15 years ago, I could not afford to buy everything I wanted on dvd. Theese days, I cant find anything I want to buy...

Simple: *They* hate you but want your money.

"Wanted to expand the fanbase to people beyond the fantasy fanbase" Like trying to sell cigarettes to non-smokers...

A combination of nepotism, ideology, fear and Twitter has murdered entertainment.

The people who were writing stories and creating new IPs in the 60s, 70s, and 80s were mostly men who had experienced the world before creating their great works. These were war veterans, race car drivers, working men, etc. So they brought their unique life experiences with them when creating new characters and worlds. The GenX filmmakers grew up watching the movies and television shows, or reading the comic books, created by those men and then went straight into making their own movies instead of experiencing life for themselves.. So most of the GenX guys' "creativity" is just reimagining or mashing-up other people's ideas. They don't have any original ideas of their own and they don't know how to craft a proper story, they just know how to get a reaction out of an audience. They remember something from an episode of a TV show and how it made them feel when they were kids and they craft their stories with the intent of recreating that feeling, regardless of how it affects the narrative. I'm sure Generation X had its George Lucas, or Stan Lee, or Gene Roddenberry; but those guys got overshadowed by snake-oil salesmen like JJ Abrams and Rian Johnson (who sure does get super defensive on Twitter for someone who claims that he wants half of his audience to hate his movies).

I knew a guy at Uni who was basically full of crap. All his fellow class mates of his year knew he was. His lecturers knew he was. His work was mediocre at best and I was told my work was way better than his. But he had a talent. He knew how to walk into a room and bullshit people into convincing them he was the man with the plan. Hence, why straight after Uni, he got to work at a bigger studio and found work straight away. Unlike me who still struggles to this day. The talent he had to sell "Viagra to nuns" is basically something that sums up why all these morons get these funding at big studios.

We’re ultimately dealing with a sterile, almost lab-like environment wherein Hollywood tries to artificially create hits by co-opting the work of more creative people. Either these people are out of their elements against their will, or they want to turn established things into dark reflections of themselves. Skilled, creative people will thrive even when out of the element or given less to work with (Beast Wars is a great example of that; as neither of the main writers for that show were Transformers writers). Corporations exist to manufacture; not create.

“And I told Rian, you have to think of the fans. And he said, ‘No, you have to think about the film.’” - Mark Hamill on a live panel, recounting his words to Rian Johnson, and Rian Johnson’s response. And then you watch Mark Hamill’s head drop down like he is about to be ill at Rian’s total lack of understanding of what Star Wars is about. And you hear the crowd cheer as Rian begins to babble about how wonderful The Last Jedi is. And the camera stays focused on Mark for a few seconds more ... on the one man who knew Luke Skywalker better than any of us because he WAS Luke Skywalker. And you see the pain that Mark Hamill feels and that he is warning all of us fans that TLJ will be so destructive to the fan base, the mythos, and to the actual intellectual property that is Star Wars. “I only want to make movies that half the viewers will like, and the other half of the viewers will hate.” - Rian Johnson And Kathleen Kennedy thinks Rian Johnson is awesome. Gives him his own trilogy for fucks sake! Corporate Hollywood knows NOTHING about Star Wars. Or how to make decent movies.

Could you ever imagine Ford or Lean or Capra or Wilder or Coppola or Spielberg or even Lucas saying, "I hope that half the audience hates my film." I don't understand the decisions being made in choosing the people that are making the decisions. You're absolutely correct in pointing out how against corporate interest that attitude ultimately is.

“Themes are for eighth-grade book reports” - David Benioff _[insert Picard facepalm meme here]_

7:00 i really wish they rebooted failed properties instead. Its much easier to fix what's broken then what's not.

The major malfunction is that they are not hiring competency but hiring ideology. It does not matter if you are the best person to do the job but the best person to inject the ideological belief into the work.

I'm born in 1974. I've grown up with al these great movies , Star Wars , Ghostbusters , Indiana Jones , you know the list. To me , al these Franchises will forever remain the Franchises from when i was a kid , when i loved them (and still love them). Franchises from the 70ies and /or 80ies. I couldn't care less about any modern adaptations , because i know they will inevitably fxck it up. Today's "creatives" are nihilistic , self absorbed , corporate stooges that haven't got the first clue at how to make a Great movie. I'll catch a modern remake or reboot or whatever when its on tv , and when i have some dead time on my hands at that moment. But i sure as hell will never , ever buy a theatre ticket to go see one ! Marvel aside (and i can't judge on that because i'm not a Marvel fan) i really think "The Golden age" was back when all these Franchises were actually born. Even if they somehow would improve , they will never ever be as good as the originals. So in the end...why even bother ?

It occurs to me that Gene Roddenberry sold Star Trek to the suits as a "space western", which at that time was the most mainstream genre, but he actually wanted to bring very sincere science fiction to television. You can debate how well he succeeded, but it was made out of a sincere love of the genre, that's a far cry from the cynical self-serving "geek chic" that's taken over entertainment today.

So many people need to watch this video!

No bashing, no slagging off just an honest opinion to the state of the modern film industry

Great video. One of the worst things is that there are VERY talented people that could make great original movies/shows, but they are ignored or their ideas get completely massacred by non-creatives. I used to work in the TV industry and it happened there too. It's sad and frustrating.

Absolutely spot on Michael. I thank God that I was a kid in the 70's, a teenager in the 80's, and a young adult in the 90's. People from my generation got the best of everything new and amazing... the movies, books, music, toys, hobbies, etc. And... we got the best of what the generations before handed down to us. The traditions of the past melded with the classics of the past made certain we were a more well rounded generation than the ones that followed. Shout out to Mr. Eriksson, my 5th grade teacher, for turning us on to JRR Tolkien, Estes Rockets, and The Beatles.

I'm picturing the scene in the board room at the movie studios looking something like the Simpsons episode "Itchy and Scratchy and Poochie" when the writer points out that the executives are using buzzwords like "paradigm" and "proactive" just to sound intelligent and important so he gets fired.

I've come to believe there are at least two types of people - people who can do things and people who are great bullshitters. For some reason, bullshitters seem to be more prevalent and they cling together and support one another.

I was speaking about this with a friend of mine the other day after Church. We're both religious Christians. Grew up on the entertainment of films and shows from the 70s, 80s, 90s, but I'd say I never limited my tastes to just then, however I really like it. He on the other hand prefers stuff from the past more than I do. So we're having this conversation, and he brought up a similar point about the nihilism point you brought. Just a heads up, we're not the kind of guys who believe in censorship so much or that the more non-religious themes in films are what's ruining cinema. From how he explained it, and how I understand it, he thinks that when a generation of people grow up with a faithless view of reality, where magic is fleeting, and the world is dark and grim because of world events and personal ones they've faced to solidify a faithless and nihilistic and cynical view of the world, then the wonders of fantasy and adventure and serialization that was popular from the 20th Century will not be suffice to them. To not believe in a Spirituality, whether your own or of a religion, then you lack the soul that goes into making art. And we've seen it today. We have people are technical and very exquisite as to how to point with a camera and capture visuals that do outdo some of the stuff made in the past, but that's like saying we admire a Computer Science student for knowing how to meddle with a computer. It's cool, sure, but he's basing it on how others do it. The real praise comes in what he does with those skills and techniques to advance the field of computer science or find a right combination of code that requires creativity to make something new or feel new. The same goes for everything else, including Cinema. Now I'm not saying you need to be Christian to appreciate art or create art. Many of the Silent Generation and Boomer Generation of Directors who made the movies we love were of other faiths or atheistic or agnostic. However, if you think its dumb to look at life from a beyond perspective, beyond you, me, or anyone else, then you're stuck on one side of the brain, and completely forgetting the other side you've got that can tell you so much more. I don't doubt these people are creative, but its creativity from a mindset to strip away the magic of simplicity, and basic explanations. The real world needs to understand the fabric of the universe, and we won't understand it all, but in fiction, you don't need to grasp everything and how everything works IF it is explained poorly and boring. Also, if your storytelling is about getting to points a, b, and c with barely any meat in between them ... then you're a material person. Material people make material products. The past decade of reboots and return to old franchises have been done like that.

"There is something about their inherent personalities that is toxic to these genre movies but is appealing to the people who green-light the projects. And so, we're in a perfect storm of dysfunction at this point." Michael, thank you for this video. It's really wonderful when someone else vocalises (brilliantly) what you've personally thought yourself. Cathartic and comforting. Thank you.

Yep, Star Wars lost me permanently after The Last Jedi + the way Lucasfilm has treated fans after the fact. Now they've lost me AND my 2 boys, who don't know anything about the ST. Oh well, saves me money!

Michael, first off thank you for your insightful comments. It is easy to see how if the current studio environment existed in the 70's, Star Wars would never had been made because it would have been too much of a gamble. The companies that own the studios now are more concerned with maximizing profit in the short term and that means going with intellectual property that has a built in fan base from which to build on. It means starting without a finished script in order to make a coveted release date that is tied in with millions in advertising and promotions. It means locking down designs for toys early enough to get in the stores before the Christmas holiday. The movie itself has become an afterthought in many ways now instead of the driving force it was when it was the only tickets the studios wanted to sell.

You know, when they made "The Wizard of Oz," "Citizen Kane," and "It's A Wonderful Life," or "The Sound of Music," "Psycho," and "Jaws," or "Star Wars," "The Terminator," and "Superman: The Movie," and even "The Mummy," "The Matrix," and "Forrest Gump," they didn't think - hey, we're making some of the greatest films ever made. They just did their job, making some entertainment they thought would entertain others; as well as themselves. They had fun, made mistakes, and tried as hard as they could. But most importantly of all, they respected the medium, respected the source material/concepts, and especially respected the audience. Now, Hollywood just wants to push out mediocre follow ups to proven franchises for quick cash grabs. And the directors/producers/actors aren't any better. The majority of them are perfectly content with making episode after episode, film after film, filling in their quota to make a cinematic universe, television season, or whatever - with only the bare minimum amount of creativity and effort - all just to sucker in mainstream audiences into watching season after season, film after film, just to get the bigger picture. I mean, you said it yourself in a previous video how movies used to actually have a beginning, middle, and end. A movie was a complete experience. Now it's just a thrown together puzzle piece akin to a cheap pencil. Once you've used it up, you just gotta get another... and another... and another. It's like Hollywood blockbusters have become a drug. It's unhealthy, your time would be spent better doing something else, but you've just gotta keep doing it. Well, I've stopped. Filmmaking's been around for well over 100 years now. Television a bit shorter, but certainly the better half of a century. There's hundreds if not thousands of undiscovered gems out there, and I'm much more content with checking them out for myself than sitting through any more of the current wave of boring and untalented. I'll go out and watch Star Wars when they actually start making good Star Wars films. I'll start watching Fantasy television when they actually make a show for Fantasy fans. The only way Hollywood listens is with their wallets. If you really want a change, you gotta hit em where it hurts. I'm not calling for a "boycott" here or anything. I'm just saying - you don't like, don't keep giving them your money and getting disappointed. There's better content out there. Heck, even content like this, RetroBlasting, is great! I'm just sorry for the kids, teens, and now young adults who've known nothing more than this. They don't know Star Wars like we do. And they might never will...

Remember when comics became really good in the mid to late 80s because people like Alan Moore and Frank Miller decided to make them more realistic? And how most creatives and especially management only saw the gore and grit and totally missed the characterization, nuance and reinvention of the genre? And how every fucking comic book in the early 90s (with a few exceptions obviously) became deliberately savage and mindless and irony-free, entirely missing the point? I think that's kind of what's happening to the film industry now. They've seen what works, but they don't understand why.

Well said, Michael! I agree wholeheartedly with every word. Two of my all-time favorite IPs, Star Trek and Star Wars, have been completely destroyed by these "filmmakers," and any amount of decent writing is nonexistent. Seems like no one cares about the source material anymore, or have any respect for what has been done in the past. It truly breaks my heart. That being said, I'm ever thankful for IPs like The Expanse, and The Orville!

I love this video. Alex Kurtzman is the single best example of Gen X losers falling up in Hollywood

That’s the one thing about my generation I could never stomach: the “too-cool-for-school” attitude. Everything has to be done with a wink-wink to ease all the basics, just so they don’t have to be embarrassed by liking Star Wars, Star Trek, etc.

1978 - Dick Donner had an essentially silly and kid friendly property, took it seriously, and made the world believe that a man could fly in blue tights. Was pulled off the sequel. 2000 - Bryan Singer is given control of one of the most versatile properties ever, down grades characterization, shifts focus from the team dynamic to one person, puts them in black leather to make characters with laser beam eyes & weather powers "more realistic", mocks the fan base for liking something so "silly". He gets overly praised for two, at best, average films because of one action sequence.

The one main thing I've learned from working nearly 25 years of my life is that almost no one knows what they hell they are doing. They just fake it til they make it. The ones that put all their resources into becoming great at faking it are the ones that rise to the top. Seems like the movie industry is no different.

I never would have thought when I was a kid that they would ruin all of my favorite fictions . They’ve managed to make Star Wars a bad joke , and Ridley Scott ruined ALIEN all by himself . It’s just sad . At this point I want a new I.P. but I’m not sure it’s possible after what happened to Game of Thrones

Excellent commentary. Glad you are speaking about this. Fandom is increasingly taking notice.

I'll just say this: Hollywood loves a sociopath.

"Steve Jobs was known to have agreed with the famous principle “A level people hire level A people, B level people hire C level people." So as a recruiting philosophy, Apple hires only A players. There are sound reasons why this principle is so effective. When searching for talented employees, B levael players are afraid to hire people that could be better than them. They feel threatened by anyone that could surpass them, so their thinking is better to raise themselves up by keeping other people down. A players understand the benefits of hiring A players from the beginning, and prefer working with other A players. They keep each other sharp, motivated, challenged and competitively engaged. A players can better recognize other A players. They understand how they work and how they’re motivated, making them easier to spot." Must be a bunch of "B levels" at the top making these hires, Michael.

I just want to say there aren't any words in the English language to describe how thankful we are of you for doing what you do with sincerity and integrity, Michael. It's a sad state of Hollywood indeed and I can't help but feel that my generation (gen-y) hasn't made things any better than the films passionless gen-x filmmakers you've mentioned in this video.

Thank you Mr and Mrs Retroblasting, I feel this might be your most important video to date about our current mediaculture and culture-creation. :)

It's so sad to think that the days of 70's and 80's Lucas and Spielberg are gone. By that I mean similar to what Michael had said; filmmakers who create their own new and original films, sure a lot of their work took inspiration from works of the past but they at the end of the day Star Wars and Raiders of the lost ark were still original films. My only hope can be that the next generation of filmmakers chose to be inspired by films of the past to make new ones instead of just remaking films that already worked

When I was a kid, I used to dream of filmmaking. These guys all seem like they were spoiled and just had to be filmmakers because they had inside influence from family or money. I wanted to make movies for people like myself and my friends. It seems to me if you make a film that is honest, honest in that you weren’t thinking about how much money you could make or how cool the people who will love it are, it could still suck, but at least it would be the movie that was true to a vision.

Very good observation. These directors have no real creative integrity and are hired because these companies don’t understand the properties they try to cash cow. These new iterations will not hold up in the ensuing decades unlike the original films.

Nowadays I find TV entertainment much more original and compelling than a trip to the movies.

On the nose, Michael. I don't care what the naysayers try to spin it as, what you've stated about the current environment in Hollywood is undeniable.

If everything tries to appeal to the same audience, everything will look the same. That's why most modern TV shows are soap operas, and most modern movies are action movies.

They seek to "grow the fanbase" by pandering to people who are not typical fans because to them, the "fanboy" money is a forgone conclusion. And to an extent, from what I've seen, it's true. There are plenty of people willing to slop up whatever swill is offered up as long as it has their favorite brand name on it. There's a word for this and every time I go to write it down, it flies right off the tip of my tongue and I just can't grasp it.

100% right I feel the same way

Bottom line is they are wanting young and "hip" directors to bring something flashy and exciting for a new generation. HOWEVER, that seems to be there only consideration and completely forgetting the mythology, and most importantly the characterization, established in the original trilogy.

This video is so important. The hundreds I’ve seen, you nailed it.

Thank you RetroBlasting 🔥🔥🔥🔥

By the time of Cleopatra, the Egyptians had forgotten how the pyramids were built. Likewise, no one in Hollywood seems to understand filmmaking, anymore. It's truly a pity.

Hey Gen z here, loved your talking points in this video. You just earned yourself a subscriber keep the videos coming!

Great video Michael, I'm almost giving up on movies and my new source of enjoyment is watching youtubers like you and toy polloi, analog toys and the junkman. These things entertain me. Keep up the good work!

i totally agree with your sentiments.The wrong type of directors for our movie's.We need genuine fans to make them

I have a theory why these hacks keep getting hired, and it has very little to do with whether or not they're the most qualified for the job.

"You know what I got for Christmas? I got a carton of cigarettes!" -John Bender

Great video Michael and spot on. PC culture is mostly what’s to blame. Pander to the minority so as to not “offend” anyone.

Brilliant and very well said, Totally agree the scene in Hollywood is messed up and everything they touch now is a poison chalice.

Spot on, Michael. These hacks and flim-flammers are just killing franchises for profit and fame, and the fat cats don't care, as long as they get their paycheck. Sad situation at best.

Nice breakdown man. I’ve been in Hollywood for a long time now fighting the fight. I’ve been in creative meetings at studios. Patted on the head and chuckled at for even suggesting something original. I remember how, at one point, everyone was like “find out what Pixar is doing” because they had 100 percent hits - that people also loved. But when the simple answer came back: “the artists are the bosses”... “screw that” was the reply. So, you’re spot on dude. It’s the usual narcissists who get into power and muck it for everyone else. I could write a book about it. Ha. But, I’m just gonna keep throwing myself at the wall instead:). Please keep up what you’re doing.

I think you hit the nail on the head when you said that good story writing is what's lacking in a lot of these films. We saw a similar thing happen to fine art in the late 90s. My opinion is that these artists lack the fundamental skills to make the art that we have become used to. It's not easy to do. It takes time, practice, and education. You don't just "become" a good story teller, or a great artist. These things take patience and dedication, and there is a slow growth toward mastery. A lot of the basic fundamentals are being lost in the educational system - art students are taught to paint what they "feel" in undergrad, instead of learning fundamentals like color theory, value, composition, figure drawing, perspective, etc. I imagine film schools are similar based on the results. What you end up with is a person who feels entitled, since they spent time in school, but perhaps doesn't even realize what they are missing. We can feel it though. Even the uneducated understand the difference between clear, direct communication and muddy, misunderstood or clumsy efforts to emulate something that was once clear, direct communication through whatever medium. I can hear people saying, "you don't need to know all the rules to make good art." True - you might get lucky once or twice, but eventually your weaknesses will show. You need to know all the rules in order to break them properly. Sorry for rambling- there are parallels here to painting, music, film, screenwriting, novelists, animation, you name it. It's all art, and art is a form of communication. You have to know how to communicate (the rules or the elements of your art form) in order to make that message clear, concise and poignant (a moving message that stays with us). So how do we get better? Learn, practice, research! Go back to the films that inspired Spielberg and the serials that inspired Lucas. Break them down and truly understand what is so compelling about them and how that translated into Star Wars and Indiana Jones, then break those films down into the basic story telling elements that made them great - I can tell you it has more to do with simple messaging than women in their underwear or fancy special effects. Thanks for the videos- really enjoy your content!

Creative people have been moved out of any decision making in Hollywood. And also pretty much of any other industry. Thats why there is dysfunction in the entire national and supranational economies...

You are spot on. There is definitely a formula for these directors. Also there is no appreciation for story telling or film history.

Astonishing and deep. Well done and excellent observation. You would never get this level of logic in Hollywood

OMG! I love this guy. I mean, I have loved this channel for a long time, but I was mentally screaming AMEN! though this video. Thank you. THANK YOU. Awesome video.

This was superb Michael. I could have watched a hour long of this. Bravo

these is GENIUS!.... thanks for these video... I will share it with ALL my friends.... your analysis its amazing!....

why do these people get directing jobs? simple one word: nepotism

As a man who spent 15 years in the corporate private sector, I can confirm.

"Nerd Culture" has been co-opted by people who do not understand the culture. When I was in HS it was nerdy to like Star Trek and collect EU Star Wars books. It did not win girls, or make you homecoming king. I got made fun of because I liked this stuff. Now, maybe because of the success of the MCU, I don't know, people think "being a nerd" is the in thing. But the problem is they are taking the superficial aspects of nerd culture and making that the substance, which it surely isn't. Myself and my friends lived and breathed our sci-fi and fantasy properties. We studied all the source books, memorized all the lines in the films, collected the toys/models. Talked about storylines and characters almost as if they were real people. We were INTO it, and we were into it genuinely, not to impress people or fit into some group. We enjoyed what we enjoyed and put it out there on our sleeve with great social risk, especially as young people where your image was everything. But we stuck to our guns and kept enjoying our hobbies even if it meant being chastised by the "cool kids". But now, every tom dick and harry and internet thot and attention seeking social butterfly has latched on to this nerd culture thing. These movie makers are absolutely disingenuous jerks who just want to milk it for market share, and deep down don't give two poops about what made these IPs viable in the first place. Real nerds who have a real interest in these stories and characters kept it alive. All they are doing in Hollywood now is milking them until they are dry, to discard them for the next fad. It's disgusting and fake, and it sickens me. And they wonder why the Fandom Menace exists.

Enjoyed your video Retroblasting. Keep up the great work.

when you pander to one group at the expense of other groups, you please no groups!

This popped up in the feed today, 5-24-21, for no reason at all. Well stated, sir. Then and now,

I think you made one valid point: they make successful movies/tv shows. They make money. Only when they stop making money (e.g. Solo) studios feel the need to adjustments. Then and only then. Because a corporation naturally only cares about profit. That is NOT a bad thing. That is what a corporation sets out to begin with. Everything else, fan satisfaction, community... all that... is only a means to make money.

This was an excellent concise explanation that I never considered. Good Job!!

I genuinely think that we have the Gen-X directors we do because when the marketing teams come to them and say we need X+Y they say YES, and those that say NO are labelled as "difficult to work with" to board members and investors. Bu this is just symptomatic of corporate mechanism behind film production today. Insurance companies, financiers, investors, share holders for all intents and purposes fight against the values of creativity - risk aversion stifles modern society. Every generation if scared of not being as good as the generation before it - movies and TV made FOR Gen-X were some of the most interesting fun which does show a trend of the preceding generation adjusting their stories for the following generation - unfortunately the next generation after X are from a narcissistic remix culture - which has led to reality TV and reboots/sequels. This generation also has had the greatest access to back catalogs ever seen - Apples entire economy is based on long-tail economics as too are the streaming services - making nostalgia a massive money maker - TV networks called them re-runs - but now its "on demand". We are heading backwards, the 80s 90s we had a few free to air TV channels and cable TV (for the rich kids) but most of the good stuff was on FTA TV and cable had the rest - sports, docos, etc.. Now again we have few major players Netflix, Disney+, Amazon prime, Hulu, Apple, KZfaq and the small streaming services from FTA and sports (WWE, ESPN, DC, HBO etc etc) which one can only assume will be consolidated further as the arms war over content ownership increases. There is only so much consumer $$$ and time to go around each month so economics would suggest its easier to produce content and place on somebody elses service, than to produce content and run and support a service. P.S. Authors should be getting paid much more than they do. This is where any new IPs will emerge moving forward IMHO. Actors directors and producers get paid way too much, money that could be used by studios to produce new IPs with young up and coming talent. I think Netflix is doing a pretty good job of this with some of their movies - loved the recent movie about National Lampoons and while most films are B grade they are at least fresh and present different genres.

10:00: The bullies have now invaded the "nerd-stuff" and bully the nerds out of it. Very reasonable opinions. Sir, you have earned a new subscriber!

Perfectly stated Michael! Thanks.

I’m a millennial but I believe I know what happened, basically sometime around the late 2000’s early 2010s as I was going into my 20s being a nerd started to become “hip” or cool or something it was weird, nerdy things became more accepted among regular crowds especially as I was getting out of high school, so what I believe is going on is that because nerdy things have become trendy and mainstream it pretty much made it so those guys that were nerds or geeks and jocks for lack of a better term to go into genre filmmaking. Before being a nerd became cool people just wanted to create something for the niche crowd such as fantasy nerds or sci-fi nerds, when those things became cool it became imperative to make things more mainstream to bring in more casual folks who didn’t have an interest. I’m pretty sure that if nerdy things never became mainstream that these directors would be working on Michael Bay-esq films where you don’t have to think much and is pure spectacle or in soap operas.

Millennial: I've never watched a Star Wars movie. Disney: Give this hipster a directors chair!

This is just right. Your thoughts are very welcome on this moment. Looks like the Bryan Johnson situation was going to repeat with these: they lack certain light of creativity. They're destroying the culture by inducing ideology and a mediocre way to watch the world.

On point take on the Hollywood situation. It's a total mess.

I feel the same way when it comes to the DC shows on Fox and CW. The showrunners play fast and loose with the characters when there is no reason for it. The source material is there so why not use it properly.

HBO just scrapped the already shot GoT prequel

Another problem that contributes to this phenomenon... it has been proven that the people who identify as fans of a franchise will consistently show up, no matter what. It's the impulse fans have to be experts on the topic. They often don't care how good or bad it is... they just want to consume everything of the IP. Michael Bay realized this with Transformers. Most of the hardcore TF fans that complained about his choices still bought a ticket to see his movies. He knew it. He said it often... "You're still gonna go see it," he would boast. So... because of this... studios and filmmakers know they only need to win over the casual audience. What they don't realize, is that there is an essence to the original franchise that made it successful, and that identifying the essence, or the soul of a property will make the reboot successful again. You don't have to copy it. You don't have to pander. You don't have to bait with fan service. You need to locate the soul of the character or the franchise or the story, and make a good movie with that soul. And remember that the design of the original thing is very much a part of it's soul. That's why unnecessary design, race, or gender changes frustrate fans. So... if you make Superman blonde... you've ALREADY missed the mark.

That opening was brilliant I loved it

Out of all the tube show I like that you are real and bipartisan and not PAID OFF like most are ,keep up the good job happy Halloween 🎃🕷⚡️🌘🍄🍁

Producers and directors these days follow a formula. They apply psychology to woo the masses. The concept of a good story is told is beyond them; it's too risky. Also, they have to work in their product placements to make more money than the millions they expect to receive at the box office. Great review. Keep up the great work RetroBlasting.

Well put. Maybe your best unplugged video yet.

It's not what you know its who you know. And that's who's getting those director chairs

Well said sir. It’s nice to hear balanced criticism regarding the Hollywood disconnect. 👍🏻

17 min in. The cool comments. SO TRUE. Michael you have said it perfectly. I have been preaching this for so long and it’s fallen on deaf ears. I’m so happy you did this video. I’m gonna pass this around to everyone who needs to see it.

The ironic thing is JJ is directly coping GOT, there is a shot in the trailer of TROS where the two mains are stood confronting each other in the emperor’s throne room, it is exactly the same as Jon snow confronting psycho dragon lady in the throne room, my jaw dropped when I first saw it!

That is an astonishing quote from Rian Johnson, but I suppose he achieved his aim.

Nailed it. I have had the exact same point of view in conversations over the past ten years, and was told I was probably the only person that felt this way. Glad to see I'm not alone. I'd like to see new movies and franchises emerge rather than another bad Batman.

Gen X filmmakers grew up with great visual storytelling and no nothing about it.

I just wanted to say I think you really nailed it on the head with this video sir! You are a true professional who has more passion for most of these projects than the people paid to write, direct, etc. It was the passion of the fans that kept any property alive or brought it back from the dead. When you are in a project only for the money, there is no passion. It doesn't matter if it's movies, comics or being a chef. If money is all that you love, that is what you get until it dries up. Wake up people! Michael you are a keeper of the flame for fandom, talking about the fames, follies & faults. Thank you again for putting this video together to shine some light on the rot in Hollywood.

Great video, lots of great points

I actually blame Disney.

Great video 🤙🏽🤙🏽🤙🏽

Fantastic stuff, really enjoyed hearing your thoughts on this topic. More please :)

You are really good at articulating well thought out content. Thanks