Why Modern Movies Suck - They Teach Us Awful Lessons

one of the great things about movies is that not only are they a fun escape from all the [ __ ] of everyday life but they can also teach us important lessons about how to live those lives like the value of friendship camaraderie and loyalty the dangers of pride and arrogance the importance of compassion and charity or the meaning of determination and resilience movies have the unique ability to inspire and move us and like i say the lessons they teach us have influenced whole generations of people to do more than they ever thought possible to reach higher strive further work harder and be more than they are but they can also help to warn us against our darker impulses like selfishness arrogance and hatreds they're a bit like a set of moral scales that help to keep us balanced and level but the problem with modern movies is that i've begun to notice the moral scale tipping in the wrong direction trying to frame negative actions decisions and messages in a positive lights basically what this means is they're teaching people really [ __ ] lessons now and if this sort of thing continues for too long it's going to produce an entire generation of shitty people i mean damn just log into tiktok for five minutes and you'll see exactly what i mean luckily the drinker is here to help and truly who better to balance the scales of morality than a barely functional scottish alcoholic who considers it a major win if he wakes up in his own house so join me for another episode of why modern movies suck now for our first example let's take a look at the 1998 disney animated movie mulan it's set in imperial china and follows the story of a young woman who disguises herself as a man so that she can enlist in the army and help defend her country from foreign invaders the movie quickly establishes her as a bit of a free spirit yearning to escape her safe but dull life and find adventure and excitement which is actually a pretty common thing for disney princesses back then anyway like the other recruits she gets put through some rigorous training to teach her how to be a soldier and because she's smaller and weaker than the others naturally she struggles to keep up with them her commanding officer doesn't think much of her and neither do the other recruits she even comes close to flunking out more than once but through a combination of intelligence and sheer [ __ ] determination not to give up she's eventually able to turn situations to her advantage she even wins over the respect of her commander and her ability to think quickly under pressure allows them to win a great victory over the enemy army mulan is actually a pretty good example of positive life lessons the struggles and eventual successes of the main character demonstrate the value of determination and perseverance even when the odds are against you that a person's worth isn't defined by the size of their muscles and even if you're not as big and strong as other people it doesn't mean that you can't go on to achieve great things it's all about playing the hand that you're dealt even if that hand doesn't seem as strong as other people's now consider the live-action remake of mulan from a couple of years ago the basic premise of the movie is the same foreign armies invade china and because there's no men of fighting age in her family mulan disguises herself as a man so that she can join up instead the difference though isn't how the main character is presented and the challenges that she has to overcome because basically there aren't any whereas the original mulan was limited by her physical shortcomings and had to make up for them in other ways gradually winning people over by refusing to back down this new version is just [ __ ] great at everything right off the bat she's just as fast just as strong just as good at fighting as the others in fact if anything she's probably better than them because she was born with high levels of chi or something which allows her to perform feats of agility and skill that border on the supernatural so basically all the challenges and problems that made life so difficult for the original mulan are pretty much non-existent here and well it kind of undermines what used to be a pretty inspiring message whereas the original film taught people the value of hard work determination and perseverance even if things aren't going in your favor the new movie gives them a character that's just awesome because well she was born that way she doesn't really have to earn her special abilities she doesn't have to work hard or strive to overcome adversity she just kind of does it because she already has what she needs and [ __ ] man that seems like a pretty crappy lesson to apply to your own life like imagine going into every situation firmly convinced that you're already perfect and you'll just naturally succeed because you already have what you needs in fact if anything that reminds me more of anakin skywalker from the star wars prequels so let's take a quick look at him shall we anakin starts out as a good man who came from humble beginnings and has the potential to become the most powerful jedi who ever lived he's strong with the force and quickly learns to develop his abilities but his enormous potential and rapid rise to power gradually stokes a sense of arrogance entitlement and impatience he feels like it's his destiny to reshape the world and make it a better place and quickly gets frustrated with anyone who stands in his way like the jedi high council who caution him against moving too quickly forming personal attachments and trying to take shortcuts to power this frustration combined with a strong personal attachment to the people close to him makes him vulnerable to manipulation by sinister characters who want to use him for their own ends and eventually this combination of personal flaws and outside interference pulls him to the dark side of the force turning him against the people that love him most and his inflated belief in his own superiority ultimately costs him everything it's an interesting character arc that underlines the key message about anakin's fall from grace taking the quick and easy route to power and success might give you short-term gains but ultimately it's going to lead to long-term losses and disaster skill and talent that isn't tempered by wisdom restraint and experience eventually leads to arrogance impatience and a dangerous overestimation of your own abilities and well look how that one turns out it's a cautionary tale that warns us against the dangers of hubris and suggests that the longer harder road is what builds character resilience and wisdom the things that will serve you best in life as a point of comparison consider anakin's modern day counterpart who basically has all of his strengths and potential but none of his weaknesses or character flaws despite her enormous potential with the force and her abilities that just seem to come out of nowhere with no training or instruction ray never gives in to anger impatience hubris or a lust for power she's consistently portrayed as stoic altruistic compassionate brave resourceful and pretty much perfect in every way and [ __ ] me it's more boring than a low-budget bruce willis movie just like with the new version of mulan there's no particular challenge obstacle or shortcoming that ray struggles to overcome she already has everything she needs to succeed in life and so there's nothing in particular to learn from her wow what an inspiring example for all of us and that's not even counting all the other horrendous life lessons to be learned from the new star wars movies such as you should always blindly trust authority figures and do exactly as they command even if their orders make no sense and run contrary to everything you know to be rights battles and wars are won by protecting people you care about at all costs even if that means preventing them from sacrificing themselves to save a much larger group of people that you care about running amok and randomly destroying property for a few minutes is the perfect way to enact meaningful social and political change on a planetary scale your family legacy and heritage is less important than who you are as an individual you have no place in this story you come from nothing you're nothing oh wait apparently your heritage does matter you are a palpatine oh wait no you can just choose your own heritage or something ray skywalker i'm so [ __ ] confused now allow me to direct your attention to wonder woman 1984 the sequel to the original wonder woman which basically destroyed the character and the franchise that she was part of now the plot for that movie is absolute nonsense but for the sake of this video the basic gist is that a magical object gets discovered which grants the wishes of anyone who touches it unfortunately it usually takes something back in return wonder woman chooses to be reunited with steve trevor the man she fell in love with before he sacrificed himself like 70 years earlier and wouldn't you know it within a matter of hours steve shows up alive and well only it isn't actually steve it's just his consciousness inhabiting the body of some random guy and wearing him like a [ __ ] skin suit and wonder woman is totally fine with this apparently she even has sex with him when he's clearly not capable of consenting to it now take a moment to imagine how this would play out if the genders of these two characters were reversed how it would go from a touching poignant romance to a horrifying piece of sexual exploitation the poor guy that she's now using as her own personal plaything was once an innocent man with friends family a life hopes dreams and aspirations for the future and she was happy for all of that to be erased so that she could live out her fantasy with a guy that's been dead for 70 years and what's even more sinister is that the movie tries to frame her eventual decision to give steve up as some kind of tragic heroic sacrifice [ __ ] off wonder woman you should be absolutely ashamed of what you've done here the same premise also applies to wanda vision according to that show it's basically okay to take control of an entire town against their will and keep them in a state of perpetual agony as they're forced to live out your twisted fantasies why because someone you love died and now you've got the big sad no [ __ ] people lose loved ones every day but it doesn't give them an excuse to go on some crazy rampage and destroy innocent lives this is the stuff of horror movies but for some reason the main character is framed as a tragically misunderstood hero that sacrifices the things she loves for the sake of others which is a bit like framing a bank robber as a philanthropist because he got caught and forced to give back all the money he stole they'll never know what you sacrificed for them you didn't sacrifice anything wonder because this stuff wasn't yours to take in the first place both wonder woman and one division whether they intended it or not are teaching their audience some pretty [ __ ] sketchy life lessons the idea that your own personal happiness is literally more important than other people's freedom well-being and personal integrity this is the world view of a villain not a [ __ ] hero you know when i tried to imagine the kind of person that would come at the other end if they took the lessons of all these movies and shows to heart i'm kind of horrified by the possibilities instead of teaching people to be brave determined and compassionate to take the harder road and become stronger through adversity to care for others and respect their freedom to work hard and better themselves we're instead teaching people to be arrogant complacent entitled narcissistic and selfish these are shitty lessons designed to produce shitty people that are destined to crash and burn once they get out into the real worlds or even worse invade it in large enough numbers that they actually start to dilute the culture and make it just as shitty as them and if that happens well don't say the drinker didn't try to warn you anyway that's all i've got for today go away now

Channel: The Critical Drinker

Views: 2,875,542

Keywords: critical drinker, mulan, rey, star wars, anakin, feminism, feminist, lucasfilm, disney

Id: Dnuqp4_K7ik

Length: 10min 50sec (650 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 11 2022