sigh

[gement]

The following is actually a meditation on my own thought processes, though it appears to be talking about movie reviews. I'm fretting about my sanity, perceptions, and taste. These are, hopefully, topics of general philosophical interest.

So, I thought League would totally suck. I was braced for it to be the worst movie ever made.

Then it wasn't, and I was delighted with it! I didn't go so far as to consider it spectacular, but I considered it a lot of fun to go to, enough to see it twice.

The second time I enjoyed it even more, and forgave some things that irritated me the first time, though I also found fresh irritants.

Then other people's appraisals started pouring in, and I hate being so malleable, but I'm coming to the reluctant conclusion that the movie stank and I just convinced myself to like it because it didn't COMPLETELY stink. (See original expectation.)

But then I remember reviewers are idjits and most people are criticizing the movie for the wrong reasons (i.e. Either it was based on a comic book, so it sucks, or I have the comic book memorized and this wasn't it, so it sucks). No offense to anyone criticizing the movie, of course. At least half of my crits are from the comics as well.

But it's really disheartening to see that the MSN averaged scorecard gives it the all-time lowest rating of any of the 15 major releases this summer. Out of six or seven reviews each, three of the other movies had garnered a single D+. League got a D AND a D-.

So either the world's gone mad or I've gagged and restrained my sense of taste out of loyalty for a story I really wanted to enjoy.

Either way, it sucks, and I'm malleable enough to start agreeing with people about it sucking if I hear it often enough, which bugs me.

Comments

[morinon.livejournal.com]

It seems to me that the world is far too judgemental at times. There are many movies that, from a completely unbiased viewpoint, I've agreed they more or less suck, but I found fun to watch anyways. Most people don't know how to just let themselves go and have fun, no matter how bad something is in their view.

[cristoforio.livejournal.com]

There's this guy, you see? He and I used to watch a lot of movies together. We took a lot of chances on watching videos that we'd really heard little or nothing about, y'know? Most of the time, I at least enjoyed the movie. Most of the time, he was disappointed by the movie. We'd end up having friendly arguments where he'd tell me all that he saw wrong with the show as I defend with what I saw as its good points.

Did he have higher standards in movies than me? Maybe, but I feel that I have high standards as well. Was I mindlessly giving in to "blockbuster!" and "greatest film of the summer!" propaganda? I doubt it, as I think I can be critical of things I don't like.

He noted the flaws and let it interfere with his enjoyment. I tried to look past the flaws to see what I could enjoy.

Who got their money's worth?

Viva La Taste

[wistol.livejournal.com]

Ok, the hardest thing to do in this world is hold your own opinion.

Whenever a movie comes out the critics tell you what to think of a film. They have no opinion for other tastes, and usually try to stay within thier peer groups opinions (other critics). (Yes, it's cicular. I still don't get it.)

Now as for wanting the story to be like ther source material, this I can understand. Please note I hated Jurassic Park because it wasn't close enough to the book for me. I thought the movie just sucked.

As you probably noticed this wasn't a popular opinion. Everyone thought the movie was great. That's were i learned to disasociate the movie from the source material. Now I enjoy the film.

I, for one, really liked LXG. It was fun and entertaining. It wasn't the comic. It didn't even have the same mood as the comic. But as a similar story it worked well. (And I just loved Dorian Grey in this film).

It's very hard to hold an opinion of something when you are bombarded with one opinion. It happens. It's like when you hear a some you dislike, but after hearing it often enough it seems to grow on you. This phenomenon it the same with opinion.

We've had discusions where each of us had a different opinion on something. You have a habit of trying to see the other side when you can. But I also know you take this information and make your own judgments.

Your good at making up your own mind. We've danced with differing opinions before. Your good at this dance. If you need a refresher, I can call and dance with you again.

[shadowblue.livejournal.com]

I'm sure I would have gone through the same bunch of phases.

So I don't have any helpful comments, but I wanted to say: squishy! in response to 'malleable'.