Film Threat Founder Chris Gore Eviscerates Star Wars, Justice League, And Modern Hollywood, Claims 99% Of Blockbuster Films Are Garbage

John F. Trent |

Jul 13, 2021

Film Threat founder and publisher Chris Gore recently did an interview with Film Courage where he explained why 99% of modern movies are garbage.

Gore was asked by Film Courage, “Would you say that 99 percent of all movies today are garbage?”

He responded, “In an age where most movies are referred to as content, I would say that 99% of most movies are pretty bad. When I say 99% I mean of mainstream.”

Gore then went on to cite Zack Snyder’s Justice League and Star Wars, “One of the best examples of this is the sort of Zack Snyder’s Justice League and how that was bungled. How that was bungled, how the Star Wars franchise was bungled.”

“To me, I’m the studio executive in charge of Star Wars and we’re making a new Star Wars movie and the first thing I’m going to do is I’m going to put Han, Luke, and Leia in a scene together. And the fact that that moment we will never be able to have that moment in cinema when Carrie Fisher was alive, that to me is…that’s malpractice. That’s studio malpractice,” he stated.

He then turned to Justice League, “The fact that they had with Zack Snyder’s vision what he was building up to be. I think seeing the four-hour final product of what Zack Snyder’s Justice League turned out to be and that they made this garbage thing Joss Whedon. It’s disheartening to me to see that.”

Gore continued, “I will say on an indie level, I tend to take a glass half full view and I tend to always look for the positive when it comes to indie films because you can’t compare an indie movie show in 12 days for $10,000 to Justice League whichever version you’re talking about. You can’t compare.”

“Because in my mind there is no excuse for a studio to fail when they put out a blockbuster movie. Your job is to entertain me. Not lecture me. Not lecture me. Your job is to entertain me,” he elaborated.

Gore then zeroed in on Hollywood studios’ obsession with checking boxes,” Unfortunately, we live in a time…Back in the day when Star Wars was first made I feel like they were checking one box and it was called fun.”

He asserted, “And now there’s not only there’s a million boxes that must be checked. There are all sorts of noting and committees and this thing and this is where you end up with that last Star Wars movie by J.J. Abrams is unwatchable. I mean it’s garbage. It informs exactly everything wrong with the studio system. It’s terrible.”

Gore then questioned what was running through the studio executives’ minds, “So I look at the Justice League debacle, the Star Wars franchise and how that was mishandled and I look at that and I just think how could that have been done. Were they ever looking at the fans and what they think? What do the fans think of this stuff? Are they satisfying the fans? Most normal people don’t care. Is it entertaining?”

He added, “I’m taking my family…especially how expensive it is to the movie theater experience. Which is going away. The theatrical experience of seeing a movie is going away. You had better entertain me.”

Gore then claimed Hollywood is actually leaving money on the table by inserting politics into their films, “And I think that whether Hollywood notices it or not, I think that people don’t really like politics woven into fairly mainstream, which should be mainstream, entertainment experiences.”

“And I think we’re seeing that more and more. It’s unbelievable to me. I think you’re leaving money on the table for not giving what the customer is looking for in that experience,” he detailed.

Gore then points to one of the major problems of the studio system, “The marketing for some of these movies is soo good, the product doesn’t live up to the marketing.

“I got chills watching the trailer for The Rise of Skywalker. I was so excited to see that movie. I was a kid when I saw Star Wars. I’m seeing the ninth movie in this saga. I cannot believe how horrible it turned out. It’s really tome, it’s malpractice what happened to that franchise and how it’s divided fandom. Fighting over things that are really irrelevant. Well, not entirely irrelevant,” he said.

Gore then pointed out the toxicity coming out of Lucasfilm, “The fact that you’re seeing people from within that company attack the fans, it’s just like it’s…I hate to see it because nerds are my people. I go to San Diego Comic-Con every year. I have since the 90’s gone to San Diego Comic-Con and so to see people fractured over this is really disheartening.”

He would later lament the lack of vision in Hollywood, “Where are the executives? I mean other than maybe like coming to mind like a Kevin Feige, which maybe his best days are behind him, I can’t think of a studio executive that is a visionary these days.”

Gore then posited that the American identity is fading away and that the 70s were the last great era of American filmmaking.

He explained, “When we look at the 70’s being the last great era of American filmmaking, we really are losing that American identity because we’ve become so fractured as a culture and I think that that… Where’s the movie that we all love without debate? That we’ve all loved. I don’t know that there is one.”

Gore noted it’s not just about Star Wars and Zack Snyder’s Justice League, “At the end of the day I miss loving Star Wars. I miss loving it. I used to love it and now I’m saddened by that franchise. I’m using that as like the best example. There’s a lot of other examples. We could about The Terminator franchise. We could talk about Star Trek. We can talk about these sort of dead franchises that have sort of lost their way.”

He then circled back to the discussion on visionaries, “I’m just afraid we’re never going to see another George Lucas, right? We’re never going to see another real creative visionary that changes the industry because everything is so corporate. What did Francis Ford Coppola say? Factory filmmaking.

“That’s the age in which we live. There’s factory filmmaking, which is a product and content and then there’s up-and-coming indie filmmakers,” Gore asserted.

Finally, he concluded, “And when I talked about checking those boxes earlier a lot of it is it going to appeal international. I mean let’s be honest, the box office internationally and especially in China is much bigger than the United States.”

He added, “That market, those dollars… so you can’t make a movie for the United States anymore. You have to make a movie for the world which is fine, but in a way that’s sort of diluting our identity as a people, as Americans, as we’ve become more fractured and it’s distressing to see.”

Gore is far from the first person to point out these problems with Hollywood. Numerous YouTube personalities have pointed this out from Gary Buechler at Nerdrotic, Overlord DVD, Jeremy Griggs at Geeks + Gamers, Andre Einherjar at Midnight’s Edge, Robert Meyer Burnett at The Burnett Network, Mr. H Reviews, and more.

But maybe more importantly is that people within Hollywood are starting to make these observations as well. Most recently The Suicide Squad director James Gunn decried most modern superhero films as boring.

He stated, “They’re mostly boring to me right now! Laughs] I loved them at the beginning and there are still people trying to do different things [with them], so it’s not a 100% rule, but a lot of them are boring.”