Re: “What’s so great about current Hollywood movies?”
Advances in visual efx have made it possible to realistically depict mosasaurs in movies; indeed, Aquaman had at least two of them and there are some in a couple Jurassic Park sequels I’ve never seen, including…
That is poetry. Billy fucking Shakespeare never wrote anything half as cool as that clip.
In contrast to all of Hollywood history, we are living in a golden age of movies featuring large marine reptiles and I, for one, am grateful for it.
I just pay for, and watch, classic movies on TCM. Everything from ‘silent movies’ on through the 70’s. I find actors today dull and interchangeable. My daughter complains all the women are forgettable and all the men are, too - they all have ‘generic man face’ and she can’t tell a Bradley Cooper from an Armie Hammer… there are no ‘stars’ with any charisma any more…not to say I don’t like fantasy, science fiction, a little horror (though horror is pathetic now, clowns and "boo!-gotcha-snarling-monsters-vomiting and slashing instead of anything actually scary). … I have my little library of favorites, I don’t have a lot of time left in this sad world, but if CGI and superheroes floats your boats, bless your hearts, enjoy.
As someone who’s crazy about movies, and seeing them in the theater, and who watches hundreds of movies a year in the theater, I say, it doesn’t matter. If you don’t like movies, no problem. Don’t worry about it. Why would you want people to talk you into liking something that doesn’t interest you? Like what you like and find like-minded people who share your passion.
I could write a multi-paragraph post about how I don’t like sports, how I haven’t watched a sporting event for decades, about how, even though I’m originally from the Kansas City area, I didn’t watch the Super Bowl (I saw 4 movies that day), and yadda blah, but I wouldn’t do that because, no one cares and I don’t care enough to make the effort. People love sports. Good for them! I would never ever say “Sports suck”. It’s not for me, they’re not my thing,*.
Here’s a simplistic answer. Movies of the past decade are so heavily enhanced by special effects, that movies without them seem lame by comparison. But the FX can carrry so much of the picture, that a studio can slack off on story, writing, acting, direction, etc., and fill the void with gee-whiz.
Boomer can see that empty space, that modern film-makers are trying to fill with effects.