Cinema Issues: The Truth About Toxic Fans

Written by Luke Barnes

In this cinema issues article we are discussing the currently pushed idea of the toxic fan and using some critical thinking skills.

So firstly it would be remiss to say that no elements of racism and bigotry exist in fandom or that people getting doxed or sent death threats doesn’t happen as it does, by both sides frequently. There are always bad apples in every bunch, however, things are being twisted.

The first thing to address is the matter of proportion, this is that within a fandom be they left right or whatever there will be bad apples, but they are a small number, to say a whole fandom is anything based on a few people is inherently in bad faith.

Onto the next point, misuse. So people online use terms like racist and bigot like they are going out of fashion and crucially they use them incorrectly. The most common way of this is that they say anyone who says something they don’t like or who criticises something they like is bigoted. This is not only silly and degrading to the terms themselves but also it leads then for the echo chamber to echo that now the fandom are all bigoted when they may not be at all and the original inciting incident was just someone saying they didn’t like the sound design of a film.

A final thing to consider is the idea of tribalism and scapegoats, it is very nice for a studio when a film comes out and does badly to go we didn’t make a bad film the fans are just toxic. Moreover, those who like the film can just rally behind that line and not thinking critically buy into it and go yeah I really liked it so anyone that doesn’t must have another reason for not liking it, enter the they are bigots line.

Overall, whilst there is and always will be an element of toxicity in fandoms, criticising a film, casting choice, plot point or whatever is non toxic, someone disliking a film you like is non toxic, someone saying they didn’t like the costumes in a show is not bigoted or racist and you are devaluing those terms by using them so casually. The war against toxic fans by some online and by studios is not only blown up way out of proportion and enflamed by political tribalism, but also unwinnable and frankly wrongheaded. As often a lot of the people who are calling people toxic are being that themselves by going after people they don’t like online.

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Cinema Issues: The Postmortem Of Doctor Who

Written by Luke Barnes

In this cinema issues article we are dissecting the first season of New, New Who and doing a post mortem to see what went so badly wrong with it.

So lets get something out of the way right quick, the series is in a bad way, I don’t care if you think it was some of the most stunning and brave Who ever, the ratings are a slow death. The Legend Of Ruby Tuesday and another episode this season both posted record low viewership numbers for the show, some of the lowest in the shows history. Look it up. Things are bad, and there is even talk that the filmed season batch of episodes may not get released as the BBC debates what to do with them, likely they will get released and the show will just be put on ice come this time next year.

Anyway, as the BBC starts to question everything and panic about its in development Who spin-offs, we will look at what went wrong with these episodes.

I think the main issue a lot of people had with these season was that fundamentally it wasn’t Who, never before have I seen the Doctor have so many dance numbers and act more like a local tiktoker trying to make it big than an alien. In addition the fact that the Doctor called everyone ‘babes’ constantly didn’t make it feel like Who it made it feel as though the Doctor had suddenly become another person.

Moreover, the series was heavily political with a number of controversial hot button issues forced in, just for the show to keep a desperate hold of its increasingly radically progressive audience. Some of it didn’t even make sense like when those people who not be saved by the Doctor because he was black and would rather die, what horribly on the nose message was that supposed to be pushing as it felt like a straw man argument. These ideas where repeated over the course of the season, the issue with clearly taking a side politically is that it then alienates your audience and makes you start to loose chunks of people. It is always better to present two sides and let the audience make up their own mind.

Furthermore, who at Disney or the BBC thought it was a good idea to allow cast and creators to attack the fans, whoever it was I would say is the most responsible for the bad feeling and reception to this season. This is mainly due to the fact of actors telling fans to screw off and then being shocked when their show has bad viewership, you do not treat your fans like that you just don’t. Yet these people look down on their fans and think they don’t need them, how wrong they are.

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Cinema Issues: The Acolyte Is Cancelled Looks Like Star Wars Isn’t A YA Female Brand After All

Written by Luke Barnes

Image credit, What’s On Disney Plus

In this cinema issues article we are talking about the much deserved cancellation of the Acolyte.

So lets get a few things out of the way first, Disney is a business they cancel things if they don’t have good ratings or make them money, the Acolyte did neither. Disney did not give in to the toxic fans, you overly assume the importance Disney places on any of their customers opinions or politics, it is as simple as did it make this number? No, then it is cancelled. Also Disney does not care about how some shows need a few seasons to find an audience, again did it hit the number they wanted? No, then it is cancelled.

Now let’s talk about why it was so poorly viewed.

Rumour has it that Disney is angry with star of the show Amandla Stenberg, saying that her diss track to own the haters, actually hurt the show in the long run as it caused people to turn off. Looks like Disney knows that attacking fans isn’t the way to go about it, I wonder if they will still do it when Skeleton Crew comes out.

It also might be time to call it on the idea of turning Star Wars into a girl-power brand. Audience data collected by the Wrap says that over 70% of Star Wars’ audience is older males, and the figure only seems to be increasing as time goes by, efforts like this to bring in a different sort of fan are not pushing the needle enough to change that and are also alienating that 70% therefore leading the series to not have enough viewers to stay on.

It may be time for Disney and Kathy to except Star Wars for what it is, a nerdy franchise mainly consumed by older guys and one that will become irrelevant in a few decades when these people start to die off. The idea of bringing in new fans by doing new things isn’t working, this show desperately tried to do that and had the worst viewing figures of all Disney + Star Wars so it might be time to accept new fans aren’t coming in big enough numbers to make the change over survivable for the brand.

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Rings Of Power Season 2: Can It Be Saved?

Written by Luke Barnes

In this cinema issues article we are talking about The Rings Of Power and what I believe it needs to do in order to be a better second season and in order to set the series up for long term success.

Now as a Tolkien fan I have a very complicated relationship with this show, there is a part of me that thinks it shouldn’t exist, and when I watched the first few episodes of the first season I was convinced it was little more than current year trash. However, as I advanced beyond that I did think there were some good ideas there, deeply buried but there, and I began to warm to it more by the end of the first season. As such I want to suggest ways that the second season could improve on the first and turn the show around, because lets face it by Amazon’s own admission, in the end, the majority of people didn’t finish the first season.

Before we get into it I want to say this is all just my opinion, nothing to cry about, some of it will be changes they can make this season and some will be possible changes they can make before a maybe possibly season 3. The idea of if this show can even be saved will also be discussed.

I think the fundamental issue with ROP that was there in the first season and will be there in season 2 is the fact that those who make the show do not understand or like the IP. As such they inject other things into in order to try and get more people in whilst driving away people who might actually like the show, take for example the fact in the new season they are teasing a romance between Galadriel, Morfydd Clarke, and Sauron, Charlie Vickers which just shows that the creators do not know these characters. They are doing this in an effort to try and get social media shippers to care, and to appear like it is A YA show, they are doing this when they could just use Celeborn instead. Doing things like the YA shipping makes me think that the show can’t be saved.

Moving on I think the show needs to focus on less characters, the Harfoots need to go away as do the Numenorian’s, I would also cut out the Dwarf’s and just have it be about Sauron trying to corrupt different groups of people with Galadriel and Elron in toe to stop him. All the stuff with the Stranger too I would cut out, we just don’t need it, the show is trying to tell too many stories at once.

I would also hype up events rather than going look guys the first black elf, this is tokenistic and irritating virtue signalling. You should have natural diversity and not make a big deal of it just be like yes this is the world, you don’t need to show them off its weird. Look at how House Of The Dragon does it for example, much better.

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The Desperate Doctor Doom Debacle

Written by Luke Barnes

In this cinema issues article we are talking about the reveal of Doctor Doom in the MCU and the casting news.

So as we all know Robert Downey Jr. is back in the MCU playing Doctor Doom. This news has divided a lot of people, for me personally I am mixed to trepidatious on it. However, before we go any further I just want to address the milk toast folks that go ‘oh MCU fans are toxic they are judging something before they have even seen it’, as their brains slowly trickle down their backs. The whole point of casting reveals is to generate buzz and attention be that good or bad, the whole point is to get people talking so by going oh you’re toxic for talking about it negatively, even your big daddies over at Disney would tell you to shut up.

That said let’s get into it.

I think the biggest issue with the casting is that it ruins Tony Stark’s sacrifice in Endgame and yes I know it won’t be the actual Tony Stark but rather a variant Doom/Iron Man Hybrid. However, to a lay audience they will just go ‘oh look it is Iron Man’ I thought he was dead, and so it will mean people will be both confused and then asking why is he a villain and killing his friends, to a basic understander of the franchise it could almost ruin the character entirely. Though I imagine Marvel Studios will go to great lengths to show how he is not Tony Stark, we may never even see Downey Jr’s face.

From that you have the fact that this Doom will not be the Victor Von Doom that people want, it is a Tony Stark variant, meaning that the actual peasant to ruler Doom may never appear in the MCU. This then means that a character a lot of people were looking forward to has been abandoned for the cynical ploy of getting Downey Jr back. Also it means that the Fantastic Four will have a different origin story as if this variant is from their universe it will be that their Tony Stark went bad, rather than Von Doom existing as a contemporary and even friend in the early days to the Baxter clan.

Personally, I think the best thing that could happen would be that the Tony Stark variant either never takes his mask off and is in fact not a variant and it is Downey Jr playing Von Doom, or that the actual real Von Doom usurps power from the Stark variant at the end of Doomsday and then becomes God Emperor Doom going into Secret Wars.

Ultimately, whilst it is nice to have Downey Jr back, the cynical ploy could add to the MCU’s woes in the long term.

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Cinema Issues: The Era Of The Virtue Signalling Celebrity

Written by Luke Barnes

In this cinema issues article we are talking about the era of the virtue signalling celebrity. As many of you may know my position is that celebrities should keep their politics to themselves, no one and I mean no one wants to hear about how a millionaire likely nepo baby thinks the world should be. To make matters worse a lot of the time these people either don’t know what they are talking about or are just reading from pre-prepared statements to try and say the right things to get people to give them praise for being progressive. It is never meant genuinely.

People say oh they are celebrities with a platform they should be championing social ideals and saying this is how society should be, but no, they are not politicians or community leaders they are actors people’s whose job it is to entertain not to moralise or tell you how to live you life.

The issue with things is everyone is afraid of being cancelled, everyone is worried if they don’t say the right thing, take the right position, they might get dropped or lose everything and in that position you don’t have real people anymore you have robots. People who are just going through the motions saying things and doing things simply because they have to.

We should not need to know actors politics, but if we have to their should be an equal balance of left and right wing people in Hollywood. There should never, in Hollywood or anywhere else, be one dominant group that tells the rest how they can think and what is correct thought and what is wrong thought that is inherently dystopian. Yet that is Hollywood, where there is one line to tread, and I think in many ways that is why you are seeing success coming from outside Hollywood and you are seeing people turn away from them, as people hate the Californian bubble.

It’s the fact that not only do these people think they are great and virtuous but it is the distain they have the fans or the watchers that really makes them insufferable as they look down on them and think that they are dirty little people who need to be made to think correctly.

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Star Wars Is A Male Targeted Brand It Is Not Male Dominated

Written by Luke Barnes

In this cinema issues article we are talking about Star Wars, yes again, I know I am sorry. My inspiration to write this article came from quotes from Leslye Headland and Kathleen Kennedy about the Star Wars community and how it is toxic and male dominated.

I saw these comments and honestly I laughed, then I felt a little depressed. I think these comments from Kennedy a woman who arguably never ever got Star Wars and from Headland, a woman who keeps trying to convince you she is a Star Wars fan to appear down with the kids, whilst getting basic lore facts wrong, are infuriating. There is a trend amongst these shows that seem to want to take their properties and force in current era identity politics, I have talked about it with Doctor Who, and that is fan blaming. Basically, they make these shows that the fans don’t want and then rather than take any accountability for it they claim it’s the fans fault for not watching the trash they dole out to them.

One only needs to look at the stats for Star Wars to see it is a male franchise, whilst it is open to women, it is mainly men that watch these films and care about the brand. That is what makes the above comments so stupid and out of touch, not every franchise is equally for everyone, some lean more towards women and some towards men that is basic analytics. Yet, that doesn’t fly with what the creatives want, Kennedy has been trying to say Star Wars is a girl brand for years, Kennedy doesn’t understand her audience, you can see her with her force is female shirt for further reference. She doesn’t understand why the Mandalorian works, but the sequels didn’t.

Kennedy wants to push that this is a girl brand so she has a series like Obi-Wan where he is secondary in his own show to a new insert Inquisitor that no one cared about, it is obvious why this happened. The Acolyte with its heavy female cast is clearly trying to take aim at a female audience, and in doing that you have these attacking comments towards guys saying oh how bad the fandom is and how it is male dominated. This they are doing to pre-empt the backlash to the show, because they know it is bad, and they know fans won’t like it, so then the narrative becomes they are toxic. This show will not do well because unlike something like The Mandalorian that was for everyone,here you have a narrative that no this show is only for one type of fan and if you aren’t it don’t watch it.

It is shows like this which highlight why the Star Wars IP is in trouble

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How Disney Is Quickly Becoming The Most Hated Studio In Hollywood

Written by Luke Barnes

In this cinema issues article we are talking about the dire state of Disney and how they are facing down a pretty dismal future and why that is.

On paper Disney should be doing well, they have some many classic film franchises, and are well known and in some quarters beloved across the world, and yet at the 2023 box office they had more bombs than any other studio. Moreover, their reputation is so low at the moment that they are having to turn off the comments on their trailers as people are tearing into them and down voting them into oblivion.

So the question is why? Honestly, there isn’t much of any one answer to that there are quite a few and I’ll try to get to what I view as the main few in this piece.

I think the main reason people have turned on Disney is because they represent quantity over quality, they are churning out sequels, prequels and remakes no one wants. They are either using the wrong algorithm or betting hard on nostalgia that doesn’t seem to be coming together in this regard. Look at their upcoming Lion King live action sequel, it has already been down voted to hell and why? Not because it is offensive or even super bad but because it looks soulless and no one wants it, in many respects this comes off as them being entirely out of touch which you could argue almost all of Hollywood is right now. Moreover, in the investors call Bob Iger said that they are content mining, which really reflects how Disney view these properties not as something to be stewarded and looked after but rather something they can make a quick buck out of, and obviously it’s the movie business so you expect things like this, but you don’t expect them to say it.

Another reason why people are turning on Disney and this crosses over with the idea they are out of touch is that they push political messages constantly and towards kids. Film and TV can and often does have political messages and that’s fine but you have to also expect the blowback and the drop off, the idea is that you care so much about the thing you are out there preaching that you don’t care people are leaving. Many people are angry for what they see as Disney pushing out incredibly progressive messaging in their content, which doesn’t line up with a lot of its audience believe, this is the issue with commenting on hot button issues in your content, you create a divide. Moreover, to then go out of your way to call your fans names and try and shame them for not having the same politics as you is another good way to lose business. It seems though not in the immediate term that Disney have learnt this lesson and are trying to get out of the culture war, as they have issued a number of statements saying how they are walking away from the message, but we will have to wait and see.

Finally the third reason I think Disney is loathed at the moment is the idea of audience homogenisation. It is well known that Disney have taken things like Marvel or Star Wars things that have always been traditionally male brands and have tried to make them appeal more to women in the idea of having a wider audience share and making more money. They have done other things with other franchises again in order to try and grow the audience as well, but as it has started to come out with things like Madame Web these tactics don’t work, rather than get a new audience in whilst also retaining your old audience, your old audience ends up feeling alienated and leaves and you don’t get in enough new people to replace them.

If I were Disney I would clean house, they need to get rid of a lot of people that are pushing these sort of ideas, I would go back to making films and tv shows people want, I would listen to fans of their franchises in a meaningful way, I would keep politics out of it or get writers who can handle it in a way that doesn’t feel so heavy handed and I would keep my franchises aimed at the demographics that had made them popular and not try and bring in anyone else as I would know it would alienate the original fans.

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The Death And Destruction Of Doctor Who As A Franchise: It Is Over Folks

Written by Luke Barnes

In this cinema issues article we are talking about how Doctor Who has become a sorry husk or shadow of its former self

Now a quick warning before we get into it, if you cannot handle someone else’s opinion, particularly one you disagree with then you need to stop reading this review and reflect on why that is and maybe get some help. I am allowed my opinion on Doctor Who as you are yours, sending me some death threats because you can’t stand what I am saying is not going to stop me and it just makes you look bad.

That out of the way lets begin, so a quick heads up I have not watched the first two episodes of the new season of Doctor Who and I don’t plan to, I have spoken to people who have and gleamed their opinions, and I have seen clips from it.

However, it seems my previous writing on Doctor Who and RTD was entirely right, I am have been quite vindicated with the latest episodes by all accounts. Doctor Who is no longer about time and space adventures but rather pushing a political message at the audience over and over again until they are begging for it to stop. Case in point there is a scene in the recent two episodes wherein one character brings another to task over their misuse of pronouns, why is this needed.

I have seen some commentary saying that this show is fighting in the culture wars and trying to fight back against growing right wing thought and all this, but I don’t think it is that deep, I just think RTD liked that he got attention for It’s A Sin so decided to keep doing that. My question ultimately with this show is who is it for now. What’s more where has the Disney money gone as the monsters and effects still look as bad as ever.

To add to all this the fanbase has been pretty split, but what is not helping is that we have already seen a number of people involved with the production calling out the fans and saying they are bigots of varying sorts. This does not buy you any good will and instead looks like a show that is insecure and knows that it doesn’t have the viewing figures to feel confident so has to try and shift the narrative. As again I predicted when these new seasons of Who not only don’t save the series but instead kill it for another 20+ years, they need someone to blame.

Despite it being all over my feed this will be the last I will be commenting on the show, but I will say this to you, why watch a show that doesn’t want you to watch it, are you a fan, if so the cast and creatives think you’re toxic, and personally I will not reward them with my rating figure and so will boycott the show. Expect more screaming about how evil the fans are before it gets cancelled for good next year.

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The Coming Drought That Is The Summer 2024 Box Office

Written by Luke Barnes

This piece will talk about the dire issue facing Hollywood this year, the incredibly thin on the ground summer slate.

Now as any good movie fan worth their salt will tell you the summer is the key time to be making money in the film business, the kids are off school, people want somewhere cool to go to get away from the scorching temperatures, depending on where you live, it is the most important time of the year for Hollywood. This normally means that some of the biggest movies of the year are coming out during the summer months sometimes multiple a week, whereas this year there is a drought.

This drought is the result of a few things covid, the strikes, diminishing box office receipts that are making studios far more careful about greenlighting projects. However, it is plain to see, this year we have only a few true blockbusters coming out, with Kingdom Of The Planet of The Apes, Furiosa, Deadpool and Wolverine and really that is it. Add to that a few kids movies in Despicable Me 4, Garfield and Inside Out 2, and a few smaller titles like the new Alien film and Borderlands and you have a very thin slate. There are some weeks in summer where there are no major releases at all and it seems almost nonsensical for studios to be doing this.

Moreover, the films mentioned above, with no doubt a few others I have forgotten, are not all ones people are looking forward to, and that speaks to the problem. Hollywood is worried as they keep putting out films they think are hits, that aren’t, the idea of safe hits is becoming a thing of the past, now as those of you who have read my other Cinema Issues pieces will know this is in no small part due to consumers becoming more choosey as it costs more that ever to go to the cinema these days. Although in addition to that it is also because increasingly Hollywood is becoming isolated, out of touch, with the disconnect between what studios think people want and what they actually do growing by the day.

Why would people want a sequel from over 30 years ago, or a spin off from a film that came out 9 years ago and didn’t set the world on fire. Have studios not learnt that people are sick of prequels, sequels and reboots by now. It is not a huge surprise that a lot of the films that have done well in recent years Super Mario, Barbie, Oppenheimer have been original.

To close this out, things are only going to get worse for Hollywood and the box office. I think that there they may be no billion dollar films this year, for the first time in a long time, I think that Deadpool and Wolverine and Despicable Me 4 will do well and I think the rest will struggle or flop. If I am being really blunt about this, I think Hollywood’s time is done they have run out of good will and good ideas and I think that we need new studios, that operate outside of the California format. We need cinema to become more international and less American so that we can have something that is truly fresh and new.