“The cinema is dead,” cry dozens of critics and fans as they hold their heads in dismay, because today’s youth have forsaken theaters in favor of TikTok. According to their opinions, fast-paced videos with quick narratives or no narrative at all are replacing classics like Citizen Kane, Lawrence of Arabia, or Casablanca.
For those who proclaim this, in a doomsday and apocalyptic manner, there is no turning back for what once was and has lost its meaning. Not even television screens have room for cinema anymore; only a few series manage to capture the interests of today’s youth. And art, no matter how hard it has fought, has lost to the algorithm.
But is this assertion entirely true? Are we facing a generation that no longer cares about cinema at all? Is there no place for feature-length audiovisuals in the future? Certainly, it doesn’t seem to be the case. However, we are indeed experiencing a paradigm shift for which even superhero movies don’t seem prepared.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse – The movies behind us
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, the sequel to Into the Spider-Verse that has managed to make its way onto the lists of the best films, surpassing even The Dark Knight as the greatest superhero movie of all time, is the perfect example of the audiovisual paradigm shift we are experiencing.
At a time when TikTok, as we mentioned, dominates everything, and babies under one year old handle smartphones better than some of your uncles, Phil Lord and Chris Miller’s film is a perfect example of how to make a great movie in 2023. Its spectacular box office success makes it clear that it not only appeals to critics but can also become an incredible phenomenon among the general public.
The most obvious aspect is the technique it employs. We saw it abundantly in Into the Spider-Verse, but the way the sequel uses animation, blending various styles and playing with movement, is sublime. It transitions from apparent chaos to absolute order, organizing ideas into simple concepts to captivate the audience without losing their attention for a single moment. And that, in essence, is TikTok.
Its style has worked so well that series like Arcane or films like Puss in Boots: The Last Wish have imitated it, achieving the same success among the same audience. But the one that managed to leverage it the best is another film by Lord and Miller: The Mitchells vs. the Machines.
In this case, the film took a step further than Into the Spider-Verse and even incorporated memes on-screen, something we’ve seen again in Across the Spider-Verse as a perfect way to integrate internet language into the big screen. Ultimately, it’s about speaking the same language as the audience you’re targeting, and they understood that perfectly.
In Across the Spider-Verse, the formula is further subverted and reaches unforeseen limits. And it’s not only affecting animation but also live-action films. Obviously, Spider-Man: No Way Home, that watered-down attempt to do the same, is a clear example of that. But there’s also a film that has managed to play its cards in a sublime way: Everything Everywhere All at Once.
Everything Everywhere All at Once – The future of quality cinema
It’s no coincidence that Everything Everywhere All at Once won seven Oscars this year. The film, while it may not be better than others like The Fabelmans or The Banshees of Inisherin, has something the rest don’t: it’s a film of the current generation, and a very good one at that.
Without relying on animation—at least initially—but with the intention of keeping the audience engaged every minute, the film offers a thrilling pace, much in the style of Spider-Man. And it does so with the awareness that it can always offer something new, as its worlds are infinite, and so are its possibilities.
This idea of the multiverse, which Marvel is exploring knowing that it allows for even crazier experiments that can captivate a younger audience, is fully exploited in Everything Everywhere All at Once. But what’s remarkable is that it does so with simplicity: by telling a small-scale story, just like Across the Spider-Verse does, and without losing the protagonist’s perspective throughout.
Both Everything Everywhere All at Once and Across the Spider-Verse, along with other films like The Flash, maintain a frenetic pace, with plenty of chaos and fun, but without losing themselves and knowing what they want to convey at all times. In this way, they communicate perfectly with Gen Z: a generation that struggles to maintain its attention for long periods, needing constant stimulation but, at the same time, not being interested in getting caught up in grand epics.
That is partly why slower, reflective, or complex plot-driven films—and this includes even classic superhero movies—don’t have as much space in today’s cinema. Because filmmaking is starting to cater to a new generation, and what we’re witnessing is likely just the tip of a much larger iceberg.
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