An uncomplicatedly bad villain used to feature in every action film worth its salt, but a more globalised industry has made the universally hated figure a tricky character to pull off
This may be true, but I think the main reason for less “obvious” baddies in modern movies is simply that they kind of went out of fashion from a culture standpoint. The ways how stories are told and how world is portrayed/perceived in art and media is heavily dependent on the people who live in it. Post-modernism is en vogue because we’ve shifted our world view from simple good vs. bad towards recognizing that the world we live in is much more nuanced/complex. “Sometimes the villain is in your head” or “nothing really matters, everything sucks one way or another” are world views that reflect our modern western culture a lot more since we are so much more connected to the world through the internet.
That said, post/meta-modernism is just one side of this. I’m sure there are plenty of commercial reasons to make toothless, non-offending movies as well. Also, movies like Top Gun: Maverick prove that the classic approach to storytelling (good guys vs bad guys) can still work and make a shitton of cash (although they didn’t go all in on who the enemy actually is).
Or they went out of fashion from an economics viewpoint.
Hollywood depends on the international box office for movies to do well. A movie might do poorly in a country or not play at all if there villain is from that country.
This may be true, but I think the main reason for less “obvious” baddies in modern movies is simply that they kind of went out of fashion from a culture standpoint. The ways how stories are told and how world is portrayed/perceived in art and media is heavily dependent on the people who live in it. Post-modernism is en vogue because we’ve shifted our world view from simple good vs. bad towards recognizing that the world we live in is much more nuanced/complex. “Sometimes the villain is in your head” or “nothing really matters, everything sucks one way or another” are world views that reflect our modern western culture a lot more since we are so much more connected to the world through the internet.
That said, post/meta-modernism is just one side of this. I’m sure there are plenty of commercial reasons to make toothless, non-offending movies as well. Also, movies like Top Gun: Maverick prove that the classic approach to storytelling (good guys vs bad guys) can still work and make a shitton of cash (although they didn’t go all in on who the enemy actually is).
Or they went out of fashion from an economics viewpoint.
Hollywood depends on the international box office for movies to do well. A movie might do poorly in a country or not play at all if there villain is from that country.