Why Modern Movies Suck - The Myth Of The "Modern Audience"

modern audiences if ever there was a red flag for another incoming tidal wave of Stephen Hawk post vindaloo diarrhea it would have to be the sentence updated for modern audiences it seems like every single puff piece article awkward promotional tour tedious interview and chill Media review these days takes a perverse Delight in announcing that yet another story has been updated for modern audiences in fact it's become just another expected buzzword for basically every new project now along with other Classics like diverse casting strong female characters toxic online trolls and my personal favorite reflecting the world we live in today it's meant to be seen as another step towards some undefined unreachable but eternally optimistic Utopia waiting for us in some hypothetical future time that we'll never see another uncomfortable mistake of the past correcteds another Bastion of the old bigoted impressive World toppled another victory in the never-ending war against our own cultural Legacy and on the surface it sounds pretty nice doesn't it we love updating things these days we love stuff that's modern after all who wants to cling to old dusty outdated ideas when we can have shiny new modern stuff because everything that's new and updated must be good right everything we produced today must be better than what came yesterday because surely we couldn't possibly be making stuff that's worse uh the reality here is that the myth of the modern audience is one of the biggest cases of collective gaslighting I think I've ever seen and it's been used to justify some of the worst excesses of franchise destruction in all of entertainment and yet there is repeated again and again like it's some badge of honor instead of the dunce's cap of shittiness the message is always the same like everyone's saying it is part of some weird Collective hive mind capable only of repeating the same basic concepts and phrases the world is changing people are different now and they don't like the things they used to like they don't want escapism and innocent joyful entertainment for its own sake they want stories and characters that reflect the world we live in today they don't want thoughtful and balanced explorations of complex ideas they want to be told exactly how to think on every issue and always from one particular point of view because clearly we all hold the same opinions about everything they don't want men that are strong and capable and assertive or women that are feminine compassion and protective they want their characters deconstructed conflicted and homogenized they don't want historical accuracy they want modern values cultural norms and Metropolitan diversity superimposed onto times and places where it makes no logical sense because the past doesn't matter you see the past is full of ists and fobs and dangerous ideas that we have to carefully Shield you from in case you start thinking for yourself too much and form opinions that we don't like all that matters is what we tell you and the more this [ __ ] happens the more I'm reminded of an interesting little quote from our not too distant history if you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it people will eventually come to believe it well the Drinker doesn't believe it and I'm here to take a big steaming [ __ ] of my own on the myth of the modern audience and to do this let's begin with the world of fairy tales shall we one of the most quintessential forms of Storytelling and one that's been fertile ground for companies like Disney for the better part of a century now ever everything from Pinocchio to Mulan to Aladdin and Cinderella have been turned into animated movies over the years enthralling an inspiring whole generations of kids but with the Advent of the modern era comes a chance to remake films like this for modern audiences correcting them to make sure they don't conflict with the things we want you to think now I've already covered films like Mulan Beauty and the Beast and the upcoming Little Mermaid in a previous video but I think there's an even better example on the way and that's the remake of Snow White released way back in 1937. the true OG of Disney fairy tale movies that basically paved the way for everything that followed it a Timeless story of Adventure friendship and true love that went on to become an enduring classic so it was only natural that modern Disney would produce a cash grab remake at some point and of course it had to be altered to appeal to Modern audiences the character from a 19th century German fairy tale who is literally named Snow White due to her skin being white as snow is now being played by Colombian actress Rachel zegler sure yeah makes sense to me I guess the idea of a female lead with low levels of melanin is so offensive to Modern audiencies that she had to be replaced with a more diverse alternative in order to keep everyone safe the dwarves that were used for comedy effect in the original have been reworked into highly efficient intelligent and disciplined underground Engineers why because apparently we can't depict little people on screen in a way that could be even vaguely interpreted as negative the finale about The Dashing Prince saving the day and Reviving Snow White from her Eternal sleep with a true love's kiss has been Acts 2 naturally because the notion of a strong heroic man saving the princess from danger is just too triggering for modern audiences this princess is going to damn well save herself and the rest of the world just needs to deal with that in fact I think Rachel zegor summed up their mentality perfectly in this article from Vanity Fair people were making these jokes about ours being the PC Snow White where it's like yeah it is because it needed that it's an 85 year old cartoon soon and our version is a refreshing story about a young woman who has a function Beyond Someday My Prince Will Come I know right imagine doing a faithful adaptation of a classic story basically what you're getting here is a completely different movie with a familiar name attached to it which begs the obvious question if you hate the source material so [ __ ] much if the plot characters and themes are so offensive to your modern sensibilities then why even bother remaking it why not just come up with something new oh yeah of course but hey that's just fairy tales what about the world of TV I mean I could talk about the disastrous failures of modern reinterpretations of classic stories like The Wheel of Time or Resident Evil or Watchman or Cowboy Bebop but why bother when we've got the rings of power to play with Amazon's billion dollar nightmare that managed to accomplish the seemingly Impossible by tarnishing the legacy of the greatest fantasy author of all time and making The Hobbit trilogy look halfway decent in comparison see the Lord of the Rings is set in a fantasy version of medieval northern Europe and draws heavily from European culture and mythology in fact that was pretty much tolkien's entire motivation for writing it it also means that the story has a mostly homogeneous cast of characters occupying traditional gender roles I.E men tend to make decisions and go off to war and women tend to stay behind and keep everything running but apparently modern audiencies just can't handle such outdated stereotypes and so changes had to be made first up that sea of beige faces just had to go because the idea of an ethnically homogeneous cast is basically a crime against humanity now well unless it happens in a place that begins with w and ends in akonda in which case it's just the best thing ever because logical consistency apparently isn't a big priority for modern audiences this show needed diversity and lots of it did that mean exploring different cultures and locations to expand the scope of Middle Earth in exciting new ways now what it meant was drop a bunch of diverse actors into the story at random points with no explanation and pretend that it makes total sense and has always been that way genius and since women are apparently the new men from Modern audiences let's make sure that we crowbar them into every major leadership role and position of authority that we can possibly get away with oh yeah and they're also Warriors now who can magically fight Men twice their size because I guess medieval armies had diversity and Equity departments too and naturally the men are conveniently moved aside to make way for them relegated to the roles of weak indecisive insecure and clueless buffoons who know their place defer to their female superiors and die when they're no longer convenient to the plots because truly that's what modern audiences want to see don't you know and on that subject male characters are getting more than their share of reimagining these days and don't worry I'm gonna do a proper in-depth video on that particular topic soon enough believe that but as a little example for the purposes of this video let's take a look at James Bond surely the absolute Pinnacle of everything that is was or ever will be a man tough cold ruthless Charming sophisticated and danger address a man of action and Intrigue a man that every woman wants but none can ever truly have well nuts anymore because modern audiences don't want to see strong capable confident assertive men on screen because that would perpetuate the harmful stereotype that men should aspire to be strong capable confident and assertive instead what modern audiences want in their men is emotion vulnerability and respectfulness can't have them come across as too threatening or dangerous I mean Daniel Craig already started the trend by having Bond pout and soak his way through most of his films because you know being a Suave gun toting super spy is just such a drag but don't worry his successor will absolutely carry on his work in a recent interview with variety magazine you know that Bastion of impartial journalistic Integrity series producer Barbara broccoli explained that bond is evolving just as men are evolving I don't know who's evolving at a faster pace she went outside the Craig's Bond cracked the character up and emotionally the film's over his senior were the first time we really connected to the emotional Arc well here's the problem Barb bond has been a popular character for decades precisely because he didn't evolve yeah different actors brought slightly different interpretations of the character either because of their acting Styles or personalities but Bond's core traits didn't change why because they didn't [ __ ] need to James Bond represents the ultimate masculine ideal and that ideal hasn't changed no matter how much people might want it to putting some androgynous pop star into a dress isn't redefining masculinity any more than me down in a pint of vodka is redefining sobriety it's trying to replace one thing with another but keep the same name in the hopes of eventually gaslighting everyone into believing that it's always been that way remember if you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it people will eventually come to believe it the point I'm making here is that Bon's unique combination of intellect physical power and emotional distance is what makes him so compelled selling trying to alter that combination undermines the very foundations of who he is just like the reimagined Snow White You're altering such fundamental elements of who that person is that you're basically creating a whole new character with the same name that's not modernization that's bastardization but it's not just movies and TV shows that are getting updated from Modern audiences video games were basically the test bed for this [ __ ] 10 years ago I've already spoken in another video about the hand-fisted attempts to modernize Lara Croft which turned an awesome empowered and ass-kicking Adventurer into a boring whiny guilt-ridden overly emotional child with daddy issues they took a classic archetype that everyone admired and tried to break her down into something more grounded more relatable more acceptable to Modern audiences and well all they really did was break her but hey you'll be pleased to know that Grand Theft Auto is finally getting the same treatment according to this article from the New York Post the game is going to feature a female protagonist for the first time and so down the racist and sexist humor that's been prevalent in the series until now because you know when you're busy hijacking cars burning down buildings shooting police officers and murdering innocent civilians like it's the summer of 2020 the last thing you want to encounter is offensive humor Jesus Christ talk about not understanding your audience the GTA series was practically founded on violence criminal behavior and irreverent humor it's the very reason it went on to become such an enormous Global success but of course the problem is that when a company gets too big and too successful it inevitably gets infiltrated by people for whom the idea of fun and non-politically correct humor is like sunlight to a [ __ ] vampire you can just tell the Direction all the so-called jokes in this game are gonna go now and I'm willing to bet that not a single one will come at the expense of that all-important female protagonists but hey that's what modern audiences want right the myth of the politically Progressive emotionally fragile and easily offended modern audience which must be carefully catered to is exactly actually that a myth a convenient scapegoat created by writers of these projects to deflect blame and criticism away from themselves oh we didn't set out to make all these unpopular changes that ultimately ruined the product you see but the world has changed now and we had to update it for modern audiences because ultimately the people they're really catering to are themselves it's an excuse for them to indulge their own narcissism to impose their own world view to undo the things that they don't like and replace it with stuff they personally want to see it's not about respecting and building on what came before it's about sweeping it all away and consigning it to the ash heap of History replacing it with their ideas their ideology their view of how the world should be it's the shallow arrogant self-absorbed mentality of people that have been coddled and praised their entire lives that have never struggled never experienced hardship or danger never ventured outside their own carefully controlled Echo chamber the kind of people who see the past as an enemy to be defeated instead of a rich tapestry of ideas and experiences they can learn from and the irony here is that for all their posturing and virtue signaling an unwavering belief that they're on the right side of History ultimately all they're doing is undermining the very causes they claim to care so much about battering someone over the head with your ideas and opinions until they eventually give up and leave isn't the same as winning them over to your point of view all you're doing is pissing off and alienating people who might otherwise have been receptive to what you had to say how many movies and shows that loudly claim to be updated for modern audiences have crashed and burned over the past decades how many more are gonna follow them and trying to cater for some imaginary modern audience that doesn't actually exist all you really end up doing is pushing away your actual audience and well that's something that no business can afford to keep doing for long anyway that's all I've got for today go away now

Channel: The Critical Drinker

Views: 3,067,564

Keywords: feminism, feminist, disney, review, critical drinker, funny, SJW, MCU, star wars, rings of power, lord of the rings, amazon

Id: F2ngB-zjVmM

Length: 14min 45sec (885 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 03 2022