I don’t understand the persistent “bad writing” claim that many people keep trotting out when it comes to franchise movies. The amount of absolute garbage that was released when I was a kid and into my teenage years wasn’t received this way. Seems like every time a new movie or show from the Star Trek, Star Wars, Marvel, DC, etc. franchises is released that same old “bad writing” trope is pulled out. Does anyone just go to see a movie to enjoy it anymore? Do people walk into the experience expecting to be disappointed? Is no one capable of just enjoying a movie or show anymore without insisting that every piece of media produced is Citizen Kane-level quality?
4 Likes
I mean, I don’t generally like to play to the stereotype of the uncultured American, but…
3 Likes
Not exactly an answer. Forced me to do some looking. Never heard of him or any of his work.
Check out Poor Things, it was the best movie released in 2023 imo
3 Likes
…which explains your view of the MCU being a yardstick of quality. 
2 Likes
Everything he’s done since Dogtooth has been great, but his best is still The Killing Of A Sacred Deer for me.
2 Likes
Did you see Kinds of Kindness yet? I feel like it was more in line with his earlier works.
2 Likes
Yeah loved it, and agreed that it was closer in tone to the likes of The Lobster and TKOASD than it was The Favourite/Poor Things. There was one moment in each of the second and the third stories that made me bellow with laughter in the theatre:
The ‘video’ in the second story
The ending of the third story
Can’t wait to give it another watch!
2 Likes
Again, never heard of it.
No, my view of the MCU’s quality comes from the MCU’s quality. Are the individual films worthy of the library of congress? Outside of perhaps Winter Soldier, Civil War, Black Panther and Infinity War, no. Is the sum total of what they made, at least leading up to Endgame, worth the hype? Yes, because what they created up to that point was an Odyssey.
Sadly, because they tried to keep it going so soon without having had proper planning and giving people a chance to rest after the first rendition, the quality, based on what I’ve heard, has downturned overall.
Well now you have 
I loved Emma’s monologue to Dafoe in the second story. It was actually quite moving on its own, but hilarious in context of her feeding bits of herself to Plemons lol
Oh and the movie made me a fan of Cobrah.
1 Like
Ironically, Black Panther is one of the few MCU films I have seen*, because a good friend of mine insisted that if there was one film that would really sell me on the MCU then that would be it. They were wrong.
*I say “seen”, but really I mean “seen some of”. I went to the theatre to see this, and every atom of my body was telling me to walk out after that full-body-cringe-reflex of a ‘joke’ that they made about the “sneakers”, but I stuck it out… only for the car chase sequence in South Korea to happen, as I watched an action set piece with no jeopardy as one of the goodies survived their car being wiped out because they were driving a virtual hologram of it remotely or some such shit, and at that point I knew I had to bail because this was not a movie for me. I guess I’ll never know what I missed…
1 Like
I actually did a complete rewatch of 90% of the MCU from Iron Man to Endgame last year (don’t ask why), and out of that collective viewing experience there were three films that stuck out to me as being actually good and not just quippy cinematic cotton candy. Spiderman: Homecoming, Guardians of the Galaxy 2 and Thor Ragnarok. These are all still jokey, half-serious MCU movies, but I think they still have something more going for them in both style and substance. If you’re ever in the mood to try an MCU film again, maybe give one of those a shot.
Edit: And funny enough, looking up all of these films now it seems that they were all released in 2017. Marvel had something good going on that year, for whatever reason.
3 Likes
Well, I suppose that’s better than getting into and never finishing it.
1 Like
I’ll never be in the mood, I’m afraid. I like me an unashamed kids’ film (something like The Incredibles is great) and I love me a hard-hitting action film (The Raid etc), but the MCU movies just fall into an uncomfortable teenage/juvenile uncanny valley between the two for me, and I don’t like that they’re neither fish nor fowl.
3 Likes
Certainly feels like it. Though I think you will find that the sort of criticism you are describing is usually used by people who love the idea of a brand or franchise too much. Fanboys love “bad writing” as a consuming body to hate something because it is a quick and easy way to make seemingly objective and legitimate criticisms without knowing a lot about the most intimate details of filmmaking or story-telling.
Also kids here is some life advice from your dear Uncle Jack: NEVER and I mean NEVER let a brand, franchise or sports team be your entire personality.
2 Likes
Well, I, for one, have never seen “bad writing” as either an objective or legitimate criticism. It seems like everyone that watches a movie these days pretends to have a film degree or something. There’s nothing wrong with saying “I don’t like that”. It doesn’t need any deeper critique than that.
1 Like
Nah, limiting people’s critical response to a film to “I like that/I don’t like that” is equally bullshit, mate. Feeling that a film is badly written (or badly shot, or badly acted, or any number of other responses, as long as they are given genuinely and in good faith) is what dialogue around film (or any kind of art) is all about.
EDIT - as an example [and I really don’t want to summon him but I know this post will], I think Breaking Bad is a well acted, well shot TV show that has some of the worst writing I’ve ever seen in it. Can’t knock the performances of Bryan Cranston and co, nor the cinematographers who filmed them, but they are doing it all in service of a dumpster-fire of a script that veers tonally all over the road like it’s had a kilo of Walt’s crack before getting behind the wheel.
1 Like
This looks a bit like desperation to me. But who knows - it might help the MCU get back on it’s feet. Time will tell.
1 Like
…
1 Like