I wish Mike Judge made a show about FTX and crypto. :) that would be hilarious.
I disagree, I feel like its the same as all the rest but the writers in the board meetings are like.. We need to make Star Wars for 25-40 year old men to feel like adults watching it.
> slow burn
planned that way not because it is a slow burn high pay off scenario. But because it is planned to drag on so you just keep watching it consistently. Most of these garbage shows in the last 5 years or so have embraced this 'pseudo-slowburn' style to make baby men feel more sophisticated while hooking them into consistently watching.
I feel like the writers and decision makers saw all the funko pop marvel watching 30 year open mouth beard consumers and wanted to 'blow their minds' with 'slowburn' to remind them that consuming childrens movies are actually sophisticated and adult
No one said anything about blowing minds.
>But because it is planned to drag on
Unfortunately all shows are infected with this garbage. You end up grading this stuff relatively on a spectrum (“don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good” etc) . This the “ads” of the streaming era. It is so ubiquitous people either build a tolerance, tune-out during the interval, or stop watching tv all together in protest.
>to make baby men feel more sophisticated while hooking them into consistently watching
A more sophisticated show with better writing and actors would indeed make people feel more sophisticated…yes. If, to take another example, somebody pitched me “Better Call Saul, but in space,” I’d probably watch that as well. Frankly, Dune is more a children’s movie than Andor, so you might as well say that 25-40 year olds have no business amusing themselves with science fantasy or sci-fi at all.
The litmus test for this seems to be: Make the exact same scifi show (space etc) but without the Star Wars branding. Will it be considered a children’s move? My answer in this case, no. Will it still be decent? Yes it would.
Mandalorian, Boba Fett, Obi-Wan are all magnitudes more juvenile than this attempt.
A quasi-spoiler perhaps, but I personally find it hilarious that a subplot involves a workers revolt in what could be a Tesla gigafactory 20 years from now…in a tv show produced by Disney.
The thing about Andor is that the Star Wars setting is entirely unnecessary. That series could be set anywhere; the setting is just a cash grab.
Except it would need to compete on a different field, and wouldn’t fare as well.
"A bunch of bothans died to bring us this intel" is literally a more compelling story than rogue one.
Does Andor break that formula? Does it paint the empire / the rebels in a less cartoonish light than other star wars?
Also, in the episode where she and Mando are (kidnapped/stowaway whatever, can't quite remember) on the Imperial shuttle. The Imperial pilot makes it clear that his hatred of the rebellion is deep, personal, and 'moral'. "Do you have any idea how many millions of people were on that battle station?" Not that he has exactly seized the moral high ground, working for the Empire, but I definitely saw that as a "rebellion ~ al Qaeda" moment.
Yes. One of the main themes of Andor is showing all the downright 'evil' stuff you have to do to successfully lead a 'good' rebellion.
Some characters were well written, others were pretty much a excuse for racism.
Imagine a second coming of Erlich Bachman as a crypto bro. Who would not wanna watch this? For the feminists out there, there's emancipated miss Ellison.
All the things we grew up loving were once original stories, and I would love to see more new original content rather than this machine that "efficiently" churns out smoothed over copies of the same hits from last year.
Gilfoyle being a grumpy sysadmin is probably an accurate depiction of a sysadmin. They're all grumpy.
(I think neither are offensive btw, I didn't take jian yang as a representative for Chinese people)
Not defending him, but Gilfoyle was foreign as well? I've known plenty of people like that, and they are just pricks.
But the behavior is also just plainly sexist. The implication of racism is just extra bad.
Dinesh gets it the most because he has the most interactions. Of course it could just be racism, veiled as general cuntishness.
Long term? Impossible to tell. If you'd asked anyone 20 years ago what Disney would look like today, nobody could've imagined Marvel or Star Wars being the way they are, both under the Disney umbrella. And with streaming to boot.
The good news for iger is that the bar is set low. He could bring back fast pass or the magical express and roll back some of the planned costs increases and the fans will love them for it.
Disney does also risk the Netflix too much crap not enough content problem as well. Marvel has lost its cultural relevance for some of its core audience with the end of the infinity war saga. Everything since it’s been a mess.
As a sidenote, Disney just bought the biggest cruise ship ever built for the Asian market. I suspect interesting things are afoot there.
It reminds me a bit of KFC, which for a variety of reasons has left it's North-American presence to flounder while focusing on the rest of the world and Asia in particular. This has been effective so far thanks to their existing scale and being one of the first fried chicken joint to enter the market, but has gone on other domestic and local brands have entered. I have to wonder if Disney is maybe 10 years earlier on this curve and is starting to cash out on NA to some extent.
Also as a point of pedantry the Global Dream was intended to be the largest ship by passenger count at 9000, but is being scaled back to 6000 by Disney. By tonnage it will 7th, close behind Royal Caribbean's Oasis class ships and MSC's new world class so while it is quite large, the industry in general seems to be moving that way also.
https://robbreport.com/motors/marine/disney-global-dream-sev...
Shanghai and Hong Kong Disney are also being held hostage to the Chinese communists and their covid and anti-western policies. The contract with the oriental land company is very limiting on Disney.
I suspect we would see expansion in Brazil before anything else at this point
https://www.disneytouristblog.com/walt-disney-studios-park-p...
Entertainment lost something when it just became “content.” Bragging that you are excellent at churning out “content” is not something I would be proud of. Are you good at churning out movies that are original, interesting, unique, and creative? Or are you good at producing a dozen Marvel spin-offs and various movie sequels?
Disney was quite early in MMPORG scene, with their online game Toontown (which was sunset a couple of years ago).
There was a more recent example with a scene in "Wreck-it Ralph 2" that showcased a Disney metaverse. Furthermore, Disney did collaborate with Skylanders. Perhaps expand on that?
I don't think that's true. They had their own toys-to-life game called Disney Infinity.
A friend of mine regularly compares Quentin Tarantino’s early movies to today’s mass produced boredom. Calling it MBA filmmaking. It reminds me of an industry running on Amazon’s recommendation engine, only making derivatives of existing successes.
Duh.. Duh.. Dih dih dir! Dir Di dih dih dir dir du du duh! - Star Trek - Next Gen
It does not have to be original. And I don't mean only the intro but the entire soundtrack. Often, the theme song is reused over and over during the film with many variations to set the tone of a scene.
Bad movies skimp on soundtracks.
You could argue the indie scene is similar to the startup scene in SV. You have investors/producers pretty much funding these films based on team/talent and a pitch alone, with the festival circuit (could be considered an analog to SV demo-days or investor powows) essentially serving as a way to get bought by big studios for potential wide release, limited-release runs (which can still make a lot of money for those involved), or teams hired/screenplays bought and adapted by other studios. You can even make it big right out of college (or in college) [1] with little-to-no connections, though of course even more-so than SV a name and pedigree gets you further faster.
There’s so much in LA (and NYC) that gets released in theaters only locally, and the city is better for it. It’s the wide-release that, almost by definition, must serve lowest common denominator in order to make its 8/9-figure budget back in a span of months (tech companies get years!!). It’s sad that SF and LA, so close geographically, have industries so socially polarized to each other in every way, since there’s really a lot of overlap when you get down to it (and each industry could definitely learn things from the other)
[1] https://variety.com/2022/film/news/apple-cha-cha-real-smooth...
There are arthouse movie theaters throughout that play the same movies that you think are only locally shown in LA/NYC. You just need the right context (near a university, for example).
Am I wrong about this? Anything I'm missing?
It’s just a sci fi show set in that universe, that’s the way I see it. Takes the universe seriously, sets down rules for how it could work and it operates within that space.
But it’s better written, acted and art directed than most TV I’ve ever seen.
Id rank it as high or higher than Chernobyl. I’d say it’s must see TV.
But I understand your point— mid-budget studio movies (romcoms especially) have been hit the hardest by the pivot to Marvel mania and cinematic universes. Unfortunately that’s as much because of audience preference as it is studios.
I think the big thing is the financial risk of committing to a series, but it seems like if you take the films one at a time, you get to see how the last one is doing before you get too far along making the next one. Can't be that much worse than making everything a one-off.
They spent probably less than $5M total on the 3 movies (and filmed all at once), and the first two have already brought in $25M at the box office. A pretty good indie success story.
But then theres also the insidious observation. My generation are now senior writers and also the majority of the audience and between us is as much creativity as a fart.
Even movies like Big Trouble in Little Chinatown or Predator, while not necessarily having plots worthy of the next Great American Novel, at least had interesting memorable ideas.
As a discovery mechanism, I'd recommend following Vyce Victus[3], who writes reasonably well about action movies.
[1] https://letterboxd.com/journal/direct-action-scott-adkins-dtv-film-evolution/
[2] https://www.rogerebert.com/features/the-real-vulgar-auteurs-three-great-directors-of-direct-to-video-films
[3] https://letterboxd.com/vycevictus/I showed my 12 year old son Die Hard for the first time the other day.
He absolutely (...) loved it.
Unprompted, he talked about how good all the effects were - they didn't look like the bland CGI he is used to.
And he absolutely loved the movie. Zero political correctness. So incredibly liberating.
(A few scenes had me question the parenting choice of showing DH to a 12 year old, but it'd been at least a decade since I saw it last).
Plus DieHard is one of the best movies ever made!
(Have an 8th so not reached that stage myself yet)
All the best for the journey ahead!
Also "we'll travel to the FAR FUTURE" being when they were two years old has to be amusing (and sobering, to us olds).
Next watch Aliens (the second one) together and you are gold.
Aliens: My son suffered from night terrors in the not too distant past - I'd rather not reboot those just yet! :) (Would have to watch them in order, and the first is absolutely terrifying).
Will do them when he's 14.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven_Basic_Plots
That being said, I just saw Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. I thought it dealt with personal issues very well. She Hulk as much as it was derided, was also a different type of MCU show and it was self aware enough to know that Marvel had gotten too formulaic.
Which is great, for those who like his particular films. But there are literally thousands of other filmmakers making films every year who don't attract the kind of attention Tarantino does. His films aren't better than theirs -- he's just famous enough that we've all heard of him, and he continues to produce exactly the kinds of thing that you specifically like.
There are tons of things to dig into if you want. Netflix does a better job than most of surfacing small filmmakers (because they can get them cheaply). Film festivals have even more -- more than you can possibly watch in ten lifetimes. Most of it, of course, is dreck -- same as everything else.
I'm glad your friend likes Tarantino, but it just feels a bit like saying, "Gosh, I wish they made more stuff like Tarantino." What I want is an alternative to both Tarantino and the major studios -- and it exists. It just takes more effort.
And also the other big development is that they have lost the Chinese box office marker, though this seems largely out of their control as China is an aggressive geopolitical adversary of the US and is also strictly against LGBTQ representation, and Marvel is (rightfully so) not budging on the edits suggested by Chinese censors.
And then there’s also the case for superhero fatigue, and I am saying this as a fan of most of these movies, (I watched most of their previous movies during high school and college almost religiously), but the amount of content they dumped on Disney+ which was of varying quality was too much for me to really watch. I skipped half their shows and most of their movies (waited for Disney+ for most of the movies except for Spider-Man and BP2). I genuinely don’t feel interested in most of their upcoming lineup, except maybe GoTG 3 and Captain America 4 (if it’s any good). I might be speaking for only myself here, but I potentially see that happening more so in future with general audiences.
I'm confident you're actually behind the curve here. The term 'capeshit' has been around for years to express annoyance with the oversaturation of the market with superhero content.
Considering that Marvel movies are not making “all of the money” and are instead making “most of the money” in the eyes of its investors, they may be thinking that the head winds are changing and might want to forestall such a thing.
Of course, there were other reasons that Chapel may have been sacked as well, such as the “Dont say Gay” bill fiasco, as well as having lost their tax free status in Florida,the Mulan controversy, the previously mentioned issues at Marvel, alienating creatives (including publicly fighting one of its biggest stars),underwhelming Star Wars and Disney movies and shows, (possibly) losing the streaming rights for the IPL in India (cause Hotstar in India had a decent chunk of the streaming market in India cause of it).
https://www.boxofficemojo.com/year/world/
4 of the top 10 grossing movies of 2022 are super hero movies. Black Adam is #12
I think Disney got soured off of gaming when the fan and critical response was so harsh against Battlefront 2. They tried microtransactions and ended up going down as the most downvoted comment in reddit history.[1]
[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWarsBattlefront/comments/7cff0b...
In other words, they have distorted the market because over-capacity should let prices fall.
But even if they keep their prices, cash doesn't have to be the limiting factor. The available cash is not fixed. If they spend their income instantly, 'new' cash is available to the market, and Disney can sell more entertainment.
>So the question is, once your corporate mega machine has become this efficient what do you even do next?
Expand to other markets. They know everything about human perception. They can leverage that to make more games or VR applications. They can build better education platforms or even create new cities. They could even try to convince Apple, Amazon and Google to open up the declining personal assistant market [1].
However, stable diffusion threatens their position. Who needs Disney's capacities if other algorithms can do it better? Disney will have to enter the AI race and spend all their money on developers and researchers. Unfortunately for them, they haven't used the last 20 years to create something like an online Cinderella university to globally identify young geniuses and funnel them into their company.
[1] Amazon Is Gutting Its Voice-Assistant Alexa
An extremely well-oiled movie-making machine is not a good games-making machine, VR or not.
And while there may be some cross-over with game-making, there is certainly no cross-over with voice assistants, where did you even think of that? Home assistants don't actually assist you in the home, they are mostly a device you buy to serve you ads (and occasionally switch the music when your hands are dirty).
> However, stable diffusion threatens their position. Who needs Disney's capacities if other algorithms can do it better? Disney will have to enter the AI race and spend all their money on developers and researchers.
You really don't understand the AAA movie business if you think Stable Diffusion is anywhere near threatening Disney.
They just explained that they've gotten so good at making blockbusters, they don't have enough clients for how many blockbusters they can make. Even if Stable Diffusion was any good at making AAA movies (they're a few decades away from that), someone trying to use it to compete with Disney would quickly find they have no power whatsoever to actually market their movies - that is where Disney truly shines.
And it's not about movie posters and reviews, marketing in the business is greatly tied to creating stars. People arent just coming to see Iron Man, they're coming to see Robert Downey Jr, or Chriss Pratt etc. AI-generated movies have no hope to compete with the marketing power of a big-name celebrity.
>there is certainly no cross-over with voice assistants, where did you even think of that?
Disney Land is a beautiful environment where the technical details are hidden. That's what they can replicate with assistants outside their parks.
>Home assistants don't actually assist you in the home
That's the point. Unlike Amazon, who hasn't managed to integrate their home automation with Alexa (see comments in [1]), Disney could approach assistants more holistically like they approach their parks and create a blissful experience of their clients' lives.
Voice assistants are voice assistants because the system doesn't know position, movement and other signals yet. People trust Disney so they can collect all data to react to movements or whatever else is possible.
Additionally, they are skilled in stories, in decision-making. Right now, assistants are servants who fulfill commands. A good assistant supports beyond that. The system has to know what people care about, what moves them, to turn their complex life into a linear, beautiful story.
But the world doesn't have will to look at it.
However, and this statement is made with no actual knowledge of the economics of Disney content creation budgets, but I like to imagine that one positive thing that comes from the monetary success of the Marvel movies is the Pixar Shorts that are being made for Disney+ .
If you haven't seen them I recommend them. They are these original ~4 minute short films that are pet-projects by various creatives working at Disney/Pixar. The shorts include a small interview from the creator where they discuss their inspiration and the fun they had working on the project.
I remember a line from the Daily Show when it was still Craig Kilborn. The show had just gotten a nice newly renovated set, and Kilborn thanked South Park for the money to pay for it.
I suspect (again with no real knowledge) that the Pixar Shorts are financed from the success of the Marvel movies. Or maybe it's just Disney+ subscriber fees.
The Disney shorts are a good suggestion. I will track them down. Thanks.
But the shorts took me by surprise. They were so deep, content packed, and beautiful. I sat and watched them all with my daughter, by accident really - both of us completely silent just watching, one after the other. A couple made us choke up, at different points. Probably the most beautiful television I've ever seen.
I'd probably pay megabucks to watch such a collection of shorts on the big screen, and that's from someone who hasn't been to the theatre in a decade.
It's remarkable that the most controversial thing disney has done in decades is making main characters not white.
For example, in star wars, instead of doing something interesting or different, they just magicked the "first order" or whatever into existence so they could have big bad empire again, before eventually just saying "fuck it palpatine is back". They also took a back story that was left untold (getting the death star plans), rejected the expanded universe version that was about a usually ignored population having a big impact and sacrificing much for the good of the universe, and replaced it with a super generic "one important ideologically pure character plus one clearly ideologically evil villain" story with basic action.
Meanwhile in the marvel universe, they've adapted the comic book tactic of saying "multiverse and time travel and alternate realities exist" because then they can keep using popular avatar characters. This of course also means nothing freaking matters, because you can literally retcon in universe. It's so boring, nothing matters.
While I agree with everything you said as such, the Andor TV show (and Rogue One to lesser extent) indicates that they are at least capable of doing interesting things in the Star Wars universe, beyond Good space wizard vs Evil space wizard. I fear however that most fans don't actually want that and that Andor will be an aberration.
Kids will, if left to their own devices, watch the same movie over and over again (my VHS copy of Land Before Time just about wore out by the time I was 6). Producers realize this, so they just reshuffle the same story over and over again and sell it to them, over, and over, and over again. Adults tend not to be quite so easy to amuse.
Bonus woke points if they imply that K.E.V.I.N. is a sexist AI made by SV techbros that’s sabotaging She-Hulk’s series.
https://www.cbr.com/she-hulk-wanted-kevin-feige-cameo-mcu-bo...
You can imagine how pleased he was with any of the K.E.V.I.N stuff in the show at all.. or the show itself.
Although it would be hilarious if they just started releasing a new superhero movie every week. The Marvel universe is pretty deep.
So the question is, once your corporate mega machine has become this efficient what do you even do next?