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obnoticus@adultswim.fan

'War of the Worlds' Isn’t Just Bad. It’s Also Shameless Tech Propaganda (www.wired.com)

submitted 1 week ago by obnoticus@adultswim.fan to c/tv_film@adultswim.fan

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By making Big Tech the hero in a movie about government surveillance, the dismally rated remake feels more like an ad for Amazon than anything else.

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[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

This is going to keep getting worse.

Giant corporations will keep gobbling up everything, and some c suite douche is going to start asking why they don't use the movies they make for propaganda for their other revenue streams. To an Executive this is an easy and obvious choice.

Definitely not the biggest issue right now, but they'll keep pushing, maybe enough that smaller studios that won't sell out start making shit.

There's already a growing market for it. A24 isn't making all those amazing movies, independent productions are and A24 is releasing and distributibg it.

Hopefully we'll see more companies like them show up.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

some c suite douche is going to start asking why they don’t use the movies they make for propaganda for their other revenue streams

I mean... Hollywood has been turning out cheap propaganda flicks for over a century. Not to say some dipshit c-level in 2025 won't take credit for the idea, but this isn't even the first time this book has been turned into a bit of war-time propaganda (not unlike the why-won't-it-die-already? Superhero Movie epidemic).

There's actually a book Area 51: An Uncensored History whose first chapters detail how the 1938 radio play spawned a host of plots - both foreign and domestic - to use the fear of an alien invasion to manufacture consent for the Cold War.

A24 isn’t making all those amazing movies, independent productions are and A24 is releasing and distributibg it.

They figured out a model to rent-seek off the distribution of movie festival hits and underdog directors. And I won't complain too loudly, because it means getting access to more than just the Disney/Universal slop bucket.

But one of the easiest and most popular ways to budget a war movie is to turn to the Pentagon and say "You get X minutes and some amount of directorial control for a percentage of the budget and rights to shoot some of your cool surplus military equipment". Michael Bay owes his personal fortune to the US Navy.

[–] macncheese@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I didn't even know this movie was a thing. I got a little confused at the thumbnail until I clicked through and read it was Ice Cube. It's giving Temu Jeffrey Wright.

[–] BlackLaZoR@fedia.io 1 points 1 week ago

I initially thought this is about the movie with Tom Cruise from mid 2000s.

[–] Zorque@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago

This doesn't seem like a remake, it seems like a shitty idea someone had and then some marketing guy was like "What famous property can we slap on this to get people to see it?"

[–] BlackLaZoR@fedia.io 2 points 1 week ago

Funny thing is they had Linus from LTT as some background role and cut him out in the end. The only guy with some reason and actual knowledge got thrown out like that

[–] wuffah@lemmy.world -4 points 1 week ago

YouTuber EmpLemon has a great video on why The Simpsons is not good anymore and the answer essentially boils down to the recuperation of the series by corporate interests. Losing its subversive edge, it has become infected with the same corporate propaganda that eventually spoils every remade franchise over enough time.

I find that it’s a common and useful tool for understanding why a piece of media feels “off”.