A Collection of Posts by Ryan M. Maes...

The issue is not that movies have humor. The issue is that modern Hollywood often uses humor to avoid weight.

A serious moment starts to breathe, then some character undercuts it with a smirk. A mythic scene begins to rise, then someone drops a dumb little joke. A heroic moment starts to feel sacred, then the movie gets embarrassed by its own sincerity.

That is the disease: irony over awe. Quips over consequence. Levity over legend.

A He-Man movie should feel like mythic fantasy: power, honor, evil, destiny, sacrifice, masculine heroism, strange worlds, high stakes. It should not feel like a committee-written brand product afraid the audience might laugh at it first, so it laughs at itself preemptively.

The '80s had plenty of cheese, but a lot of it had sincerity. Even when it was goofy, it often believed in itself. The hero was heroic. The villain was villainous. The world had a clear tone. The story had stakes. Modern Hollywood often feels like it has contempt for seriousness, contempt for masculinity, contempt for myth, and contempt for the audience's ability to sit inside a heavy scene without needing a joke every thirty seconds.

That is why so many newer movies feel hollow.

They are polished, expensive, and dead. They have budget but no backbone. Spectacle but no soul. Dialogue but no dignity.

Why Did This Happen?

First, movies changed because the business changed.

Hollywood used to make movies. Now it often makes IP products: brands, franchises, sequels, cinematic universes, streaming content, global-market-safe entertainment. That pushes writing toward simple emotions, obvious jokes, low-risk plots, and constant "levity" because sincerity is seen as commercially dangerous.

A serious scene requires trust. A quip requires none.

Second, people changed because attention changed.

Smartphones, social media, short-form video, porn, endless scrolling, constant stimulation—all of it trains people away from presence. Less eye contact. Less patience. Less interior life. Less ability to sit in silence, feel weight, or process depth.

The movie problem is downstream of the people problem.

Modern entertainment often feels soulless because the culture is increasingly:

overstimulated but underdeveloped connected but isolated ironic but empty informed but shallow visible but unseen

That is why older movies often hit harder. Even when imperfect, they had more human gravity. Characters could be earnest. Heroes could be heroic. Pain could sit on screen without being mocked. Beauty could be beautiful without a wink. Evil could be evil without a meta-joke.

Modern Hollywood is terrified of sincerity because sincerity requires belief. And a lot of modern culture has lost belief—in God, in myth, in manhood, in beauty, in duty, in sacrifice, in anything higher than appetite and attention.

The screen lost its soul because the culture lost its center.

✠ P.S. It's easy to complain that Hollywood has forgotten how to portray heroic men. Harder to become one. Inside The Kingdom Council 🏛️, we challenge one another to live the virtues those stories once honored—to shoulder responsibility, defend what is right, and sacrifice for something greater than ourselves. Join us.

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