I’m no more upset about this than if they were to make a Star Wars movie with an all-female cast; I would be psyched either way. The major issue with Hollywood/audiences is that the all-female one would be hard to get made.

You obviously haven't seen the new version with additional CGI :)

If you think that's bad, you should see the supercut of all the female dialogue in Glengarry Glen Ross.

The first one makes me cry. Every. Damn. Time.

The same reason that they turned down Edgar Wright’s Ant-Man: they want a uniform set of Avengers-flavored movies. They are essentially running a giant TV show, and if they want to make consistent money, they have to keep the flavor consistent.

Mr. Robot’s opening title is as good as any film’s design.

Except The French Connection.

Is there television that does not eventually go off the rails?

Excited for this; I am both an original series trek fan and a fan of the new films (especially Into Darkness, yeah, I said it). Now we just need to get some new-school SF writers doing some episodes like they did in the old days with Sturgeon and Ellison — bring the cutting edge back to Trek stories. Imagine Greg Egan…

(Thanks for the thoughtful response, btw)

Fair point, those are different — I still stick to The Ring portion of the analogy, but it’s true Watenabe’s movie is different enough that it makes my point a little cloudy.

Hollywood doesn’t cast white people because Hollywood is racist, they cast white people because audiences are racist. Making a 200 million dollar science fiction film requires that they end up with a gross of half a billion domestic to justify the investment; casting an unknown Japanese woman will not do that, so that…

There’s actually some great shots in this thing. But I was a little stunned that the monster in the end of the film is, no joke, a vagina.

The reason they have a franchise to begin with is because of the unique, original vision of the first film. As Cameron had total creative control over the first one, it made a ton of money — enough to make a sequel, which they gave him total creative control over. I don’t know why they are puzzled by the franchise’s…

The first two movies were pretty good, but the third was a shocking increase in quality; powerful, subversive, and frightening; as much of a surprise as The Empire Strikes Back was compared to Star Wars. I just hope they stick the landing with this last entry, and don’t give us their version of Return of the Jedi.

Haha yes, totally agree on all points regarding the sad state of popular film — I bring up The Verdict in my argument, but when the hell is the last time a movie like The Verdict came out? :) Excellent conversation fnsfsnr, thanks.

(and now, the ultimate TLDR)

Good points. Yeah I compare TV to movies for a couple of reasons: 1) that is what started the post; the common ‘screw movies! TV is so much better!” is the starting point, and 2) I think that it’s a totally valid starting point, as, while I understand why people insist on calling them…

TV has amazing promise, and it’s nice that filmmaking is slowly being set free of the seat-rental time limit of theaters. But realistically, the entirety of ‘Golden Age’ of TV really only has a few shows that are anywhere near artistically/qualitatively in the ballpark of good movies, and all of them have problems and…

The reason for this is pretty straighforward, and sadly lame: Ant Man is self diffuses any self-consciousness the audience might feel by being essentially a light comedy — it’s perfectly safe to like it because no one will make fun of you for it — the film itself is already self-effacing. Interstellar makes us uneasy…

Good point, and completely agreed - especially in the Netflix/Amazon realm. Amazon’s Man in the High Castle is at least that much of a high concept.