I don't disagree that there is still good work being done, uh, "dude." But it's naive to the point of being indoctrinated to not see the bulldozing of meaning -- of the sacred -- for profit.

If you know anything about movies, you know that IBO rules Hollywood decision making. There's a reason why we've rehashed Star Wars, Ghostbusters, The Crow, Twister, Escape from New York, Planet of the Apes, Starship Troopers, Alien (Romulus) the live-action versions of the Lion King, The Little Mermaid, Shrek. Dune itself, while well done, is a reboot. So there are exceptions. But the trend is overwhelmingly the destruction of any sacrality of "IP" (read: part of our visual storytelling culture) for profit / for the sake of simply doing it because we CAN.

To an extent, there is nothing new under the sun and we keep retelling the same stories since Gilgamesh and Beowulf. But there's inarguably a trajectory towards scouring every last nook and cranny for this IP, leaving no stone unturned, leaving no story that hasn't been completely strip-mined "sacred" in the culture. As in, leave it the fuck alone.

Because money can be made. And it doesn't have to be as good, it relies on fan service and familiarity for what it lacks in creativity or originality. Or, conversely, the conceit of novelty for new unsuspecting generations.

This runs analogous to "last chance tourism." To Mount Everest being covered in human shit and dead bodies with lines longer than the Apple store on iPhone day. It's analogous to billionaire space walks, to Reality TV star presidents, Q Anon, and social media algorithms promoting misinformation.

I could go on. But he says it better: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDwpBgBdNpU&t=908s

I never said there is no meaning in culture. I said D&W represents a "kind of psychopathic annihilation of meaning in our culture," that is, what's sacred; those things we don't beat until they've given up every penny, those things we leave to a bit of mystery.