, after the huge success of Jaws and Star Wars, a blockbuster mentality took over at Hollywood, which meant that most movies were built to appeal to the largest possible audience; and that means that very little interesting parts were allowed, because the largest possible audience includes a lot of idiots.

But now it’s just gotten obnoxious.

I’m not saying blockbusters are bad– I love them myself. And you can write a very witty, great blockbuster. Still, you are constrained by the basic formula of What Must Happen and When, and so there’s a lack of surprise in this sort of movie. And you’re constrained by the fact that even while you’re permitted to include some Smart Stuff in your script, it still must be the sort of thing an Idiot can basically grasp, or at least be so brief that the Idiot won’t be bored by it for too long.

Steven Spielberg was just complaining that Hollywood is essentially dying due to this; Steven Sonderbergh has announced he’s quitting movies to direct only for TV, where not everything has to be made for the Largest Possible Audience.