For a long time, movies have just not felt the same. I don’t know if it is because I have gotten older, but movies have lost their magic effect. Movies like “Cars”, “Toy Story”, “Kung Fu Panda”, “Star Wars”, and the entire “MARVEL” Franchise dominated the early 2000s. These movies were perfect examples of cinematic masterpieces due to their amazing scripts and ability to keep the watchers engaged in the movie itself, which will be remembered for years to come.
Ever since the COVID-19 virus hit in 2020 and movie theaters closed, the quality of movies have been very lackluster. While 2020 saw an all-time high in movie watchers, it was because everyone had to watch from the comfort of their own home. However, review-wise, 2020 produced some of the most mediocre movies. To attest to my claim, the top movie of the year based on views and net income was “ Wonder Woman 1984 . This movie was not at all bad, but it was not amazing either. The lack of a hook to engage the watcher and lack of a “new” storyline from the first movie really did not help this movie in the eyes of the world. From the reviews by critics and the 58% rating on Rotten Tomatoes ,Rotten Tomatoes are the overall reviews of a movie dictating its quality to audience members. This movie is nothing less than mediocre! Some of the other movies from this year included “Sonic the Hedgehog” and “Bill and Ted Face the Music”. I watched both of these movies and probably lost a cumulative five hours of my life. Both of these movies tried to bring a modern twist to older hit games and movies, but failed drastically.
Moving on to 2021, the movies significantly stepped up in quality. We saw the release of, in my opinion, the greatest movie collab of all time in “Spider Man: No Way Home.” This movie brought together the iconic spider man trio of Toby McGuire, Andrew Garfield, and Tom Holland. I have no bad things to say about this movie and I loved every aspect of it. On the other hand though, movies like “Dune” and “Eternals” came out in this same year. Though these movies were very highly rated, I saw them in theaters and they did not live up to my expectations. Especially for “Dune,” which is an adaptation from a novel, I expected a lot more cohesiveness all around that ultimately was lacking. For “Eternals,” there is no doubt that they rushed this movie and definitely should have taken a lot more time to hone in on the overall quality of the movie itself. Respectively, they earned scores of 87% and 43%, which is not too bad for “Dune,” but awful for “Eternals.” The fact that these movies did so well for this year is something to give credit to, but if we look at the larger scope of this many of these movies are definitely at the bottom of the all time movies list.
In 2022, the movie quality declined extensively. This year the cinema produced movies such as “Black Adam”, “Avatar: The Way of Water”, and “Puss In Boots: The Last Wish.” “Black Adam” was extremely hyped up and then flopped. It received a 38% Rotten Tomato score, and to tell it honestly, it probably should have been lower. Much of this movie just consisted of a basic story-line and, like many of the movies before, lacked the creative element. “Avatar: The Way Of Water” was a very long awaited film. Being a sequel to the best grossing film ever, this movie delivered on its amazing and mesmerizing graphics. I believe this movie lived up to its expectations, but the story could have been worked on a little bit more, judging on how long it took for them to work on this movie. Finally, I believe one of the best movies to come out in the past five years, other than “Avengers Endgame,” is “Puss and Boots: The Last Wish”. This movie plays on the early childhood character first introduced in “Shrek”, Puss in Boots. The movie showed how even the most thrill-seeking characters can always be prone to fears of death. The story was conveniently made to include childhood characters for all ages. I think this was an amazing movie, and I would recommend everyone go watch it.
If anything is reflected by this story it is that movies as a whole have significantly gone downhill since 2020. With the lack of creativity, due to lack of time to work given to a lot of writers and directors, many movies are coming out and flopping in theaters. Not just in revenue, but also in audience reviews and enjoyment. I hope the movies coming in the next few months are better and can catch the audiences with an interesting review.
