Don't forget "Wrote a TV Tropes Mad Libs script that got undue praise for the stunningly original concept of making a Blair Witch superhero movie"!

I would have had no problem if they'd been honest — "So, we were watching Grosse Point Blank and the Bourne series and a bunch of Judd Apatow comedies and some adult beverages may have been involved and we asked ourselves WHY HAS NOBODY EVER COMBINED ALL OF THESE THINGS, ASSASSIN COMEDIES AND STONER COMEDIES AND…

Oh shit. Maybe he's also Milo.

It's like Trump and his bankrupt casinos and failed University and his wife & daughter's plagiarisms, it's never, ever their fault, because they're Superior Life Forms. And it is VITALLY important that everyone know that they are absolutely perfect in every way, even if they have to lie seventeen different…

Did that stop Adam Sandler from making Pixels? Did that stop Dan Bradley from remaking Red Dawn? Did that stop Timur Bekmambetov from remaking Ben Hur? No! Nostalgia will never, ever die!

And how many struggling screenwriters, who never get a chance? OH NO IT'S A MERITOCRACY, HE MUST BE THE BEST AVAILABLE BECAUSE IF HE WASN'T, THEY WOULDN'T GIVE HIM WORK, QED!

Yes. Now, follow this through to its logical implications…

I don't think you need to feel guilty for enjoying it for what it was (rather than what Landis claimed it was), because it did so poorly at the box office that your contribution could hardly be a factor, any more than the RT reviews.

I mean, it's one thing if you can point to concrete mistakes that a director had no control over whatsoever, like marketing failures or or "our budget got halved due to a change in studio politics" or even "and then they cut out the ending and reshot it with a happier one because the studio execs chickened out of…

There has to be Magic Blood in there, too. Maybe the cat is descended from/the reincarnation of Mary Magdalene/the Lady of the Lake/Excalibur…

Do you defend Donald Trump, too?

It helps, though. There are a lot more Josh Tranks than there are Willow Smiths.

See, if I were that lucky I would be like Joe Hill, and at least TRY to make a name on my own, because as an artist there is nothing worse than having an asterisk by your accomplishments, "Only got made because of cronyism and connections" — it's like saying that every athlete would take steroids if they thought they…

No, but if you're going to boast that you're doing something astoundingly original, then you should expect to be called on it when you aren't, AND for people to be disappointed when it turns out to be a ludicrous utterly derivative bit of nonsense.

Landis is fandom's Trump, it's the only explanation for how he can churn out mediocre-to-dismal products that do not make a lot of profit even when they don't completely lose money, and continue to be not only hired, but lauded as a talented "artist" in spite of their derivative nature and critical failure.

Which may or may not be true - he claimed, after it cratered, that his Victor Frankenstein script was far superior to the final product, but I read it when he posted it, and it wasn't. This blaming everything on other people seems to be a theme with him and his crowd — see also Trank, Josh.

He really is the Trump of fandom — a man of mediocre ability, coasting on inherited privilege from his dad, with exaggerated confidence in his mediocre abilities (I read his Victor Frankenstein script, it stunk on ice as badly as the film did), a blustering thin-skinned braggart with terrible hair…and beloved by far…

It was a ludicrous and utterly derivative movie, without even the excuse of being overt science fiction to excuse both its improbable premise and its derivative plotline, like Chronicle.

Well, but if you have standards, you look at your first attempt at doing something formulaic and go "NOPE NOT GOOD ENOUGH UGH THIS IS NOT WORKING THIS MAKES NO SENSE," but the true hack just blithely grinds away and isn't bothered by such quibbles.

So because something wasn't great art, it's fine to throw a ton of money into making a crappy reboot of it, instead of making something good?