The Big Picture: The Numbers

[Innegativeion]

I totally agree with this apart from:
1. The expendables was actually a pretty good film.
2. Scott pilgrim was an incredibly poor film.

1. Expendables very unoriginal film
2. Scott Pilgrim is a very original film

That my friend is a fact, ask anyone here and they will probably agree with me. Originality should be celebrated and supported in the arts, while unoriginal cookie-cutter trash should be forgotten.

The first quote is an opinion, and therefor should have no bearing on Moviebob's point (box office is effing things up), since the opinion is unrelated.

The second quote is a fact, and pretty much what Bob was getting at.

Doesn't matter if you liked the expendables or not. The box office is pushing for unoriginal movies to get made and doesn't encourage quality, while people with great ideas for highly new and original movies are getting the short end of the stick.

 

[MB202]

Great, now I feel miserable, thanks a lot Bob. Still, it's nice to be reminded of all this stuff, and to tell people that as much as we don't want to admit it, box office performances matter.

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

More Scott Pilgrim bullshit? Also The expendepals was not that bad. There are worse movie out there like Twilight

don't get your knickers in a twist. bob actually has a significant point this time.

True, but i'm tired of him prasing Scott Pilgrim like it's the spawn of Jesus. Do you want to know why it failed? It has a very small demographig who would go see it.

Yes and no. See I watched Kickass even though I was squarely outside the target audience, because people should give new things a try and entertain different ideas. A good moviecan be enjoyed by anybody who enjoys how a good movie is put together (mood, aesthetic, character development, handling of conflict, etc).

Whilst I might not enjoy that movie as much as another person in love with a very specific genre, I can enjoy the appeal of a good movie in general (as such, enjoyed Scott Pilgrim).

Unfortunately, the behaviour of your average cinema-goer is to only watch movies if they fit into a specific genre, or all too familiar cliches.

So behold ... an industry which doesn't feel like it needs to create anything new, or original ... just whatever will pander to any individual group of already established movie-goers.

 

[vivster]

yeah... you missed to wrap it up with "... and this can be applied to any medium, not only film"
then again what good does it do pointing out the obvious

you could've made a short 10s version of this clip with
"People are idiots. I'm Bob. That's the big picture."

 

[The Great JT]

It's a sad fact, the majority of the moviegoing public has a chronic case of capital-s Stupid.

 

[Megacherv]

Ladies and Gentlemen, Call of Duty

Need I really say any more?

 

[saruman31]

Scott Pilgrim sucked. I was mostly wtf-ing the whole time. And of course The Expendables outsold it; it had the greatest action movie icons of all time in it.

 

[Yelchor]

Oh God... Im quite sure the last thing any of us need is Bob making a video that basically sums up to, "If you have different tastes than me, you're a moron!"

I'm not sure why that would reach such a conclusion. Personally I think it'd be an interesting topic of discussion. Several factors comes into relevance such as culture, history and general perceptions of things.

 

[DearFilm]

To everyone claiming this is proof of capitalism favoring the stupid and mentally diminished, I have one word:

Inception.

Original and thought provoking movies make money, but $85 million movies targeted to a exclusive, niche audience with an uncharismatic lead will never make their money back.

Inception was a great and thought provoking film. That isn't what the general public saw when they went to see it. When I would talk to my friends about it, they thought the action was good and the whole dream sequences thing a bit confusing. So that's it, they liked the action. As what was said above, people just want to escape their dreary lives for an hour or two and action is the easiest way to do it. I get into the psychology of the movie with average movie goers, most will just nod their head pretending to understand what I am talking about and add nothing to the conversation. WHY DON'T PEOPLE LIKE THINKING!

I am coming off as an elitist jerk it seems. Oh well...

But Scott Pilgrim was ostensibly built around 7 boss fights. If you're looking for action, there it is... too bad all of these were brief, unengaged, and had no emotional weight behind them.

 

[Snotnarok]

Bob this video upset me, not because you disliked the Expendables, that's opinion and that's dandy. But because you enlightened me on why the Fast and the Furious is still going and better movies aren't being made.

I had this discussion with my brother why Avatar was so popular when it was such a simplistic boring story with it's hippie tone especially when he's made far far better movies (Alien, Aliens, Terminator). His response also upset me, because he catered it to the viewers made it so anyone could get into it and kept it simple for everyone to follow.

Is that really what the masses are? People who can't get behind something because it's got a decent story with the pew pews of guns? Agg.

 

[TwistedEllipses]

It was the marketing that I think damaged Scott Pilgrim more than anything. Sure Universal gave it a good advertising budget (avoiding that typical pitfall) but they totally miss-sold it. As a moviegoer who wants a 'safe' film to see that might not be amazing, but will at least have explosions, I can see why someone might pick the expendables. The expendables also had the help of skilled marketing, even making a big deal of actors who hardly feature in it. The only thing that made me want to see it was Edgar Wright's back catalogue and I definitely made the right decision by going to see Pilgrim.

If you haven't seen it, see it now. (don't pirate it)

 

[AgentBJ09]

...But...I DON'T go around whining to people how underrated it was, how it was a cinematic masterpiece unfairly tossed aside. I like it. That's all that matters. You're starting to sound like those uppity Power Rangers fans who want an R-rated movie with blood and sex so they can turn around and show it to the people who made fun of them for liking a kids' show and say, "LOOK POWER RANGERS IS SERIOUS!!!"...

I honestly had to laugh at that last part.

No Ranger fan in their right mind would ask that of the show. The closest we got to dark and gritty was RPM, and that's good enough. A little blood is fine, though, as is some well written dialogue. The Sentai teams have bled when they got their asses kicked.

------------

That aside, this episode was good, if depressing. It does paint a picture of how the film industry reacts to numbers, and why some of us feel left out when things we would be interested in are ignored.

If Del Toro's Lovecraftian film DOES get made, consider me in line on release day to see it. Lovecraftian horror is often the best out there.

 

[Draitheryn]

Great vid as always by Bob, I don't always agree with his opinions but I always respect where they are coming from and the insight behind them. Unfortunately all media is affected by the dullards of today's society. You know the ones, the only time they are enjoying themselves is when they are being social, they can't see anything deeper than a pothole. They think Eat, pray, love is a romantic masterpiece and scott pilgrim is a movie about videogames. le sigh

 

[Skeleon]

Makes a lot of sense and it's hard not to see the obvious similarities to video gaming and the troubles real innovative titles face as opposed to the same old WW2 shooter etc..

 

[Odoylerules360]

That was actually... quite enlightening and worth hearing!

Nice Job Bob!

 

[Mute52]

The people who watched Expendables over Scott Pilgrim aren't ignorant or stupid. Everyone is entitled to have their own taste in entertainment, whether it be music, art, or movies. People like Expendables, it made money. Becoming upset that not that many people like Scott Pilgrim isn't going to do anything.

 

[ChillinMargrave]

Bob the Prophet speaks the ancient words of truth. Bom shakalah, great sadness overwhelms, for blockbusters are horribad. *Sigh*

 

[Kenny3k]

now i am depressed, Great show bob, informative but depressing, and the worst part... your right.

 

[JUMBO PALACE]

Shit, now I'm sad.

 

[andy25100]

Scott Pilgrim was awesome and what supremely better than the expendables i got pissed off when it didn't getting any nominations for BAFTA's or Oscar's, and now what is personally my dream project got shafted by Riddick.

This is why we can't have nice things.