What makes a film truly bad, and what makes it genuinely good? We have been trained for decades to think in binaries. Since Siskel and Ebert famously reduced movies to a simple thumbs up or thumbs down, we have been conditioned to judge films as either good or bad. I want to offer a different perspective. Maybe the reason so many films today feel awful is not that they are bad in the traditional sense. Maybe it is because they simply lack anything good.
I think the reason most films are seen as “bad” is not that they are actually poorly made. Hollywood equipment is excellent. Cameras, microphones, and lighting are all top-notch. Sound design, costumes, and set pieces are competent, even if not spectacular. The people making these films know what they are doing, believe it or not.
I think a “bad” movie today is not like The Room, where everything is actively bad. It is shot badly, it is acted badly, and it is poorly written. Of course, there are still genuinely bad movies being made. The new War of the Worlds is a prime example.
Get it? Prime? – Moving on
I think the biggest problem today is that most films are made for streaming, with the goal of producing as much shallow content as possible to inflate the libraries of streaming services. Many of these movies are created according to a checklist. You see this a lot in the horror genre. The Nun 2 is a perfect example. It feels like the filmmaker had to include a scene with the demon nun, followed by a jump scare, and so on.
The real problem is not so much that things are bad; the problem is that there is an absence of good. So many films today are just middle-of-the-road and a little under. Nothing is bad enough to be truly considered as such; instead, nothing stands out at all. How many movies have you seen that just left you with, well, nothing?
Take the film The Accountant, an action movie where Ben Affleck plays a character with autism. It’s an action movie that sounds like it should be memorable, but oddly enough isn’t. I also remember watching American Assassin in theaters with Michael Keaton. The funny thing is, I remember the act of watching the film but very little of the actual film. There are more examples, but it’s hard to remember forgettable movies. On the other hand, films like Mad Max: Fury Road or Hereditary might have flaws or uneven pacing, but the highs hit hard and the lows hit low. The action sequences, the shocking moments, and the sheer audacity of some scenes stay with you long after the credits roll. That’s the difference between something that just isn’t bad and something that actually has good in it.
So many films today have simple plots, unremarkable acting, and set pieces we have seen a hundred times. There are only so many stories to tell, so the goal is not to be completely original but to create something that stands out. Too often, you finish a movie and cannot remember a single moment once the credits roll or after closing your streaming service.
My favorite example is Fullmetal Alchemist. I personally like the 2003 version more than Brotherhood. I do think Brotherhood is better overall, but the 2003 version has bigger highs and lower lows. I tend to prefer media that takes risks and reaches for something memorable, rather than media that simply avoids being bad. How you decide which version is better says a lot about how you perceive films and storytelling.
Many movies today lack anything truly memorable, leaving the viewing experience shallow and forgettable. You could argue that such films are inherently bad because they have nothing good to show, and I wouldn’t disagree. The real problem is that they never aim for anything remarkable.
The problem is that in the age of streaming, movies tend to look like a grey mass on TV. How is anybody supposed to find the hidden gems when everything is just the same.
I think everybody has started watching a movie only to realize they have already seen it. This only happens when something is forgettable. After all, you don’t forget The Godfather.
What I hope to see in the future is more risk-taking. Sure, The Room fails spectacularly, but at least it is memorable. I think we are heading toward safe cinema, where nothing challenges us and nothing expands our horizons. Art is supposed to shape us and make us more well-rounded. Our goal should be to grow and challenge ourselves, not stay the same, consuming comfort.