movies

It's fucking horrifying seeing how people consume media these days. I have a pretty poor attention span, but this goes so far beyond that – it's like they're sleepwalking through it.

Let's sit down for a 90-minute movie? How about I spend 15 minutes of it staring intermittently at my phone so that the story has no weight or payoffs and means nothing.

100-word comment? "I ain't reading all that, bro" like I just woke up out of a catatonia that started in 4th grade.

Bored? Play a video that's obvious AI slop about a subject I can just barely pretend to be intrigued by while I endlessly scroll shitty memes that make me crack a faint smile internally and unresearched ragebait whose upvote makes me feel like an activist.

There's no way I can properly describe it except like a temporary dementia.

That said, fuck these two for appearing on the JRE. Platforming bottomfeeding, anti-intellectual trash like Joe Rogan is part of the problem.

They used that same thing to reset the story for people that just started viewing after commercial breaks on TV.

I'm only on my phone because the movie sucks ass. Half the time I can't even finish it

It's upsetting that we don't have the data Netflix is going off of. Are the people on their phones and Netflix is deciding to cater to them because they are upset that the plot is hard to follow, or are they on their phones because the plot is so generic they can tune it out and still get the gist and Netflix is just assuming they want the plot restated? I don't care if people want to be on their phone and Netflix at the same time in the privacy of their own homes, so unless they are complaining, why does Netflix care? If they are complaining, I have never seen or heard it. I have heard plenty of people complain about poor writing and writing that seems to try and solve this "problem" already. I've personally stopped watching Netflix shows because the quality had gotten so bad, so are they really doing themselves any favors? Plenty of people rewatch shows on Netflix and they're putting out a lot of bad/basic reality tv, so it's possible it's not even new scripted content people are ignoring. They might be on their 6th rewatch of friends while scrolling TikTok.

They're not wrong. I've never seen my wife watch anything (movie, show, anime, whatever) without being on Twitter or Discord. I've given her shit about it, like "what is so important it can't wait" but from her perspective, the movie isn't as important as social media.

Me, I like to watch a movie in the dark, with the sound up, and I sit through the credits (most of the time). We're only three years apart but feel like we come from different generations. (Been married almost 20 years, we're not young, and we're not newlywed.)

If people are on their phones during a movie, doesn't that mean that the plot is easy to follow while on a phone and if not wouldn't they get off the phone to follow? Why do the rest of us have to suffer?

Don't restate the plot and make the inattentive viewer replay what they missed.

I just watched Stranger Things 5 because I'm finally able to finish it.

Holy shit there were too many long drawn-out exposition scenes. Like take when Holly and Max are finally going to escape Vecna's mind, and the portal opens up and it's right fucking there, it's so close you can literally taste the fresh air on the other side... And they stop dead in their tracks for Max to go on this 5 minute long speech to Holly about why she realized she didn't really need the music or a boyfriend or whatever and the true strength was inside them all along and yadda yadda yadda. Like the entire show stopped dead in its tracks for that scene.

And then it did it again for Will finally coming out to his friends, and every single one of them just accepts him for who he is; which is great that he has a support system like that, I just think it would've added some depth and realism to some other characters if they still loved him as a friend/brother, but also had some reservations about him because he's gay.

I also hated the 18 month time skips, of which there were two. Imo they were completely unnecessary and shoved in at the last minute to at least attempt to explain why everyone was ten years older than they were the last season. They should have started this season with the main kids in their senior year, with shit having been relatively dormant (but maybe the odd "stranger thing" happening every now and then) the entire time between 4 and 5. That way you can keep Holly 10 without the age difference between seasons being so glaringly obvious, especially because she's such an "important" part of this season; and you could add that the goings on of the past few years is breaking her psyche and allowing Vecna to wiggle his way into hers and the other kids' minds. It also raises the tension and stakes from the start, putting our main cast on edge but maybe a little complacent because of how much time has passed between significant events.

I thought this was a known issue for a couple of years now. Not only that but they have also have dumbed down plots and dialogue. And its not only netflix in my experience.

Funny on-topic anecdote. A few weeks ago I watched the new "running man" and afterwards I wanted to read some articles and opinions about it just because and I found a reddit thread where someone in the coments saying something like the movie's pace was all over the place because nothing happened for 20 mins and they just looked at their phone for 5 mins and couldnt tell what was happening. lol.

Is it wrong that I keep hearing this statement in the Matt Damon voice from “Team America World Police”?

This is why so much of that shit is unwatchable?

I think Hollywood is just turning out garbage with the same actors who give awards to eachother. The solution is not to turn out even worse garbage it’s to turn out stories people want to watch with new fresh voices and faces

Not a particularly new idea, it's bascially what Hollywood did until the 1960s.

Look, there's still content for everyone. There's shitload of content being made and some of this content is really good. We always had simple movies for people who don't like to think that much and good movies for people who do. Nothing has changed. Hollywood and Netflix didn't stop making good things. I would say that maybe those shows are just harder to find now. There's a lot of boring, repetitive shows now with good actors and great production value. You have to watch couple of episodes before you realize there's nothing there and it's not really going anywhere. But good shows and movies are still there. If you don't care for silly shows made for people on their phones just don't watch them.

I’m on my phone because the plot is full of contrivances and they keep telling me what it is, and it’s not very good.

I use Netflix mostly on my phone so I guess I'm on my phone while watching