So is this just gonna be a thing now? Me wanting to write about Kamen Rider, but getting waylaid by
cultural juggernauts and entertainment industry shifts of infinitely greater
weight? Probably, but that doesn’t mean
I can’t be salty about it. How can I get
people to like the things I like if I can’t shill the things I like?
…I mean, granted, the next post on Ex-Aid would inevitably have me tearing
it several new ones. But it was gonna be so much fun. Alas, now I have to do this first. Just as well, though; it’s the blog’s sixth
anniversary, so I should write something special instead of the same old, same
old.
Blame the Porgs.
I can’t help but think about Star Wars: The Last Jedi. I
still haven’t seen it, and the way things are going? I probably won’t -- in theaters, at
least. But videos for it keep popping up
in my “Recommended for You” slot on YouTube, and it’s typically the Red Letter
Media take on it. I’m tempted to rewatch it each time it shows
up, but I’ve relented. Is there any
point in it? I know their stance. I know that there are people that like the
movie, and people that hate it. Will
they ever be able to reconcile their differences? Sure, but battle lines have been drawn, and
I’d imagine that opinions won’t change too
drastically from here on.
What I’m really interested in is the aftermath of The Last Jedi. Disney, Lucasfilm, and the film crews (past,
present, and future) have got to be keeping a pulse on the reactions to the
movie. If they’re really committed to
keeping Star Wars alive, then they
have to prove that their movies are worth the price of admission. The
Force Awakens was the start, but I’m guessing part of that came from the
curiosity and novelty of it. “Yo,
there’s a new Star Wars movie! Gotta see what’s up!” Every movie going forward won’t have that
luxury. People are paying attention. They’re demanding more, and won’t let anyone
get away with doing the bare minimum or relying on cheap tricks.
Well, I say as
much. But I have an optimistic outlook
on things.
The ones in power…uh…they, uh…don’t.
How much of a course correction does SW need in the wake of TLJ (and to a lesser extent Rogue One)? That answer is probably going to vary from
person to person. But if we must be
cynical about the situation -- and we probably should, because it also means
being realistic -- then it probably won’t change much. TFA made infinite dollars at the box
office, with
TLJ doing its best to creep up on it. Is there a need to change when there’s so
much money coming in? Is there really,
though? I mean, who cares about customer
satisfaction as long as you get paid and shareholders stay happy and well-fed?
Like I’ve said before, that’s the misfortune of
the situation. In order to judge the
quality of a piece of art -- a video game, a book, a movie, and everything else
in the entertainment industry -- you have to buy in. Slap down cash to decide if a work is good or
bad. If you like something, then that’s
cool; you can say you enjoyed a work, become a fan, and buy in next time
something related to it comes out. If
you loathe something so much that your skeleton rattles out of your body from
the sheer rage, then guess what? You’re
out of luck. You still gave the work --
or rather, the creator/company behind it -- your money. At a base level, they win as long as they get
people to play the proverbial game. And
sure, they can and should course correct if fans had a violent reaction,
because otherwise it means a lowered return of investment in the future. But in terms of immediate, short-term
benefits? Grab ‘em early, grab their
cash, and laugh as the dollars rain down.
That’s the system.
That’s how it’s always been -- but lately, it’s been getting easier and
easier for me to resent it. To be
bitter. To want the whole system to burn
down. What does it take to make a
world-renowned work these days? A strong
creative vision? Unrivaled technique and
wisdom? Unforgettable casts, worlds, and
adventures? NAH, SON. NAH.
Imma break it down for ya.
1) Have a recognizable name.
2) Make it look good. And new.
Especially new.
3) Play it safe.
Take no chances and play to audience expectations.
3) Marketing!
I’m not just picking on SW here. This is an issue
that’s not only well-worn territory, but also a problem that’s plagued the
entertainment industry as a whole. I
mean, would you just look at the
state of AAA gaming? We’re still getting
Call of Duty and Battlefield games because…hey, it’s a new one to buy. Assassin’s
Creed is at it again, even though it should’ve crawled under the bed and
stayed there after Unity. Actually, Ubisoft in general deserves a black
spot next to its name, because even when it “tries” to do something new, it’s
still borderline generic gruel that withers on the vine once the hype train
peels out. I know they have their fans,
but when was the last time The Division and
For Honor had a lasting impact on the
gaming populace?
That’s not even the worst of it. How many remakes and reboots are we going to
get, no matter how much they miss the point of -- and end up being inferior to
-- the original? (That’s a twofer,
because video games and movies commit the same sins there.) Like, would DmC have gotten anywhere -- besides unrelenting infamy and shame --
if it didn’t piggyback on the Devil May
Cry name? How long are companies
going to coast on nostalgia and remnants of the past to lure people back
in? To me, Final Fantasy 15 is bland and inoffensive at best (which,
paradoxically, makes it more offensive). But it sold a bunch of copies because…hey,
it’s a new Final Fantasy. And now it’s being used as a vehicle for DLC
with edits that A) actively transform the game into something else, and B)
should have been in the game announced more than a decade ago.
The lurching behemoths in the entertainment
industry are only gaining more rolls of fat on their misshapen, boil-riddled
forms. If not financially, then
certainly spiritually; AAA gaming has been scampering to find new monetization
methods for years now before they’re crushed under their own weight like
beached whales. (Ah, the schadenfreude
of a self-inflicted hell.) Hollywood is
a goddamn mess for a litany of reasons, the
lack of originality being one of them.
Don’t
even get me started on anime. And
now things might get worse before they get better, because Disney’s buyout of
21st Century Fox means that it might as well own everything you know
and/or love.
Look, I get it.
Works of fiction and entertainment are part of an industry. They need to make money, because the people
behind those works have to survive. As
do the companies that fund and produce the works; the price tag for making some
of this stuff is enough to give a cheetah in its prime a heart attack. But at some point, you have to say “Hey, I
appreciate the money you put in and will get out of this venture, but do you
think that maybe you could work on improving the quality of your work instead of
just dumping more on us? That’d be
swell. What? What do you mean you’re sending in hired
goons to break my kneecaps? All I did
was raise a legitimate compla-OW, MY KNEECAPS!”
And let’s be fair here: just because a company is
big or powerful or money-grubbing doesn’t inherently mean they’ll put out trash
or just want money. Even if they expect a return of investment,
the bigwigs put their faith in creators and teams that’ll do their product or
license right. It’s the reason why I’m
still willing to put trust in and vouch for the Marvel movies. They might as well be rolling down a conveyor
belt at this point, but at least they’re solid films. You can rely on them for good
entertainment. The MCU is one of the few
umbrellas that’s getting superheroes right -- though to be fair, it’s not as if
there are a ton of other umbrellas right now.
There might be a reason for that.
I like the Marvel movies, but there are
caveats. One: though I’d argue there’s at least an effort to try and mix
things up with each successive movie, boy,
the seams are starting to show the strain.
Two: as much as I love
superheroes (ask me about Kamen Rider,
I dare you), I don’t want every movie I see to be about them or try and
maintain that set-in-stone aesthetic.
More importantly? Three: the line between “doing it for
the art” and “doing it for the cash” is getting increasingly blurry, if it
wasn’t already. And it probably was --
so imagine what this means, coming from an admitted MCU fanboy/shill. It’s probably not a coincidence that Baby
Groot went from a one-off joke at the end of one movie to a main character in
the sequel. And
by “probably” I mean “definitely”.
But the most damning part of all is that the MCU
-- for all its efforts to at least try, or pretend to try, to produce good work
-- is emblematic of the problem with…well, every major player in the
entertainment industry. It’s not just
Disney and Marvel gunning for bank-busting paychecks; it seems like a huge
number of players are doing their best to make money first. Everything else --
including making a competent story -- is a distant second. You’d
think that a good story would come first, because it’s not as if you need a
phalanx of computer animators to build a three-act plot. Then again, I guess having common sense is
why I don’t have a cocaine-spewing wind tunnel in my mansion in Malibu.
I mean, jeez.
How many people, studios, and companies are going to chase after the pot
of gold until they realize the vast majority of them will run straight off of a
cliff? Remember when everybody was
trying to copy Call of Duty, not
realizing that it was unnecessary because people could just buy Call of Duty instead? Remember when it seemed like everybody got
cinematic universe fever, but to date only one of them has managed to survive
(and the only other one is on life support)?
Remember when it seemed like we could get anything, in any genre, from
anybody -- and now the potential’s been filed down to a nub for the sake of
safe income for suits that will never, ever have to worry about landing on the
streets? Remember when stories were
good?
Okay, that last one you can throw out. It’s not as if we haven’t gotten shit -- of
the money-grubbing, irreparably-flawed, or creatively-bankrupt type --
before. It’s not as if we’ll suddenly
stop getting shit, be it in the immediate present or the distant future, even
if we enter some sort of utopian age.
There will always be products, works, pieces, and stories of varying
quality. Some will be good. Some will be bad. Some will be in the middle. But in the current climate, I can’t help but
wonder if we’ve reached a point where the actual quality of a work doesn’t
matter strictly because of all the other factors that orbit it. The name, the familiarity, the marketing, the
bells and whistles, the slate of attributes, and everything in between -- have we
reached a point where that takes precedence over what’s actually important to a
work, especially if it’s narrative-driven?
Which, last I checked, was a metric crapton of them? Have we reached a point where nothing matters
except making sure people buy in immediately so executives can line their
pockets with gold?
In a world where Star Wars will keep breaking box office records and get more
sequels no matter what fans think, I have to ask: do stories matter anymore?
…
…Let me answer that for you.
YES.
I’m not just saying that as an optimist. Remember: even if I act all high and mighty
-- like the font of wisdom, delivered from the heavens -- I’m down here in the
trenches with the rest of you. I know
that things can get pretty bad, and will continue to be bad in a lot of
cases. But let’s not pretend like there’s
no light or goodness in the world. There
is. Remember, as of writing we’re hot
off the heels of 2017; that one year saw a deluge of games so massive that
there are literally hundreds of hours of fresh content for anyone to endure and
survive. I speak from experience;
between Tales of Berseria and Persona 5 alone, I clocked in about 177
hours.
Both of those games are amazing as hell -- yet
they had to share the spotlight with plenty of other amazing releases in that
year. Arguably, they had to share the
spotlight with plenty of other amazing releases in that quarter. And you know what the
common thread was between plenty of those games? A slavish commitment to telling the best
stories possible, either from a narrative angle or from the luxuries of the
audiovisual medium. To wit: Tales of Berseria came out more than a
year ago. Not only am I still thinking
about it, but I’m fighting the urge to replay it ASAP. That might be a battle I’m destined to lose.
Stories are going to stay important, no matter
what the flow of money says. EA
notoriously declared that single-player games aren’t as popular or
worthwhile as they used to be, and argued that there’s plenty of justification
to pivot away from them for the sake of multiplayer focus. Not only did gamers up and down the industry
disagree (and passionately), but plenty of games in 2017 and beyond -- before
and inevitably after -- proved
otherwise. You might not make as
much money off of a one-off experience that demands a lot of work and talent,
but at least you can maintain some semblance of artistic integrity. At least you’ll be trying to do something
more besides put paying customers on leashes and treadmills.
Yes, the world can seem cruel and unfair at times,
especially when those with power and money can use that power and money to gain
even more power and money. That’s a fact of life that won’t change
anytime soon. If anything, it’ll get
worse before it gets better; the landscape is in such a form that there are
people out there -- the bigwigs who pull the strings, and the subservient
audience willing to have their limbs tugged every which way -- who really do
believe that stories don’t matter as long as they’re satisfied on a shallow,
base level. “Well, as long as we do X,
Y, and Z with our product, we’ll succeed.
We can iron out the -- pfft -- quality
later.” Or “I don’t care about any
of that nerd shit. I just wanna see A,
B, and C.” They’re out there. But so are the heroes. So are the ones with the courage and skill to
realize their visions -- and those who welcome new, bold art with open arms.
Do stories still matter anymore? Yes -- simply because they’re stories. They never stopped mattering, nor will they ever stop mattering. It’s
about more than just baseline entertainment value. It’s about giving the people incredible
characters, locales, and journeys that’ll prove infinitely more precious than
money. It’s as important to the human
race as eating, sleeping, and breathing.
Whether it’s the dawn of recorded history, oral traditions, or just
drawings of animals on cave walls, storytelling has been an endemic, intrinsic
part of who we are. Why should that stop
just because of a couple of franchises and companies?
The correct answer is that it shouldn’t. And it won’t.
Yes, we’re going to have to endure a lot. Yes, the rich will probably only get richer,
and in ways that are sure to have us tearing out every last strand of
hair. But it’s not over, damn it.
Stories will only stop mattering when we as a collective society make
them stop mattering -- and that’s not going to happen. The outcries against EA have proven
that. The onslaught of great single
player games throughout 2017 has proven that.
The differences of opinion on TLJ have
proven that. The course correction for
the DC Extended Universe has proven that.
The widespread disdain for the Transformers
movies has proven that. There aren’t
just faceless corporations pumping slurry into the trough. There aren’t just unwashed masses ramming
their faces into piles of slop. There
are heroes on all sides. And as long as
we have heroes, we’ll have more than stories.
We’ll always have hope. Always.
Here’s to a new year. Let’s make it the best yet.
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