What franchise, director, studio used to be a deadlock, but isn't now?
 

There are certain franchises and directors that for me, used to be a deadlock. In other words, if a movie was announced and it was of a particular studio, director or franchise, I would for sure see it in the theatre. But at some point, that changed.

Marvel movies. There used to be a time that if a Marvel movie was announced, I was there to see it. And I don't just mean Marvel Studios - I was there to see all the Sony movies too (except for Venom 2, as I did not care for the first one). But then the period between 2021 and 2024 changed that with a slew of bad movies: Black Widow, Eternals, Multiverse of Madness, Love and Thunder, Quantumania, the Marvels, etc. etc. For me, Quantumania was the turning point. From then on, I was skeptical of the trailer and the Marvels is the first movie I said no to. I did not see Madame Web in the theatres either. Having said that, there are certain franchises within Marvel that I have not lost faith with, including: Thor (he's too great a character to give up on yet), Spider-Man, Guardians of the Galaxy, and the Avengers. I would probably go see another Shang-Chi movie if they ever get around to making one.

Star Wars used to be an absolute deadlock for me. But after the sequel trilogy, forget about it. In my opinion there's only been one good Star Wars movie after the prequels, and that's Rogue One. The only Star Wars franchise I'm looking forward to at this point (in terms of the big screen) is The Mandalorian and Grogu.

Quentin Tarantino had a slew of releases of exceptional quality, including Kill Bill, Inglorious Basterds, Django Unchained and The Hateful Eight. It was like a juggernaut of the cinema. But I didn't care for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. I also heard that his 10th movie might be his last, and I've heard various rumors about what that 10th movie might be about, and frankly I'm not that excited about those rumors.

Disney. What happened to Disney? The same studio that brought us classics like Tron, Lion King, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Moana, are now bringing us... Well, I don't even want to get into it.

Quentin lost it for me after Jackie Brown.

John Carpenter used to have it for me. I was ride or die for John. And then I saw Ghosts of Mars.

None of the above for me.

I didn't see Drive Away Dolls in theaters. I don't know if that makes Ethan Coen one now for me, since technically I made a point of watching the Coen brothers' movies in theaters.

Re: What franchise, director, studio used to be a deadlock, but isn't
 

When I was a child, I always believed it was a good sign when a movie was produced by Tri-Star Entertainment.


It doesn't matter that I had no reason to think this. It was gospel. I would begin to rub my hands together in greedy anticipation as soon as I saw that stupid winged horse running towards me.

I used to watch Star Wars movies in the theater religiously. But after Force Awakens, I stopped going to see SW movies on the big screen.
Also used to watch Disney a lot but since the Mouse House embraced Wokeism, it’s gone downhill ever since.

Maybe I'm just misremembering it, but it's possible the reason I liked Tri-Star so much had to do with they were a pretty woke studio at the time. They were ahead of the curve and it was kind of beautiful how inclusive they were.

All four of those have gone from being, "Of course I'll see any movie from those sources," to "You couldn't drag me to any movies from those sources."

To be more specific:

I don't think Marvel has made an even passable movie not named Spider-man Something Something since Endgame, and it was already failing before that. Shang-chi was terrible, for example, an embarrassment. But was it worse than Black Widow? It obviously was not worse than Love and Thunder, which was shockingly bad. But was somehow a masterpiece compared to Eternals.
Marvel never gets my money again.

Star Wars... sigh. The Prequels were bad enough. And they are bad, bad movies. I'll never watch any of them again no matter what.
But this latest batch. The Last Jedi seems like it's the worst movie that could ever possibly be made based on Star Wars so that you think it has nowhere to go but up... and they drop The Rise Of Skywalker on you, which is the worst tent-pole movie ever made and for me, personally, remains the gold-standard for The Worst Movie I've Ever Seen In A Theater. And I saw both Ghost Dad and Leonard Part 6 in the theater.

Tarantino's movies are not bad, per se, since Death Proof ended, but they're all so bloated and self-indulgent (the very notion that The Hateful Eight needed to be three hours and seven minutes long, rather than two hours and seven minutes, is just Hubris unchained) that I can't sit through them. I'll believe Tarantino can make a genuinely good movie again when I see it. But I ain't holdin' my breath. And I ain't gonna sit through it until someone reliable convinces me that he reined in his ego and penchant for excess both in content and duration.

Disney? It's hard to know what even is Disney anymore? Isn't everything Disney now? At least everything shitty, made for the masses to grab their cash on opening weekend is. I'm done with it.