Obviously, there are many things wrong with the modern audience, but I wanted to focus on a couple of things.
Firstly, when I say the ‘modern audience’, I’m not talking about the third-wave feminists that don’t go and watch movies, then blame men when the movies fail. That’s another can of worms, I’ll save it for another day.
I mean just the general, modern audience of cinema goers. Basically, anyone that was raised after the 80s. The younger generation that thinks all the modern movies are the best, and would never watch anything in black and white or pre-2000.
Now that I write this out, I realise I’m going to sound like a grumpy old sod. Well, I’ve started now, and I am a grumpy old sod.
New Ideas
When it comes to movies, I like to see something new. Give me an indie movie with an original idea over Friday the 13th Part 27: Jason goes to College. This is why I like to big up indie movies, as they are usually original IPs.
The downside of the modern audience these days is that they love things like Halloween Part 32: Michael Tries a Ski Mask.
As we know, nowadays, movies are mostly reboots, re-dos, and re-whatevers. It’s rare to get a new IPs; it’s just a new version of an old version of the same thing. This entire article came to me because of a new Evil Dead movie.
Personally, I don’t think it’s an Evil Dead movie at all! It’s another horror movie, with the name slapped on it. Much like the Rosemary’s Baby prequel, or The First Omen, or any of the other movies you can think of that are just cheesy re-dos of the original.
One of the downsides of the modern audience is that they seem to love these movies. So, they put bums on seats, the movies make millions, and the studios think they need to make another one.
The more you add to something, the less special it becomes. Kids today will never know what it was like to watch Evil Dead 2 on a dodgy VHS, late one night. It was all original to us, and it holds memories we’ll never forget. Movies like Evil Dead Burn are just another piece of content to consume; it’s not the same.
Social Mental
As we know: All social media is brain cancer on society. However, we cannot help but read it, comment on it, and generally share our thoughts. Sadly, this is true of everyone; the internet has given a voice to the village idiot.
What really gets my goat, though, is how people cannot seem to have a civil discussion about movies anymore. Sure, when I was growing up, there would be the debate about which is better, Star Wars or Star Trek.
As we know, our own Drunken Yoda is known to have a mild liking for Star Trek. I, on the other hand, am more of a Star Wars fan. This is fine; in fact, in many live streams, Yoda and I have had some interesting discussions about both. After all, we’re both mature adults, although he can be a bit of a stinky-poo poo head at times.
Many times, here on the Last Movie Outpost, we have had animated discussions about movies. Most of the time, they are handled in a good way, with mutual respect and, even though there are disagreements, most part ways respecting the other’s opinion. On social media, mainly Twitter, though, most disagreements are very different.
This movie is the worst piece of crap I’ve ever seen in my life!
This is the greatest movie I’ve ever seen in my life!
It usually ends with:
If you don’t agree with me, you’re a douche bag (insert joke about the size of the other person’s mother here).
It’s very rare to get a decent discussion going, allowing people to have an intellectual argument about what movies they like or don’t like.
Stans
Then you get people who are stans about certain movies. In fact, they have ‘fan account’ written on their profile. With these people, they are so into a certain movie or star, they will die on a hill about it.
There’s one guy I know that’s been banging on about The Mandalorian & Grogu. I genuinely feel sorry for him, as he was backing a losing horse from the start. However, to him, The Mandalorian & Grogu is the greatest movie of all time, and you’re a bell end if you disagree.
I think it was Einstein that said: “The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.” At one point, I thought that The Phantom Menace was the greatest movie ever. Now, I’m a little older, and hopefully a little wiser, I now know it’s bloody awful.
I reviewed The Substance when it came out, and I loved it. Someone in the comments pointed out that the story didn’t make any sense; of course Moore was jealous of Qualley in the movie. They had no overlap, and it wasn’t a ‘younger, better version of yourself’; it was a completely different person.
It annoyed me that the person was right, but they were right. The story made zero sense; I didn’t like it, but I had my mind changed.
The modern audience gets one thing in their minds, and you can present all the facts and arguments you like; they are right, and you are wrong.
Do Not Engage, Repeat, Do Not Engage
I guess my point here is that engaging with the modern audience just isn’t worth the effort. No matter how right you might think you are, to them, you’re wrong.
It would be nice to convince people not to watch the new Evil Dead, which they didn’t, and it didn’t do well at the box office and headed straight to digital. Hopefully this will mean the end of them, but then, we know it won’t. There’s more money to be squeezed out of it.
Like with the Scream movies, it’s another franchise that’s been flogged to death, but there are diehard fans out there that just want to see more of them.
We live in the worst time for movies, not just what we watch, but the ‘fans’ that we have to deal with. The modern audience isn’t going to go away.
Rant over.
