Because I hear these people make the masks don’t work argument
The thing is that they hear doctors say “Masks don’t reliably protect against disease” and go “masks don’t work”, but what the doctors say is “they aren’t 100% reliable, so don’t use it as the only method of protection”.
But if wearing a mask vs not wearing a mask lowers your risk of infection by 50%, that’s a huge deal! And with the way infections spread, that’s millions of prevented points of infection.
And the problem is not even the corporate wokeism (although it’s feels about as insincere as all of the current corporate wokewashing) it’s just… bad writing. “Lifeless” is absolutely on point as a description for the sequels. It felt like they only existed to yank my nostalgia while at the same time trying to do so with less thought and love poured into them. Plastic, lifeless, sanitized, insincere, corporate profit driven nostalgia-fodder CAN NOT compare to simply good writing, actors with chemistry and sincerity.
I watched 7, suffered through 8 and didn’t even care about watching 9. Yes, I am nostalgic, but that’s precisely what the sequels were created to evoke. But just nostalgia isn’t enough!
Like you, I really enjoyed most of the spin-offs. They had a story to tell and they had direction, believable characters and did not feel like just trying to yank my nostalgia for the original trilogy. I mean… they DID yank my nostalgia, but then they went above and beyond that and told interesting stories.