With many new movies having been recently released, many audiences have noticed a lack of individuality, cinematic integrity, and newness. It seems that the newer motion pictures contained more rushed scenes that lack the emotion that movies/ TV shows had in the past. These qualities are crucial in a good movie, whether the viewer realizes it or not.
A lot of recent movies have been criticized for their lack of authenticity, and for focusing on the aesthetics of the film from the viewers’ perspective. This has upset many audiences, especially fans of preexisting franchises such as: Marvel, DC, Star Wars, and the popular game series Five Nights at Freddy’s. These specific franchises have been under their respective criticisms for lacking depth and passion in their recent projects.
“I think older films have a lot more creativity, and I don’t know why. I think all, like, newer movies have this prerequisite, or they have to be really high quality and have all these big actors,” Lewis Bacon (12) said.
According to Bacon, originality in older movies is simply unmatched by newer ones. Most of the time older movies will even act as the blueprint for certain newer movies, a popular comparison is “Pulp Fiction’s” speech that was borrowed from the 1980 kung-fu film “Shogun Assassin.” Though both movies are older, this comparison is a rhetoric that many film-lovers notice.
Still, while many say that they prefer the older movies, others like to point out that the newer movies also have some good qualities.
“I feel like modern cinema is… kind of like just meant to be more intense and older cinema is, like, more focused on the writing aspect of the movie or the media,” Carson Heck (12) said. “A crucial aspect of cinema is the writing and the storyline that the movie/ TV show follows. The way the characters speak and interact with one another is a major part of how the audience will understand and keep up with the plot. In older cinema, many viewers report on how older cinema embodies the roles and the plot of its story, whereas many newer films have a ‘shallow’ and less original scope of plot.
“I feel like more effort is actually put into making the new movies, but even with less effort, the old movies still have better storylines and stuff,” Heck continues, further pointing out that while new movies require more effort and time, the older movies continue to be the most nostalgic.
Of course, older movies also have their downsides, newer movies being known to have better graphics and CGI. For some audience members, these elements are more important than the integrity of plot or dialogue you find in older movies and shows.
“Old movies, they sometimes look weird when they try to use, like, CGI and stuff if you look at like, the older technology they use,” Cameron Davidson (11) said.
Many of those who enjoy action movies over dramas, or other genres of movies that heavily rely on its plot rather than the aesthetic of the graphics, appreciate the newer technological developments of cinema.
“I just wish they were more smaller actors, I guess, in, like, phone media, in culture, because I feel like I always see the same faces everywhere,” Bacon said. He also explains that he finds it sad, not only that the same actors and actresses are used constantly instead of the industry reaching out, but how the actors chosen don’t usually display a good show of character off screen. Bacon suggests that more film studios try to find faces that haven’t been all over the media for quite some time, trying to opt for more actors who haven’t yet made their big debut.
How many different aspects of cinema come together can really make or break how the moving pictures are perceived in the media and in the box office. Depending on genre, personal preferences, and even new developments in cinema, everyone has different opinions on their favorite films. However, the majority of viewers have more good things to say about older movies rather than newer movies. This could be for a multitude of reasons, factors of nostalgia or authenticity being prominent among them.
While recognizing the development of certain cinematic aspects and techniques, there is a boldness and strange familiarity in older films that make them stand out in comparison to what the audience sees in theaters today. Often while critiquing older cinema, there is always an appreciation for the movies/ TV shows that were the inspiration for modern cinema we now see on the big screens.
