I think we're at the point where this is going nowhere, but let's focus on these two points
"Decent art"...what IS that? It depends on who the audience is and what they expect.....
Not everybody wants a challenge....some just want to escape for a couple hours. Not everybody WANTS an intellectual challenge.
It always boils down to this. When someone is sneering at the notion of "Capital A Art", and making appeals that the market should be dictating what gets made, and that the general audience is what needs to primarily be catered to, it always comes back to these two basic points.
Firstly, there is no way to determine what is 'decent'? And then secondly, most audiences don't want to be challenged by what they watch. They want almost completely passive viewership because they're tired. They have lives they want to escape.
And these two thoughts turn out to work quite well in a tag team of total artistic apathy..
First we have all of these people, who were just looking for a 'night out', and maybe weren't willing to give the movie their full attention to begin with, because they've eaten, and have had a beer, and are looking only for one specific thing for the film to give them, and quite possibly don't have anything of particular interest to add to a larger conversation about the film beyond whether they either do or don't like the movie. It either aided the hopes or their night or it didn't.
Then we have their challenge that no one else can possibly have much to say in determining the films worth either. Certainly not the people who were paying attention. Certainly not the people who maybe had some patience with the film. Certainly not the people who might have a history of the type of movie they just watched. Certainly not those who had an open mind for whatever kind of experience the movie afforded them. Certainly not people who can articulate the thoughts and feelings they had when they watched the movie. Because how dare these people talk about what they believe to be good or not good. Because those people aren't me!
And this applies even when the 'me' in question doesn't have a single ****ing thing to say, other than 'yawn' or 'boooorinig' or 'too long' or 'I want my money back'.
Now, hold your horses before you start screaming about how there is no right and wrong in art, and it's all subjective and I have a right not to like whatever I don't and blah blah blah because NO SHIT. But this doesn't give those who have absolutely nothing to say about something equal footing with those who are actually attempting to talk about it. Who actually paid attention. Who actually put in an effort. Who don't immediately show distrust to those who approach a film or any piece of art with good faith.
Now if those people want to keep yawning themselves back into a coma because there was too much sand in Dune, that's their business. But don't talk about how your thoughts are equal to any other thought, and that there is no way to discuss quality in a film because it's completely subjective, and that you are the kind of person that should be having nearly every film market tested towards your basic tastes provide dividends towards investors.
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