this post was submitted on 08 Jun 2024
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I guess it's entirely possible that there's just an epidemic of bad writing.
When there's an existing beloved IP, it already had good writing. Being faithful to that = good writing. Not YOUR writing, but good writing.
It's theoretically possible to deviate from that existing good IP and still have good writing...it's just not very likely. Don't bet on it. Stick to the existing good writing.
I think you're right.
It also annoys me that the explanation for how common bad writing is, is that it still makes a lot of money. JJ can jump on to any beloved franchise, ~~shit on every established rule and charac~~ter, make the dumbest imaginable plot points that serve no other purpose than to move you from one visually pleasing trailer snippet location to the next... and people will go see it, and it'll make a pile of money. So, why should they care?
Everyone sees it the first time, but they tarnish the brand. Game of Thrones is the obvious example, but look at Star Wars. No one is clamoring to see the next Star Wars movie. If your outlook is the next 3 years, sure, bad writing will have a good opening day, but only because you're leeching off the corpse of the previous good releases. If your outlook is to preserve the brand, it's a terminal viewpoint.
You can take bad writing and even if it bombs in America, you can throw it at China and they'll eat it up because they don't know any better. But once a brand is dead, it's dead. China is not coming up with new plot lines. Hollywood and streaming studios are strip-mining the IP of the past because there's an industrywide lack of writing talent, for reasons that I'm too far removed to understand.
Luckily, we're still spoiled for choice. Or, I feel like I am. There are more quality TV shows and movies, than I have time to watch these days.
I wouldn't be too quick to dismiss Chinese media industry. They have made some amazing films. Infernal Affairs, comes to mind. But, I'm the wrong person to come up with examples. I'm sure there are plenty.
Other than that, I agree with you. It's the enshitification equivalent in Hollywood. It's just a bit less engulfing, since good movies and shows can still be made, in spite of some of the watered down drivel and ruined franchises for short term profit margins.
JJ Abrams shits on every established rule and character?
It's more the opposite. He gets to the core of what a franchise is. It's just that the hardcore fanbase builds up these things in their minds to be something they really aren't.
Star Trek was always at it's strongest as a TV series. The best the movies could ever do was take a page from Star Wars and be fun action adventure movies. Star Trek II was about a villain with a super-weapon seeking revenge. First Contact was basically Aliens. Star Trek IV was more of a parody of Star Trek than anything else.
But from the success of Star Trek IV, the exec became willing to put money into a new Star Trek show, and so we got TNG which was better than any of the movies. Similarly the success of JJ Abrams Star Trek meant new Trek shows are being made. Sure the shows are suffering from prequelitis. but new Trek shows are being made and if Star Trek Legacy gets made we might actually have a good Star Trek show on TV again, which is where Trek is at it's strongest.
JJ Abrams made the two best Star Wars movies outside of the OT. Of course the bar is pretty low with Star Wars movies, but still he did better than anyone else in making new Star Wars movies, better than even George Lucas at making new Star Wars. And the ST had interesting things to say about our relationship to the past. But to people that don't really like what Star Wars really is and want it to be something else got really angry about that. And people that have a warped view of the past hate it, but they hate anything new.