• jol@discuss.tchncs.de
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    21 hours ago

    Well, popular is not the same as good. Is Taylor Swift the best singer and composer in the world? (definitely not)

    I’m not saying the avatar movies are bad, but IMO there’s lots wrong with them story wise. Impressive visuals alone don’t make a film good.

    • RaoulDuke85@piefed.social
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      20 hours ago

      It’s like McDonalds vs a local restaurant. More people go to McDs, but I bet most local restaurants are way better.

      • jol@discuss.tchncs.de
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        20 hours ago

        The difference being that sadly people wouldn’t pay more to watch small scale film like they do with restaurants.

        • MotoAsh@piefed.social
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          19 hours ago

          Have you not been to McD’s in a few years? McD’s is the expensive option. People pay for familiarity, because they’re dumb lazy slobs.

            • MotoAsh@piefed.social
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              16 hours ago

              The option that’s more expensive than the other.

              Sure, they’re not priced like a Michelin Starred restaurant. Sure a few sitdown restaurants have also raised their prices (especially popular chains), but the comparison is McD’s vs “another local burger joint”. While Five Guys and Red Robin might not be cheaper than McD’s, they’re also not a local burger joint!

              I’d also argue they’re not trying to compete with McD’s, while McD’s is competing with them on price.

    • Nollij@sopuli.xyz
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      16 hours ago

      The term “best” is extremely vague. How does one define the “best” anything? There are countless possible options, some of which would absolutely put Taylor as the best. There are also many that wouldn’t, some even putting her near the bottom.

      Avatar was, and always has been, a movie about the visuals. It’s total eye-candy, meant to wow audiences. And if that’s how you define the “best” movie, it probably is.

      But it’s equally valid to define the best as being a total immersion, or drawing your emotions, or being convincing, or having an expansive story to tell. Especially on that last option, Avatar is pretty bad.

      Siskel and Ebert were well-known for their movie reviews. Typically, one hated it and the other loved it, and for different reasons. Their goal was to articulate this well enough that you, as a viewer, could determine if you would like the movie. Your “best” movie is unique to you.

    • Steve@communick.news
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      19 hours ago

      Story is literally the first, smallest, simpelest part of a movie. If that’s what you judge movies on, maybe you should read books instead.

      • jol@discuss.tchncs.de
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        19 hours ago

        How… What…? So you watch movies mostly because of the pretty pictures? Are you a toddler?

        • Steve@communick.news
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          19 hours ago

          For lots of reasons. I enjoy some movies for the story, others for the performances, a few for the world building, some for the concepts, occasionally for making me think about them weeks later, sometimes for the cozy mindless sweetness. And dozens more reasons. I can find reasons to appreciate nearly any movie.

          Saying that every movie needs to have this one thing to be good, is the definition of narrow minded.

          • scytale@piefed.zip
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            19 hours ago

            But the story/plot is what the movie bases its foundation on. A well written movie with bad CGI is better than a visually good movie with a bad story. IMO, yes you can enjoy a movie for specific reasons, but the core story should be at least good for me to like it. Just my opinion of course.

            • Steve@communick.news
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              18 hours ago

              There are great movies that can’t even be said to have an actual story at all. Just a collection of scenes that hopefully make you feel something.

              • scytale@piefed.zip
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                18 hours ago

                I would probably argue the collection of scenes tell a great story, which is why it’s good. Most Snyder films for example can be visually stunning without a lot of dialogue but the story is terrible that it takes away any enjoyment of the visuals.

                • Steve@communick.news
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                  18 hours ago

                  Dialog isn’t a requirement of a story. Good Boy has less than a dozen spoken lines in the movie, as it’s from a dogs perspective. But it also has a very clear story and plot. That’s not what I’m talking about. Check out some movies on this list.

                  • scytale@piefed.zip
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                    17 hours ago

                    That’s fair. Non-narrative films are a specific niche though, and specifically not having a story is their identity. You can’t judge a film for its story if there intentionally isn’t one.

                • Steve@communick.news
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                  18 hours ago

                  That’s probably 20% on the way to what I mean.
                  It still has a pretty clear describable naritive story. It doesn’t always make sense, and sometimes you don’t know what’s happening. Maybe yah. It’s less story than I remember.

          • jol@discuss.tchncs.de
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            17 hours ago

            Well, yeah. Avatar has to be good world building. But what’s the point if it wastes it on a mid story with bad plot?

            • Steve@communick.news
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              16 hours ago

              World building isn’t enough on its own? You can’t just put on the movie and hang out in this place for a while?

              • Zahille7@lemmy.world
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                16 hours ago

                Apparently not. People here act all high and mighty when it comes to movies doing well with general audiences. Watch, in just a couple years we’ll get posts on Lemmy saying “the Avatar movies were actually pretty good, I don’t understand the hate” just like on reddit.

                This community is turning into r/movies every goddamn day, where any time someone posts an article or something about a popular movie most of the community feels the need to jump on a hate bandwagon and act like their own farts are better moviegoing experiences.

      • jol@discuss.tchncs.de
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        20 hours ago

        I think you need to take a break from the Internet for today my friend. I have my opinions. There’s no need to come all rabid at me.

        But regardless, having lots of viewers is still not a measure of how goo a film is. Specially when the marketing budget for these movies is bugger than whole film festivals.

          • jol@discuss.tchncs.de
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            19 hours ago

            It’s obviously very subjective but there are definitely concrete measures. Is the writing good, consistent, believable in-universe? Is the acting good, authentic, believable, impactful? If the movie is not all CGI, is filming good? Does it look good or are all scenes deep fried?

            A mid movie that pleases the masses will always be more successful than a technically impressive but more niche movie that pushes the envelope.

            • IWW4@lemmy.zip
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              19 hours ago

              Everything you said is subjective. You used a lot of words to say the same thing I did. Your opinion.

                • IWW4@lemmy.zip
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                  13 hours ago

                  Yeah …When you grow up you will realize everyone has terrible tastes. Everyone enjoys bad music. Movies and books.

      • MotoAsh@piefed.social
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        19 hours ago

        There are many, many objective qualities to art.

        There are also many subjective qualities to art.

        The existence of one does not preclude the other.

          • MotoAsh@piefed.social
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            16 hours ago

            The Bechdel test.

            For a non joke answer, stories can objectively be written better than others. Like a story that actually uses Chekhov’s Gun correctly. Stories that don’t have massive actual plot holes (actual, not your dumb ass being confused or upset).

            Similarly, the art in a movie can have amazing technical achievement and yet still kinda’ be a shit movie qualitatively over all.

            For a specific example of something objectively bad… The sequel trilogy. More specifically, the blue tittymilk in TLJ. What goal did that scene serve? If the point wasn’t to jump the shark and make the audience squirm and/or laugh, it was an objectively bad decision to put that scene in, in the way they did.

            My car can be an objectively fine, functional car, but if I drive it off a boat ramp expecting it to float, I’ve made an objectively bad decision with an otherwise fine object. Art is much of the same. Bad art can be comprised of objectively good pieces, yet still get ruined by a bunch of decisions that are dumb and wrong and objectively bad for any practical goal any sane person would’ve had. Similarly, a movie could be written and edited expertly, but a bunch of shitty low budget sets could ruin it. Or inversely, a movie could be beautiful visually but written by a moronic toddler.

            When something has 100,000 better options out of 110,000 that are even possible, it was an objectively bad choice (unless nearly every possible choice was a good one, but let’s be real).

            Something can work and still be objectively worse than something else. Art does not only need to entertain to be quality. To think as much is to wholly and completely fail to understand art, expression, and criticism as concepts.

        • IWW4@lemmy.zip
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          20 hours ago

          Yes… In many ways. Let me know if you would like to hear some.

            • IWW4@lemmy.zip
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              3 hours ago

              Ernest goes to jail has 11% on RT

              Shawshank has 89% on RT

              EGTJ Was directed by John Cherry

              SR Was directed by Frank Darabont

              EGTJ is 88 minutes long

              SR is 222 minutes long

              Both movies were flops