- nicholas barber
- BBC
image copyright Getty Images
Ghosted’s heroine Ana de Armas begins the film by driving for three minutes in a strange scene
Dexter Fletcher’s Ghosted on Apple TV Plus starring Chris Evans and Ana de Armas represents a new wave of carefully crafted movies that are good enough to watch at home, but not in the cinema.
When directors promote their films, they usually talk about how excited they are to bring their personal vision to the screen. That was not the case for director Dexter Fletcher when he was promoting his film Ghosted, which is also a comedy and action film that can be viewed on the Apple TV Plus platform.
Discussing the film on Alex Zane’s Journey to the Movies podcast, Fletcher mentioned his plans for the film’s opening sequence, which begins with him driving through the mountains for three minutes (without any cutscenes). . Apple Studios executives objected to the film’s opening because they said that if “nothing happens in the first 30 seconds, the data shows people will stop watching the movie”.
Fletcher didn’t care. He stressed his position, saying: “You cannot make a film for (live) broadcast in the same way that you make a play or a film for the cinema.”
He said, “You can’t. There’s a different scale and a different approach. Even though people can shake very quickly… What’s the cinematic experience like for me as a filmmaker?”
By now, we know that streaming makes it possible to monitor our viewing habits more closely than ever before, so even if traditionally made movies end up streaming on streaming service platforms like Netflix and Apple TV+, Yet there’s a whole new wave of blockbusters. Was designed more precisely than before, based on “data” and “metrics”.
But Fletcher said the most important figure is “completion”, the number of viewers who watch the entire film from start to finish. Apparently, Ghosted scored “really high” in that category, so Apple Studios considered it a win. But did this data improve the film’s position in any other respect?
The film’s review in The Guardian called it “algorithmic material so haphazardly cobbled together, so lifeless that we are tempted to think that this is the first film made entirely by artificial intelligence”.
And this review was not unusual. On Rotten Tomatoes, a website that calculates positive and negative reviews, Ghosted has a rating of 28 percent, a pitiful considering the four previous films directed by Fletcher (Rocket Man, Eddie the Eagle, Sunshine on Leith, and Wild Bells) No.), and all had ratings between 81 and 100 percent.
Streaming movies may keep us on the couch watching them and we may be away from the remote control, but that doesn’t mean they’re all that good.
What it really means is that these movies are like fast food: easy after a hard day’s work, but not exactly nutritious.
In addition to Ghosted, a few other movies playing the same role are just filling heads and eyes, including Jennifer Lopez and Josh Duhamel’s Shotgun Wedding, and several Netflix blockbusters, including Red Notice starring Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds Are. Gal Gadot, as well as Murder Mystery and Murder Mystery 2, starring Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston.
In each case, the filmmakers followed the same recipe: Take two or three attractive female stars, with or without star chemistry, place them in a sunny, scenic location, regardless of whether the location matters in terms of planning. Or not. With stunts and explosions, keep the tone light and calm, and end it with a simple, catchy title for the movie.
Neither of these poor prescriptions will attract viewers to the cinema, but as Fletcher suggests, viewers have different needs when they tap screens at home on a Tuesday night (and movie streaming networks use).
Bhootiya, and its streaming companion, provide a nice escape from reality that the whole family can agree to sit through. Despite poor ratings during reviews, these movies are compelling enough to make us ask, “How bad can it get?”
Two hours later, we can answer that question with these words: “Really, really bad.” But it does not matter. By the time of the last review, you may have watched the movie till the end, and in the world of streaming, this is all important data.