The problem comes from the fact that IPs are supposed to be entertainment first, messaging second.
Maybe you just want entertainment, but the purpose of art has almost always been message-first. If a piece of art isn’t trying to say something, what’s the point? People trying to act like gaming, or any other form of art, should only focus on entertaining, and always has, are not very media-literate. I can’t think of a single classically well received movie that doesn’t have a message it’s trying to tell.
Nuance, yeah. That’s important. The goal of art is to get someone to feel like the idea you’re trying to give them came from themselves. That’s when it’s effective. It doesn’t really work when you’re just telling them how to think. It just annoys people.
Also, of course some garbage will also be made when people are allowed freedom to be creative. The difference is that good things can be made in that situation, not that it always will. It pretty much never will if everything is targeted towards mass appeal. That ensures no one in particular will care because there isn’t a target. They do it because it’s a safe bet. This implies the alternative is more risky, meaning more failures (like Joker 2), but also the opportunity for greatness.
I disagree with this:
Maybe you just want entertainment, but the purpose of art has almost always been message-first. If a piece of art isn’t trying to say something, what’s the point? People trying to act like gaming, or any other form of art, should only focus on entertaining, and always has, are not very media-literate. I can’t think of a single classically well received movie that doesn’t have a message it’s trying to tell.
Nuance, yeah. That’s important. The goal of art is to get someone to feel like the idea you’re trying to give them came from themselves. That’s when it’s effective. It doesn’t really work when you’re just telling them how to think. It just annoys people.
Also, of course some garbage will also be made when people are allowed freedom to be creative. The difference is that good things can be made in that situation, not that it always will. It pretty much never will if everything is targeted towards mass appeal. That ensures no one in particular will care because there isn’t a target. They do it because it’s a safe bet. This implies the alternative is more risky, meaning more failures (like Joker 2), but also the opportunity for greatness.