Movies Are Not Just Entertainment

okay

so i just moved and absolutely nothing

in here is set up properly but

none of that matters right now because

it is unscripted rant time

that's right i'm here to give my opinion

again about something that no one is

talking about and

an opinion that nobody even cares to

hear but that's what i'm gonna do

last week jeremy johns posted a review

of the film the tomorrow war which is

streaming on amazon prime

starring chris pratt and you know it

doesn't really look like something that

particularly interests me but i was

interested to hear his thoughts on it

and of course after a certain point i

did decide to take a look at

the best place to find opinions on the

internet the youtube comment section and

i came across

a comment that has been sticking with me

over the past week and i have a little

bit to say about it

now this comment was posted first that

just said i kind of judge movies on the

basis of

was i entertained i was totally

entertained by this movie

was it a good time for two hours yeah

sometimes people overanalyze a movie but

come on

i'm a product of 80s action movies and

they are literally the worst when it

comes to realism

but was i entertained and this isn't the

comment that i really want to dissect

the one that i want to dissect was a

direct reply to this comment that says

movies are supposed to be entertainment

not much

more now i know that 14 thumbs up isn't

a mind-blowing amount or anything but

this comment

doesn't exist in a vacuum this is

actually a sentiment

i've heard a lot in online discourse

about films

for a long time now there seems to be

this divide right down the middle

between people who want to

engage with films intellectually and

people who want to

view them as entertainment and you see

this comment a lot you know just turn

off your brain and enjoy it

movies are just entertainment now i'm

not here to tell anybody that they're

watching movies incorrectly or anything

like that in fact i think if you stick

through the video

you'll actually find quite the opposite

to be true in terms of what my overall

point

is if i ever get to it but i think that

as somebody who vehemently disagrees

with that stance i just want to offer

some

perspective i want to start this by

saying that i think that this sentiment

devalues the effort of many talented

hard-working people in the film industry

because

i mean it's sort of hard to believe now

but at one point in time

a hundred years ago film was a new

medium and all new artistic mediums

when rising to prominence will always

see a backlash of people

trying to undermine or delegitimize

that art form and i mean in my time i've

seen that a lot with video games there

was a huge discussion

uh somewhere in the mid to late 2000s

about the legitimacy of video games as

art and of course even on youtube we've

seen a lot of that with

people dissecting and discussing the

legitimacy

of creativity on youtube is me sitting

in front of a camera making this type of

video

art we could go on for days about that

but i think that we can all agree that

filmmaking

at this point at least i hope that we

can all agree that filmmaking

is an art form it is something it is a

talent it is a skill

it is as much art as anything else

painting music anything and i feel like

the sentiment that

films are just entertainment not only

does a disservice to people working in

the industry today but

to the legacy of the filmmakers and even

film critics who helped legitimize film

as an art form

obviously shout out citizen kane and i'm

not saying you have to deify

any of these people or anything like

that i'm just saying that you know i

mean

it did take a lot of risks a lot of guts

a lot of hard work and effort

to get film to the place where it is now

and

obviously we can argue about whether or

not film is in a good place right now

and that's something else i kind of want

to talk about as well is

i think that this statement that movies

are just entertainment

you should shut your brain off and enjoy

them is something

that actually may be more damaging to

the filmmaking medium

than many might realize and again it's

not because the mentality is

wrong but it's rather that it kind of

breeds especially

when it comes to film studios the

corporate decision decision-making

level of filmmaking it sort of breeds

this

mentality that basically

i guess companies kind of just think

that they can just shove

anything onto the screen and that people

will be entertained

and to a certain extent i unfortunately

think that is

true and it's hard to say this but i

think we've reached a place now at least

with blockbuster filmmaking we're

talking the films that are having

hundreds of millions of dollars pumped

into the budget

and have all these dazzling special

effects and all these things

i haven't seen the tomorrow war but i

imagine it's this kind of movie where

yeah i mean not much thought was put

into

the script in terms of making a cohesive

or emotionally engaging story

but rather just to make it entertaining

we'll have an action scene here

we'll have this scene here we'll have

this a little bit of dialogue but we

need to breeze right past it

don't think about it for too long just

have fun watching the pretty colors

watching the explosions and listen i i

love a good popcorn entertaining movie i

i do

but i think the important part of those

kind of films

also comes from the emotional engagement

and the fact that at least

the ones that i tend to enjoy the most

don't feel like

they are talking down to or insulting

the intelligence of the audience and i'm

sorry but does

does the corporate mentality that we can

just give you anything and you'll be

happy with it does that not feel

like it insults your intelligence

because it does to me i really don't

want to rag

on particular filmmakers or particular

films but this film always comes to mind

jurassic world fallen kingdom when i saw

that film

i just couldn't believe what i was

seeing on screen it was baffling i knew

what the goal of the film was i knew

that they wanted to get to a place

they're going to now with the new

jurassic world film where dinosaurs are

everywhere

but to get there it was the most asinine

story

ever there was nothing emotionally

engaging about it

and constantly i was taken out of the

film thinking about the logistics of how

none of this makes sense at all

and the sad truth was that no matter

what

dinosaurs or explosions or any of the

excellent visuals from director j.a

bojona

was on screen it didn't matter it didn't

matter at all because

i just sat there thinking does it does

this film think i'm stupid

does this film think that i'm dumb and i

think that's a hard

line to ride when it comes to those

types of movies is making something

entertaining that

maybe is not too challenging but is

really fun but i think especially when

you compare that to the original

jurassic park let's talk about jurassic

park here for a second because this to

me

is the tentpole example of what a good

blockbuster popcorn entertainment film

should be it had dazzling visual effects

it had amazing action set pieces and

everything that you would want out of an

entertaining movie but it had a heart as

well

obviously light spoilers here but sam

neil's character

obviously had an arc when it came to his

distaste for children

and how he learned to have a bond with

these kids

over the course of this journey and

really i guess that's what is so

frustrating

is that i really feel like something as

simple as that is you're not really

asking for much from the movie

i don't feel like it's at all

unreasonable

or over intellectual to ask a film to do

basic things like

give character arcs or give me something

to

emotionally attach myself to in the film

and i think

that's part of where my frustration

really comes from is the fact that

to me personally and this is all

personal subjective

obviously but to me watching movies has

always been

a very emotional experience whether it

be

from popcorn entertainment or art house

cinema

it doesn't matter and ultimately the

films that have stuck with me the most

have been the ones that i've not only

found entertaining but that i've found

very emotionally evocative films like

i can't really name my top example but

something even like e.t

for me has been majorly emotional for me

throughout the entire course of my life

since i was three years old

or more recently with films like under

the silver lake

or nocturnal animals or even her by

spike jones which

may very well be my favorite film of all

time i can name a ton of examples and

i'm not necessarily saying that any of

these films

are the best of the best or that they're

definitively better

than anything that may be coming out in

theaters

as of the last few years or in the

future i'm not saying any of that

all i'm saying is that those films for

me had a very profound

impact on me on a very deep level

and that is something that once you get

to taste that

i feel like and again you don't have to

use my taste in films

as a guy whatever that is for you i

think

when you get a taste of a film that

affects you

in that way it is eye-opening it opens

you up to a whole other world

that you may not have known was possible

and when you have that experience with a

movie

it is so difficult to engage yourself

with films that can't do that i'm not

saying it's impossible it's just

it's difficult to just turn your brain

off and

enjoy the pretty special effects when

you know that there's more out there for

you i feel like that kind of experience

is just so integral to

why i enjoy movies that it's something i

can't separate myself from

and again i'm not saying this as a

definitive this is

just my perspective so and that's

really ultimately why i find the phrase

movies are just entertainment so

frustrating is because

movies in general that ex the experience

of watching a movie

is vastly different from person to

person it's very

subjective people enjoy films for all

sorts of different reasons

and that is clear through the discourse

we are having

some people watch them purely as

entertainment for other people

it is catharsis and i know this is

probably hard to believe

but some people legitimately do not give

a [ __ ] about movies at all

and don't watch them ever everybody has

a different experience when they watch a

film

and there is no right way or wrong way

to watch a film

i don't believe in

over-intellectualizing and i don't

believe that if you watch films

purely as entertainment that means that

you are dumb and that you're watching

the movie wrong

the truth is just that it's an

experience

that everybody is going to have on an

individual basis and that

we can all enjoy movies for completely

different reasons

and all of that is fine and saying

something like

movies are just entertainment boils

everything down to

such a narrow view of film

as an art and how it affects people it

just puts a ceiling

on how people can engage with movies it

says

they're just entertainment you can't

love them

in any other way and i think that sort

of definitive

blanket statement about any art form any

anything that people want to engage with

but especially for me

movies is not

conducive to real life for one it isn't

helpful and i don't think it's something

that we need to promote for multiple

reasons

like i said it just isn't representative

at all of

how people engage with art it's just not

at all representative of that but i

don't know i

what do i know i'm just some guy on the

internet with a microphone and a camera

talking in a room

to the ether so it doesn't matter but

i don't know i just wanted to get my

thoughts out there about this because

this is a particular thought

that has been stuck in my brain for a

while now and i would love to hear

what you guys have to say about it i

want to hear

your perspectives what is what is the

experience of watching a movie to you

is it purely entertainment are you just

there to be distracted from your life

for a couple hours

or are you looking for a little bit i

won't say a little bit more are you

looking for something different

are you looking for an emotional

profound experience that

moves you to tears or puts a smile on

your face

or maybe even makes you go into an

existential crisis

what what is it that you look for in

films what are some films that you think

encapsulate

what the experience of watching a movie

is to you i would love to hear all of

that

in the comments down below i really

appreciate anybody

who took the time to actually watch this

insane rant

and yeah like comment subscribe do all

the things that kill me inside every

time i have to say them

that's gonna be it for me meep top out

you