have movies gotten dumber?

I posted this in my FA journal earlier:

I'm seriously wondering if it's just me or there's really something to this theory of mine. You see it all stemmed from re-examining some movies I used to watch as a kid, and then examining some contemperary movies for comparison. I found something I find incredibly interesting:

Movies I looked at (these are actually pretty good)
- Innerspace
- Explorers
- Flight of the navigator
- October sky
- Galaxy Quest
- Lost in Space
- Men in Black 1

Now here's what I noticed: none of these movies are what I would count as hard-core science fiction, more family/adventure movies (counting Innerspace there), but all of them implicitly deal in some kind of science and expect their audience to understand it. ie: for Flight of the navigator it was integral to the plot that people understood the basic principal that time slows down as you approach the speed of light and that in order to travel in space such a speed is generally needed. And they didn't give a lengthy explanation of same, in fact it all comes down to a single line of exposition.
All of them also celebrate intelligence in a sort of tone-based way that few movies seem to now. Like in Explorers, the main characters (arguably geeks) discover a piece of technology, and what's their first thought? "Let's build a bloody spaceship!", even accounting for things like Oxygen and control systems. Same with October sky, the main character is litterally an budding rocket scientist.
Though more recently it seems like all that appreciation has sort of fallen by the wayside. I mean people still use gadgets and such but there's never any appreciation for how they work or who comes up with them or how the basic principals of such things factor in. I mean it just seems like most are just catering to a dumber audience, or at least dumbing down what they offer. Smart characters aren't getting too many lead roles anymore, sort of becoming side or support fixtures instead. All genre of movies are like this save a rare few, and even TV is hit by it in my opinion.
Did people actually get dumber or am I just an unpleasable jerk?

Aye, you be correct. The movies are getting dumber to me to....thats why I barely watch them anymore....well at least Sci-Fi ones I watch all others after reading a good descirption of the movie somewhere.

A good website for the ratings and description is moviefone.com all you have to do is ener your zip code and It shall bring up all local movie theater movie times and some have reviews from critics.

I do not watch movies much nowdays. I am waiting for the next John Travolta or Harrison Ford. I know, good luck finding a person like that. I will even take Jackie Chan in his hay day.

All in all, I wait for the DVD's I hate going in movie theaters....crying babies....whining children......stupid people in general.....but anyways.....Any movie suggestions?

And for all if you like humorous movies I suggest Monty Python's movie Life Of Brian
Not ridiculously stupid and not to kiddish just plain ol' humor

I'm inclined to agree with you here. It does feel like in general most movies dumb things down for the viewer. You can see this most clearly in kids shows. Lets take a look at the Art Deco style animated Batman series for example. It assumed a certain level of intelligence and didn't shy away from things. Villains tended to be painted as people rather than just these evil guys doing evil for it's own sake. Most had a good reason why they were as they were and there are times when you might see yourself agreeing with a few of the bad guy's points. And lets not forget they didn't shy away from violence. There was, blood and characters did sometimes die. It was done in a rather tasteful way. Most stuff now a days seem to merely paint the villain as completely and utterly evil and really do tend to dumb things down.