So the Ezra Miller Flash movie is finally coming out.

NeoSneth

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no, even sadder

I only see one movie a year in the theaters.

Last year it was "The Batman"

This year, "The Flash"

I kinda hate that movies aren't a thing anymore. I definitely think the days of indie movies in small theaters is coming to a close. We're left with comic book movies and fast and furious.

Movies aren't a thing because people only go to one movie a year. Go more.
I'm trying to get back into it more. Plus, a lot of local theatres play older films which can be nostalgic. I also can't stand high refresh rate TV's with 24p movies.
 

roker

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Movies aren't a thing because people only go to one movie a year. Go more.
I'm trying to get back into it more. Plus, a lot of local theatres play older films which can be nostalgic. I also can't stand high refresh rate TV's with 24p movies.

Yeah, I saw that Emagine was doing those retro movies. I should get out there and see one or two.

Alamo Drafthouse was freakin' awesome, but that was when I lived in Texas. They did the retro thing plus random grindhouse type shit. They need to open one up in Michigan ... if they don't go defunct first.
 

SouthtownKid

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I only see one movie a year in the theaters.


This year, "The Flash"
This is sad as hell.
I kinda hate that movies aren't a thing anymore. I definitely think the days of indie movies in small theaters is coming to a close. We're left with comic book movies and fast and furious.
I think the opposite. I think the abject failure of DC comic movie after DC comic movie combined with diminishing returns on recent Marvel movies signals the end (finally) of studio overreliance on tentpole blockbusters and the imminent return of mid-sized movies.

Someone was pointing out that the upcoming Indiana Jones movie which is bound to flop as hard as Flash or Ant-Man cost over $300 million, whereas the original Raiders cost $20 million, which is about $60 million adjusted for inflation. The new movie will be reviled and forgotten more quickly than Crystal Skull, while the original still brings in money all these decades later.

Even with comic book movies, you can use CG more sparingly and artistically, and not turn the final 40 minutes into an emotionally devoid cartoon show that puts everyone to sleep. Especially if doing so saves you $150 million+ per movie.
 

100proof

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Yeah the original Deadpool only cost something like $60 million. Even those movies can be done pretty affordably if you scale back the useless spectacle and focus on story/character.

I go to the theater a couple of times a month but only because I have an Alamo nearby. There's plenty of good movies coming out every year... you just have to keep up with trailers/release schedule to find the smaller stuff that looks interesting.
 

SouthtownKid

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Yeah the original Deadpool only cost something like $60 million. Even those movies can be done pretty affordably if you scale back the useless spectacle and focus on story/character.
And that's why I think of those movies as a scam. They're keeping effects houses employed at the expense of the entire rest of the industry, the health of the studios with no benefit to the audience. Maybe once every 20 movies or a couple times a decade it's earned, like an Endgame that's paying off a buildup over a dozen movies leading up to it. But otherwise, I think audiences are over it. No matter how clean the CG is, it just feels less and less real everytime we see it, it gets harder to invest emotionally, and easier to zone out or fast forward.

The example I think about is a scene from the lifeless, by-the-numbers snoozefest Tom Holland Uncharted movie a few years back, where he's hanging off some boxes and netting out the back of a cargo plane in flight. There's never the slightest bit of tension, because it feels completely divorced from reality. The CG is fine, but there's something about the physics, something about the way the wind is or isn't affecting his hair or clothes that even without being able to put your finger on what it is exactly, it just feels completely fake. Then take the very conceptually similar scene from The Living Daylights in 1987. A combination of different techniques using practical effects -- stuntmen hanging out the back of a real cargo plane, the actors hanging off real netting over a miniature model of the ground, intercut with closeups of the actors faces against a projected background -- makes a much more compelling, infinitely more believable scene. For literally hundreds of thousands of dollars less than the CG in that single Uncharted scene cost.

This scene is a cartoon show:


The fighting inside the plane is fine, but once Holland goes out the back hanging onto the cargo, it looks and feels like a bad joke and it's impossible to care.



This scene is a million miles better:


With a little CG to smooth the flaws of the practical effects, it would be perfect.
 

roker

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I think the opposite. I think the abject failure of DC comic movie after DC comic movie combined with diminishing returns on recent Marvel movies signals the end (finally) of studio overreliance on tentpole blockbusters and the imminent return of mid-sized movies

midsize, maybe

indie, no

In Metro Detroit we had some smaller theaters close. I mean the type that would show arthouse movies and maybe have two screens max. I don't think there's a market for them like there once was. Not many people will go to a movie to watch a documentary or a movie without a well known actor. That shit is starting to disappear.
 

SouthtownKid

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In Metro Detroit we had some smaller theaters close. I mean the type that would show arthouse movies and maybe have two screens max. I don't think there's a market for them like there once was. Not many people will go to a movie to watch a documentary or a movie without a well known actor. That shit is starting to disappear.
In theaters, maybe. Or maybe they'll cycle around again in a decade or two. But there are so many other ways to watch movies now, anyway. People who want to make indie movies have so many more ways to get them in front of so many more people now than at any previous point in history.

As for documentaries, I can't think of one ever made that's worth seeing in a theater. Any I've seen in a theater would have been just as good or better at home if that had been an option back then.
 

NeoSneth

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Yeah, I saw that Emagine was doing those retro movies. I should get out there and see one or two.

Alamo Drafthouse was freakin' awesome, but that was when I lived in Texas. They did the retro thing plus random grindhouse type shit. They need to open one up in Michigan ... if they don't go defunct first.


Yeah, they opened an Alama Drafthouse 2 miles from my place here in the Central Midwest. But, all the local theatres play old movies. Some of the 80's stuff is really fun in the theatre.
 

SignOfGoob

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Excellent point, did DC have Infinity Gauntlet/ Secret Wars big event crossover in the their comics? I mean I know the Justice league is a thing. I honestly don’t know. The only time I ever collected comic books for like six months happened when the Infinity Gauntlet took place, which was basically most of the Marvel Cinematic Universe tie in.

Does anyone care beyond Superman and Batman really?

If someone likes comics but they also like sports, then yeah, it’s just Batman and Superman. DC has an absolutely huge character roster though and, IMO, better ones. I was always a much bigger fan of DC.

As for crossovers, mainly Crisis on Infinite Earths which was a 12 issue (one year) series that crossed over into every other book being made and a lot of stuff that was cancelled years before. Several “crisis” things just like it but also a million other things like Eclipso, Millenium, whatever. The summer was a time to mow a lot of lawns and spend it all on comics. Crisis was my absolute favorite, I never cared for the mutants versus congressmen stuff or really anything Spider-Man. Crisis is still the biggest thing in the history of DC but it’s completely unfilmable which is probably part of their issue in the movie business.

Honestly…the idea that the creations of a tiny low budget comic book company make $2B each in China might just be something only one company will ever take advantage of. There’s only so much money out there and a fucking TON of these soulless hackfests.
 

SignOfGoob

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In theaters, maybe. Or maybe they'll cycle around again in a decade or two. But there are so many other ways to watch movies now, anyway. People who want to make indie movies have so many more ways to get them in front of so many more people now than at any previous point in history.

As for documentaries, I can't think of one ever made that's worth seeing in a theater. Any I've seen in a theater would have been just as good or better at home if that had been an option back then.

I saw Pina in a theater because I’m not buying any of that 3D bullshit for the home. Other than that…yeah.
 

Ralfakick

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In theaters, maybe. Or maybe they'll cycle around again in a decade or two. But there are so many other ways to watch movies now, anyway. People who want to make indie movies have so many more ways to get them in front of so many more people now than at any previous point in history.

As for documentaries, I can't think of one ever made that's worth seeing in a theater. Any I've seen in a theater would have been just as good or better at home if that had been an option back then.
I saw a documentary 1971 about the town I’m from where the largest break in of an FBI building took place at the time.


Wild thing was the theater I saw it at, Bryn Mawr Film Institute, there were pictures and film of protests in 1971 that happened to take place at the bank across the street from where I was at watching the movie at in 2014 and how some things were even the same as they were back then (the bank was till there) I thought that was a cool experience. Beyond that any doc I’ve ever seen at a theater could have been just as enjoyed at home except maybe when I saw the Cannon Films doc and they gave out t shirts and posters.

I’m still waiting for the Midway Arcade Documentary from a couple years back to show up on a free streaming service.
 
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SouthtownKid

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I'm not saying documantaties aren't worth watching, only that none benefit from the big screen. A large HDTV is good enough.
 
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