Ken Loach Says Marvel Films Are “Made as Commodities Like Hamburgers”
hollywoodreporter.com
hollywoodreporter.com
South Park recently lambasted this in S26E02, 'Band in China,' where we saw a host of characters on their way to China - part of a group the series was lambasting on selling out to China with regards to censorship. The characters had been 'selling out' to expand their financial markets to China.
A film usually needs to make back twice its budget in order to be deemed a 'financial success.' If that film has a budget of $80-180mil, the execs are going to want it to fly with the lowest common denominator. If it happens to actually say something as well, and become critically-acclaimed, such as Joker, or the Dark Knight, well, that's an exception.
tl;dr: High budget superhero action films need to be guaranteed to make their budget back. They are made to hit the lowest common denominator and sell tickets. If they happen to be brilliant they are an outlier to the rule.
This is also why Keanu Reeves is one of the richest actors in Hollywood. He made a 15% on gross deal for the matrix. So no amount of shifty accounting could get the studios out of paying him.
One can only assume they made that deal at the time because they didn't expect the movie to be all that successful.
There’s also quite a bit of hypocrisy in Hollywood in general. They claim to be progressive but I’m not sure I’ve seen many movies where the Indian guy wasn’t comic relief or the Arab looking guy wasn’t a terrorist or other form of antagonist.
Indie films can exist symbiotically; and I think they have been successfully. It seems like there are many more movies, of all varieties, available today than any other time in history. Although, I can't help but think about what we don't have as a result of YASM (yet another superhero movie).
You could also argue that adding to the coffers with a "sure-thing" provides more money to create new and innovative films, but I suspect currently that profits go into bonuses, getting the same actors back again and again, and production of the next "sure-thing".
I think there are a lot of movies now, but a lot of "bad" ones. The "good" ones are either "more-of-the-same-good" or exposed to very small audiences. Which may be less desirable for a diverse and interesting culture and society.
More seriously I liked the big bang theory, the expanse, firefly, and dark matter. I haven't watched game of thrones yet.
I could go on. Lot's of these are, of course, arguable, but honestly, the 2010's was just jam packed full of awesome television.
Action. Franchise. hello.
Superhero films are just a genre, like any other. It's a constraint that lets you better express other themes or ideas.
Think about the best superhero films vs the worst ones. The good ones were all about something, not just people running around in costumes. And all the bad ones were just people running around in costumes.
Nolan Batman: does power make right? (all) who has the right the enforce justice? (bb and dkr) does peace by force breed a worse evil? (dk) how far can you push people before they embrace their darker haves? (dk and dkr)
Captain America: what is patriotism? (all) can you trust authority? (WS) the risks of concentrating power (WS) is rehabilitation viable (WS and CW) is safety more important than liberty? (CW)
Wonder Woman: is it better to be a part of society or apart from it? is the world worth saving? do woman have the power to shape the world?
Captain Marvel: can a woman succeed in a hero role without a male romantic/sexual interest to feminize her? also, the power of propaganda to literally shape how we view others (and especially, "The Other")
Black Panther: can black culture be identified with modernity and success? what is the role of tradition and culture in modern society? does our true power come from external sources or from within?
Spiderman (HC, FFH, IS): how much would the events of the Avengers films actually affect daily life? (HC, FFH) what are the consequences of casual implementation of government policy? (HC) what does it mean to be a superhero? (IS) what is identity (IS) how much of life is driven by deception (FFH)?
X-Men: what does it mean to be an outsider/The Other? (1, 2) can The Other become part of society (2, FC, DOFP)? Contrast with the universally derided 3, Apocalypse, and DP, which don't appear to have any driving themes.
Aquaman: can man and nature exist together in a non-destructive state? can mankind save itself?
Joker: what is sanity? how thin is the line between thought and action? does inequality justify class-based warfare? does abuse justify retribution?
Contrast with the DC Justice League ensemble films, which don't have any themes. They just have people in costumes stand around a fight CGI villains. Snyder's Superman films have a concept (what if Superman killed?) but no themes (since they backed away from actually exploring any of the religious themes likening Superman to Jesus).
For those of you who haven't had to suffer through Ken Loach's works: they're all pretentious, insufferable dramas that claim to be about something. But they're trying so hard that they have to hit you over the head over and over and over again so that you know that they're supposed to be about something. Because if his works didn't explicitly tell you they were about something you wouldn't know from the play/show/movie that it was anything deeper than the poorly directed, poorly acted crap in front of you.
And there's a lot of people in that state, especially after a hard day of work.