That wokeism does not boost creativity should not be of any surprise. However, it is nonetheless interesting to look at a few concrete examples of its effect on movies. One of my current projects is to watch mainstream movies of the last two decades, not so much to numb myself but to analyze how the cultural zeitgeist impacted movie production. A systematic study would be the subject of a PhD thesis in a hypothetical Film Studies department at a fictional right-wing university, and that is certainly not a goal I intend to pursue. Instead, I want to highlight two movies Zack Snyder has worked on: Dawn of the Dead (2004) and Wonder Woman (2017).

Zack Snyder is perhaps best known for directing 300 (2006), a very masculine movie. Unfortunately, it is not at all indicative of his work. In Dawn of the Dead (2004) there is an highly diverse cast. The lead character is an ultra-competent woman, which is somewhat unexpected for the early 2000s. Perhaps Zack Synder took it upon himself to push a certain political agenda. Despite the implausible female lead, the men are not depicted as utter buffoons, which became a Hollywood trope in the 2010s. Furthermore, blacks were not sacrosanct in 2004. A remarkable exchange in this movie consists of a black guy challenging a brown cop by asking, “How do you like following a guy that sells TVs?”, to which the latter responds, “About as much as I like following a guy who steals them.” The black guy then shuts up. This exchange would be impossible to get past the censors in the 2010s.

In modern Hollywood, blacks cannot be depicted negatively. Yet, in this exchange the lippy black who struggles with basic English grammar gets put in his place. Amusingly, the brown cop used proper grammar and knows that the correct phrase is “a guy who” instead of the ebonics “a guy dat”. On top, the black guy gets called out for being a potential thief, matter of factly. Thus, within seconds this movie is able to convey key aspects of the personality of the two people involved in this exchange. Yet, if every word needs to be sanitized, the ultimate consequence will be bland characters and dull plots. This may partly explain why modern movies are so incredibly lame.

Wanting to explore proper woke Hollywood dreck, my assumption was that there are probably few movies better suited than Wonder Woman (2017). It reminded me a bit of Wakanda, except that instead of godlike blacks, you have godlike women. The lead actor is the Jew Gad Gadot. I wonder if this had anything to do with its script writers Jack Snyder and Allan Heinberg being Jews but it is probably just a coincidence. Gal Gadot was supposedly a great fit for this role because she allegedly teaches Krav Maga in the Israeli military. I see several issues with her: First, she looks weak in action scenes. More often than not she seems to use barely any force when punching. Second, she speaks English with a really strong accent. Is it too much to ask actors to work on their pronunciation? In pre-woke Hollywood this was a baseline expectation. Third, she is not even attractive. The same people who tell you she is also want you to believe that Gigi Hadid is a supermodel.

I am not familiar with the Wonder Woman comic, but I have a hard time believing that this character originated from Zeus banging the queen of the Amazons, like in this movie. Speaking of the Amazons in this movie, they are racially diverse. I have absolutely no idea how the existence of a fat, black Amazonian can be explained without excessive mental gymnastics. This probably explains why it is not attempted at all. You are supposed to accept that the existence of that particular character that does not fit its environment at all is completely normal. Even worse is that among the Amazonians there is hardly any one who speaks proper English. They all have strong accents, and their delivery is at best a step above an average high-school play. I wonder whether this movie was partly made to put money in the pocked of a bunch of mediocre actresses. Their acting is so bad that they almost make Gal Gadot appear competent.

If your constraints are that all women have to be powerful then there is not so much you can do with the story. Even the more prominent male characters are little more than extras. Most amazingly, the main antagonist is also a woman. It is easy to see that if you have suffocating premises to follow and are only given bad actors there is not so much you can do. Wonder Woman (2017) did quite well at the box office, but this is similar to the first Star Wars movie of the third trilogy doing well. Its two sequels were commercial disasters. The sequel Wonder Woman 1984 (2020) was a box office bomb. Amusingly, the woke filmmakers behind the Wonder Woman reboot project were so confident that they had plans for a trilogy, but after the poor performance of Wonder Woman 1984 the studio will not proceed with it. As it turns out, you cannot fool people indefinitely.