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Thanks for the video link, that was great and explained it well. The part at the end showing the ones done well makes me crave that.
This is just a beginning theory, but I wonder if it has something to do with color blindness or something? They may be getting test audiences that are accidentally more skewed towards it, since men are more likely to have it for some reason.
I doubt it’s color blindness. As others have mentioned this lack of color seems to be a more US based phenomenon. I think it’s the logical result of the obsession with “gritty and real” that took off with things like “Bourne Identity” in 2002. The laziest and cheapest way to convey that “dark and drab” vibe is by just sucking all the colours out. Movies started getting to mimic Bourne and others like it because they were popular (and yes, like always Hollywood did zero actual investigation into why they’re popular and just tried to copy surface level). That just kept spreading and now we’re stuck with it
The dark muted limited-colors thing started way before 2002
Here’s a random example, the matrix from 1999
https://ic.pics.livejournal.com/r_aina/43070750/172261/172261_original.png
I dunno if 1999 is “way before”. That’s only three years. I wasn’t trying to nail the very first movie that started the trend, just an early example. Bourne specifically I know influenced the next few James Bond movies and they toned down the saturation directly because of Bourne, and it kept spreading.
Yeah, it’s a discussion for real. It’s okay to stand out now and then and do the less color if there’s a reason. It seems like they lost the plot on the color portion.
Colorblindness is part of the reason for Christopher Nolan’s visual style avoiding red and green. He’s colorblind so he chooses to avoid colors he’d need outside help with, and likes making visuals that look good even with red/green colorblindness.
And of course, he’s basically up there as one of the most bankable big budget directors there is, so he probably has an outsize influence even on other directors who aren’t colorblind.
That’s interesting, I bet that’s part of it. He must treat it like black and white. I read an interview that he stays under-budget and before the deadline so he doesn’t have to have executives telling him what to do. Maybe these directors have to listen to the producers, who from what I’ve seen, really only care about the bean counting. His movies are still beautiful because he has the authority and he cares.