I’m 45, and a massive Ghostbusters fan. But all it is, is a super fun zany romp. There’s nothing else of any meaningful substance. No major character arch’s or touching moments of humanity. Nobody reflecting on the nature of “living” vs “dead” if it’s all just different states of being. And the movie is certainly no worse off for the lack of it. In fact adding more meaningful scenes or concepts to it would probably make it worse.
A lot of people seem to believe a “low substance” movie is synonymous with being a bad movie. It’s not.
In my mind “Style” is entertaining and “Substance” is meaning. Ghostbusters and the rest of the movies I listed are all about only being some form of interesting entertainment. They’re lacking in any other real message, meaning, or point. (Or making it so unintelligible as to be meaningless) Some of them are very popular movies. Movies people don’t realize have no actual meaningful substance. Others are not. I would argue they’re all good at being the movies they want to be, and recognizing that sometimes substance isn’t actually worth anything.
So yes indeed, coming at it as a younger person? 🙂 You would have been like 3yo when it came out, right?
No major character arch’s or touching moments of humanity.
In terms of the former, you’d be looking for something that’s rarely there in that genre of film, so… of course not? As for the latter, I think there were some memorable humanistic moments, primarily driven by Bill Murray, and really, all the better for the movie avoiding dipping in to maudlin sentimentality and whatnot, the way other comedy-type films have done, past and since.
In my mind “Style” is entertaining and “Substance” is meaning.
Yeah, I see what you’re saying with that. GB was certainly not about meaning, per se. But where I depart from you is that I take substance as being other things as well, such as the innovation I mentioned above. The film did fall in to a certain, fairly shallow type of entertainment, yet was still outrageously novel, interesting and even ground-breaking. That’s certainly “substance” to me.
I’m 45, and a massive Ghostbusters fan. But all it is, is a super fun zany romp. There’s nothing else of any meaningful substance. No major character arch’s or touching moments of humanity. Nobody reflecting on the nature of “living” vs “dead” if it’s all just different states of being. And the movie is certainly no worse off for the lack of it. In fact adding more meaningful scenes or concepts to it would probably make it worse.
A lot of people seem to believe a “low substance” movie is synonymous with being a bad movie. It’s not.
In my mind “Style” is entertaining and “Substance” is meaning. Ghostbusters and the rest of the movies I listed are all about only being some form of interesting entertainment. They’re lacking in any other real message, meaning, or point. (Or making it so unintelligible as to be meaningless) Some of them are very popular movies. Movies people don’t realize have no actual meaningful substance. Others are not. I would argue they’re all good at being the movies they want to be, and recognizing that sometimes substance isn’t actually worth anything.
So yes indeed, coming at it as a younger person? 🙂 You would have been like 3yo when it came out, right?
In terms of the former, you’d be looking for something that’s rarely there in that genre of film, so… of course not? As for the latter, I think there were some memorable humanistic moments, primarily driven by Bill Murray, and really, all the better for the movie avoiding dipping in to maudlin sentimentality and whatnot, the way other comedy-type films have done, past and since.
Yeah, I see what you’re saying with that. GB was certainly not about meaning, per se. But where I depart from you is that I take substance as being other things as well, such as the innovation I mentioned above. The film did fall in to a certain, fairly shallow type of entertainment, yet was still outrageously novel, interesting and even ground-breaking. That’s certainly “substance” to me.
What are your thoughts on the Avatar movies?
Are they substantive?
No idea. I’m much more of bandes dessinées reader than film-watcher, in general.
That said, I’m with you in terms of films that contain meaning. I do appreciate it, and tend to rate such films higher.
It’s true, your honor, ☝️ this man has no dick.