Art is NOT Content
“We are very excited to be joining you July 26th; many of you are very excited, but we should set the table correctly. This film is as paper thin as the sequel to Battlefield Earth. We are mostly gonna beat each other senseless, make enemies with Disney, tell a few dick jokes, make a few jokes at my expense, make a lot of jokes at Hugh’s expense, and completely sidestep Marvel’s mandated after credits sequence which if you haven’t figured it out yet is always just a commercial for another movie which will invariably end with a commercial for another movie so sit back, relax, let us lower your IQ and increase your heart rate while we travel to a vapid dreamland, a place where grown men and grown women walk around in tights and act like it’s not a giant cultural cry for help. This. Is. Cinema.” This was Ryan Reynolds official Disclaimer to the new Deadpool movie. And let’s be real, he played it safe. It’s not just the post credit sequence, most Marvel and DC films are just commercials for the next Avengers movie, or the next Zack Snyder movie. Some might argue that they need to shitty-movie-profit to produce the good movie. Godzilla minus one had a budget of 15 million USD, VFX Oscars ever since Oscars were invented have never gone to a high budget Marvel Film. Constant engagement and fictitious improvement are attempts to boost sales, not make profit. Their demographic does not care about writing, they care about the brand. This uproar of producing more lucrative and commercial films demeans the true nature of art. Cheap screenplay overshadowed by glamorous cast and mind- blowing visual effects. With the easy availability of AI, it’s even more convenient to forge, pirate or in simpler terms to mess up with the true essence of art. AI generated art pieces and movie parodies are blowing up the internet. As entertaining as it may seem, it is threatening to the entirety of art makers’ and consumers’ communities. More complex movie storyline, more thoughtful song lyrics and art that requires you to look at it again and again rarely appeal to the major part of the audience. Fortunately, art is subjective and fortunately not every artist has a brat summer. Recycling the same idea narrows down the perception of audience and they are seldom ready to open their minds and pockets to art that does not align so much with the mainstream content. Where does all of this end? How many useless film sequels, shit live actions, wannabe poetries and plain canvases do we require to understand that ART IS NOT CONTENT. It’s not to be reprocessed so much that it loses its true identity. Making AI generative Van Gogh paintings is just a scream for attention and beautiful things don’t ask for attention. Preferably, don’t lower your IQ next time you do sit down to read a book, or walk into a theatre, or come across a painting, or when you consume any sort of art on this face of earth.
