• Edelgard [she/her]
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    edit-2
    3 years ago

    This is fun, y’all need to stop being grumpy millennials.

    If copyright didn’t exist, we’d see shit like this in every single movie. Think about all of the cultural tropes and signifiers that are just locked up behind bullshit private property laws right now.

    These big companies owning so much shit ironically gives us a limited preview of what a world after copyright could look like.

    That final ending did suck though, they should have kept circling through powers. Bathos bad.

    Tbf I also want to :bonk: Ryan Reynolds so there’s that.

    • Ho_Chi_Chungus [she/her]
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      3 years ago

      If copyright didn’t exist, we’d see shit like this in every single movie.

      oh god what a horrifying thought

      • Edelgard [she/her]
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        edit-2
        3 years ago

        lol copyright forces creatives to reinvent the wheel a lot. It would probably be less tacky, which is why it’s a warped example. Parts of a fairy tale showing up in a movie mostly don’t have “omg its the fairy godmother from cinderella” lines in them.

    • mr_world [they/them]
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      3 years ago

      If it weren't for copyright these things wouldn't be major cultural signifiers.

      • Edelgard [she/her]
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        3 years ago

        idk I think advertising only goes so far and at least some of it would have made its way into the collective unconscious.

        The OG Star Wars were aggressively anti-imperialist films that came out in the middle of a country actually coping with its own naked imperialism. That shit sunk in hard.

        • mr_world [they/them]
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          3 years ago

          Star Wars was a product. Think of all the Star Wars that never got made because no studio would pick them up. Think about the vastness of human experience and commentary that exits outside of white guys in Hollywood, CA in the 1970s/80s. You're thinking too narrow. There could have been much more and overt anti-imperialist films being made and Star Wars would have been one thing in hundreds or thousands. The fact that it was a brand meant it had to be reinforced in culture and continued to keep churning profits. Thus it was further embedded in the mythology of Hollywood. Plus they were fine with making an anti-imperialist movie because Americans never saw themselves as the Empire. It was modeled after Nazis. Anti-imperialism was fine a long time ago in the US because it specifically meant anti-European imperial powers. The US wanted to cement US capitalism as the world order. JFK was all about anti-imperialism. Though we all know that American capitalism is just another form of imperialism, liberals don't. The average person doesn't.

          Star Wars is not anti-imperialist because the movie had rebels fighting an evil empire. It's a product of empire. You can't separate it being a product of empire from the story or plot or message or whatever else. The idea that Star Wars planted a seed of anti-imperialism and therefore that's why people are leftists now is pretty immaterial. Don't get lost in idealism. People were anti-imperial before Star Wars but for different reasons than you think (as I said above) and people were anti-war because they could be drafted. Then, after Star Wars came out, Americans very much became okay with being the Empire. In fact they doubled down on it right around the time the Prequel Trilogy came out. Revenge of the Sith came out in 2005, during the height of Americans wanting to crush the rebels for blowing up their towers.

          Movies are downstream from politics, not the other way around.

          • Edelgard [she/her]
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            edit-2
            3 years ago

            Star Wars was a product.

            Yes. Capitalism commodifies everything, that’s how it works. Art / creative expression mostly starts somewhat separated from that and then is sculpted / productized.

            You’re thinking too narrow. There could have been much more and overt anti-imperialist films being made and Star Wars would have been one thing in hundreds or thousands

            There could have been a lot of things. I don’t agree that I’m thinking too narrow, I’m just not writing an essay on the nature of pop culture lol

            Movies are downstream from politics, not the other way around.

            Yeah, of course? It’s a reflection of the conditions it is made in. Not sure how my comment about the themes in the movie implied otherwise.

            I was specifically making a point about the film responding to Americans coping with a limited form of blowback for their imperialism (the draft).

            Star wars and star trek were both kept alive for a number of decades by their fan bases with limited advertising. The EU was basically Lucas just letting people do whatever with the universe off to the side. Limited and fenced in free use.

            I’m not painting any of this stuff as utopic or somehow consciously socialist ideologically, just talking about them functionally.

            Something to consider when you’re riffing with people: The whole tone of your comment is weirdly condescending, but that might just be my own issues with being mansplained to on other stuff so whatever.

    • Lil_Revolitionary [she/her,they/them]
      hexagon
      ·
      3 years ago

      I feel like pop culture references would be a lot better in a post-copyright world, all these people can say is "wow check out how cool this property is"

      If you want a preview of a world without copyright, early YouTube was closer. This clip is what Smosh would look like with a bigger budget, except Smosh wasn't trying to sell Avengers toys

      • Edelgard [she/her]
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        edit-2
        3 years ago

        Oh yeah, I agree. I love Scott Pilgrim and it remixes references waaay better even though it’s a pretty old movie.

        The forty repeats of “did you see the thing we had to pay money to license” screams “CEO insecurity” to me.

        idk how I never heard of smosh, but this is pretty funny.

    • mittens [he/him]
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      3 years ago

      If copyright didn’t exist, we’d see shit like this in every single movie.

      we see shit like this in every single blockbuster movie for infants tho

      • Edelgard [she/her]
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        edit-2
        3 years ago

        We’ve def seen more of it over like the last 5 years maybe? Corps are mostly trash at it right now and are using it for gimmicks like this instead of building the ideas in more organically to the story.

        It’s still cool to see IP rigidity disintegrating.

        • mittens [he/him]
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          3 years ago

          we have seen it for as long as the stupid hero with a thousand faces book has been popularized as an alternative to cliffnotes by prestigious screenwriters

          • Edelgard [she/her]
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            edit-2
            3 years ago

            Are you talk about the hero’s cycle or? Because that’s been around longer than that book.

            • mittens [he/him]
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              edit-2
              3 years ago

              yeah, i mean it's obviously some sort of anthropological device but now it's used as a framework for AAA adventure movie types, there's a set of interchangable stuff going on between each of them, but like i don't think there's a real meaningful difference between Emoji Movie, Wreck-It Raph and this movie, except the merely superficial. The protagonist and setting is completely interchangable. I liked wreck-it ralph too.

              i mean i'm not saying this lightly, there are manuals that provide a basic structure based on Campbell's work , they are popular, you can tell.

              • Edelgard [she/her]
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                edit-2
                3 years ago

                For sure, I think we agree this isn’t fine art or anything. I grew up watching telenovelas so I don’t care if something obviously terrible is terrible as long as it’s entertaining lol

                I’m going to judge a shitpost and a graphic novel differently, you know?

                • mittens [he/him]
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                  edit-2
                  3 years ago

                  I’m going to judge a shitpost and a graphic novel differently, you know?

                  Yeah that's true that's true

                  • Edelgard [she/her]
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                    edit-2
                    3 years ago

                    Right? Not trying to counterjerk just to counterjerk, I’m just a girl who loves pulp in her pop culture orange juice.

                    • mittens [he/him]
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                      3 years ago

                      Yeah you had me at the telenovela part tbh, I get people enjoying something non-cerebral in a comfort food kinda way. I guess the Disney IP pandering did make the idea sound a lot less appealing to me than it actually is.

                      • Edelgard [she/her]
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                        edit-2
                        3 years ago

                        I love the comfort food comparison, that is so perfect! Telenovelas are such a great medium because they’re really honest about what they’re trying to do.

                        A lot of American stuff is more hesitant about being sincere even when its camp. American movies will also genre bend more, which is fine and can be cool, but often muddles the tone of the movie imo.

                        I love John Waters movies for defying this because they just go HAM. I remember someone posted a video here a while ago where Divine shoots a pig with a 12 gauge and then an army of queer people cannibalize the cop. That rocks. It’s brave and it isn’t afraid to just go there.

    • SuperNovaCouchGuy [any]
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      edit-2
      3 years ago

      If copyright didn’t exist, we’d see shit like this in every single movie.

      Americope. If copyright didnt exist then indie projects would be able to flourish and be free to use whatever they want without fear of getting banhammerd. For example, look at what games workshop did to the Astartes miniseries, along with other youtube fan animation about the wh40k universe. Youtube videos and twitch streams would be more enjoyable too.

      False alarm I lack reading comprehension skills.

      • Edelgard [she/her]
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        3 years ago

        I think we’re making the same point? These ideas would be free use for anyone to riff on.

        • SuperNovaCouchGuy [any]
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          edit-2
          3 years ago

          Yeah and it won't be a bad thing?

          Wait nvm sorry I totally misinterpreted what you said!

    • ProfessionalSlacker
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      3 years ago

      I always found this a bit funny. People complain about over-saturation of superhero movies, do you know how many goddamn Spider-Man movies would come out if it were free domain?

      • Edelgard [she/her]
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        3 years ago

        Yeah. It’s easy and fun to dunk on slop, so I get it, but I just like seeing this stuff blended together because it’s what I think should be happening with everything. Remixing is good.

          • Edelgard [she/her]
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            3 years ago

            I think everything should be available to be remixed by artists. It’s a part of the creative process that is currently severely restricted by capitalism.

            Again, being really general here, but copyright cuts off / restricts one of the ways culture can process the synthesis of a concept or theme.

            This shitpost of a movie with Ryan Reynolds is interesting to use as an example because it’s so blatant and clunky. I thought the movie was fun for what it was, which is a popcorn flick starting a snarky hot guy.