Are movie geeks (us) just too fussy these days? (1 Viewer)

[Darren Pillans]

I wonder...

I'm an old bastard now (33), and I must admit a little jaded.

Films can still entertain me (Kill Bill sure did), but I always find that movies don't thoroughly excite me or fulfil my expectations like they used to.

So many complain about virtually every movie that comes out these days. Saying "The Prequels suck and Episode 3 will suck!", "Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions suck!", "The Hulk sucks!" and concluding with "It's no Empire Strikes Back!"

If the original Star Wars trilogy came out today I bet it would be trashed liked everything else. They're far from perfect films.

That's what we're all expecting, a "perfect" movie, but does such a thing exist?

Are we just spoiled now and do we expect the impossible?

I wonder.

 

[Dan Rudolph]

I think movie geeks have always been little whiners. 25 years from now they'll be complaing movies aren't like the current crop.

 

[Paul_Sjordal]

I agree with Dan. Film buffs and critics have always been that way.

I remember the comments 30+ year olds were making about the Star Wars movies when they came out.

When I was a teenager, I remember most films I liked were panned and ridiculed by film critics and snobby film buffs.

And you know what? The original Star Wars trilogy doesn't hold me in anywhere near the same kind of awe it did when I was younger. Nowadays I enjoy them mostly for their nostalgic value. Obviously this fussiness is either catching or an inevitability of the aging process.

 

[Michael Reuben]

So many complain about virtually every movie that comes out these days. Saying "The Prequels suck and Episode 3 will suck!", "Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions suck!", "The Hulk sucks!" and concluding with "It's no Empire Strikes Back!"

I'm old enough to consider 33 to be a tender age, and yet I continue to find films that surprise, enchant and enthrall me. They just don't happen to include any of the heavily hyped titles you've listed (and yes, that includes Kill Bill).

If one's viewing is dominated by such films, getting jaded is inevitable. They are an extremely small sample (by number at least) of what's out there. A true film "geek" or "buff" would be quick to move on to other things.

M.

 

[JosefM]

The only problem I feel exists with many movies is that there isn't much substance in them. So many movies have no plot, bad acting and rely way too much on CGI to get them through. That said, action movies are by nature meant to entertain and not necessarily be good movies. It would be nice to have more movies with quality in them, though. Maybe I'm getting to the point where I expect too much.

 

[SteveGon]

What Michael said.

 

[Kevin Grey]

I do think that we are too picky these days- particularly with regard to fantasy and sci-fi films. I truly don't think we understand how good we have it.

How many serious sci-fi/fantasy films were made in the eighties and early to mid-nineties? Now we get to to a stage where the studios are entrusting the properties to people who seem to care about the source material and take the movies seriously and are giving them budgets to realize them. We've even got Christopher Nolan making Batman for christ sakes! The past few years have produced The Matrix, Blade 1&2, X-Men, Spiderman, Harry Potter, LOTR trilogy, X2, Hulk, Hellboy, Daredevil, Equilibrium, AI, and Minority Report. Some obviously more successful than others yet from what people say about some of them you'd think I just listed a string of Adam Sandler movies.

I'm a bit worried that after the perceived failure of some of these that the studios are going to start lowering budgets and giving them back to people like Joel Schumacher or Michael Bay in an effort to better please the masses.

 

[Nick Graham]

We have become a mass of whiney, intolerable middle schoolers, where almost everything is despised with endless hyperbole and only a few films are deemed truly good. That goes for the DVD community as well, not just the film geeks. And it's getting worse.

My visits to this site and quite frankly every other film and DVD related discussion site on the net have decreased in number, and they will likely continue to.

It's a disease that's spreading faster and faster.

 

[Jack Briggs]

Well, that's your choice. But, otherwise, "what Michael said." There's some genuinely good material out there, but it's overshadowed by all the hyperbole directed at the loud, sensation-driven movies.

 

[RobertR]

So many complain about virtually every movie that comes out these days.

Ever heard of Sturgeon's Law? It says that 95% or more of EVERYTHING is crap. A truly good film is not a commonplace occurence. Neither is good art in ANY field. I agree with Jack and Michael. There is too much mediocrity being ballyhooed today, and too many people are saying they liked it, simply because they've lowered their expectations way WAY down, as in "it was kewl! lots of stuff blowed up good! Good popcorn flick!". Sigh.

 

[Matthew_Millheiser]

To butcher Wooderson:

You get older.
Movies stay the same age.

I'm 32. Fifteen years ago you couldn't get me more than ten minutes past, say, an Ozu film, while I'd droolingly slobber in anticipation of the latest "Nightmare on Elm Street" crapfest. Nowadays I'm mesmerized by Ozu's simple, unadorned brilliance, and wonder why on Earth I was ever first in line to see "Police Academy 4."

 

[Edwin Pereyra]

So many complain about virtually every movie that comes out these days. Saying "The Prequels suck and Episode 3 will suck!", "Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions suck!", "The Hulk sucks!" and concluding with "It's no Empire Strikes Back!"

A true "film buff" will probably not say any of the above. They just won't see any of it in the first place.

~Edwin

 

[Edwin-S]

Movies have upped the level of "realism" being depicted. Film fan expectations for "realistic" depiction of events has been increased as a result. When the "realism" doesn't measure up, the fans of film get upset.

Look at the thread for MASTER AND COMMANDER. Someone is basically complaining that the movie is flawed, because the cannon, apparently, do not recoil properly.

 

[ChrisBEA]

I complain now and then but I love all types of film, realism doesn't bother me.
I have been to 74 movies this year ranging from Darkness Falls to Spirited Away to Lost in La Mancha to The Matrix(both of them), to Swimming Pool To Hulk, the list goes on.
I think my point is that I enjoy all types of films and even bad ones I try to find some good in(although Cold Creek Manor was a lost cause).
I don't think I'm fussy, but I keep my mind open to all types of film experiences.
This doesn't even take into consideration my DVD collection, check out the link in my sig....

 

[Darren Pillans]

Michael,

I think my post gave the wrong impression.

The films I mentioned fit into a particular category for me (films the child in me could enjoy) and they're far from all I'm interested in.

In fact, my favorite films this year have been American Splendor and Punchdrunk Love.

Maybe that's what I'm going through, I'm moving on.

 

[Dome Vongvises]

Oh bitch bitch bitch.



Gotta love Grandpa.

 

[Angelo.M]

There's some genuinely good material out there, but it's overshadowed by all the hyperbole directed at the loud, sensation-driven movies.

Amen.

 

[ChrisBEA]

I gotta say, that while a lot of good films are overshadowed, I love it when I find one of these hidden gems. It's like being in on a secret, when I talk to friends about checking out movies and often I recommend titles they aren't familiar with, then they go and see it and come back thanking me for it. It happened all the time when I worked at a video store, I had so many repeat customers who came specifically for my recommendations. It was a great feeling. Anyway, I'm willing to give any movie a shot, but I won't necessarily pay for anything.

Speaking of fussy, do you ever find yourself attracted to a movie that you know is going to be a disaster, but something about it gurantees that you will have a prime seat for it? I ask this cuz there is a movie opening next month that I know will be bad, really bad, but there is an actress in it that I like so much I am being drawn into the black hole of its apparent suckitude. I'm not alone am I?

 

[Seth Paxton]

I'm old enough to consider 33 to be a tender age, and yet I continue to find films that surprise, enchant and enthrall me. They just don't happen to include any of the heavily hyped titles you've listed (and yes, that includes Kill Bill).

If one's viewing is dominated by such films, getting jaded is inevitable. They are an extremely small sample (by number at least) of what's out there. A true film "geek" or "buff" would be quick to move on to other things.

Totally agree Michael.

I've been blown away by movies every year, just not the below average SW 1 & 2, etc.

I'm at 35, about to get my 2nd degree in Film Theory, and a serious "elitist" as identified by any J6P. However, I still enjoy and love that magical feeling when a film hits you just right. Yet I've NEVER felt that way about more than 10-15 films a year, and really only 1 or 2 per year deeply affect my life (if that).

Recent films that blew me away would be Pulp Fiction, Trainspotting, and Rushmore. Not everyone shares that feeling for those films, which is exactly where a thread like this comes from. To me it sounds a lot more like "film geeks don't like the films I think are good, therefore they are pretentious snobs who expect too much".

I wasn't quite life-altered by LOTR, but I was pretty damn impressed. I happened to think Matrix 2&3 delivered quite well and somewhat suspect that they will be films that will age much better than many other films. I think they confused the expectations which caused some negative reactions to them.


What I've come to find is that the films we EXPECT to be the ones that blow us away almost never are. Making a great film is hard which makes it more like potluck in guessing where the next great film will come from. That's why I keep going and keep trying every type of film.

Here are some of the films that surprised and impressed me the last 3 years...

2001 - Memento, Amelie, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Moulin Rouge, Muholland Drive (among others).

2002 - Chicago, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Solaris, Punch Drunk Love, Frida, Adaptation (again among others)

2003 - City of God and to a lesser extent Pirates of the Carribean

Those are films that I mostly wasn't planning to see 2 years before their release, films that snuck up on me or blew my expectations away. X2, LOTR, Matrix films, I still enjoyed those quite a bit too.

But of course during this span there were plenty of "sure things" that didn't come off so well.

Of the films I just listed I would like to emphasize that the rating has far more to do with the pure, visceral experience of the films than some dry respect for "artistic effort". I love the music of Chicago or Hedwig, the incredible set design, artwork, colors and dazzle. The snappy dialog of Adaptation or Confessions. Or the surprising, intriguing, and downright interesting direction of Muholland Drive or Punch Drunk Love.

That's not being a snob, that's just liking what those films have to offer. I don't hate formula, I'm just not impressed with it for it's own sake. If you present formula you damn sure better do it as well as it can be done...it's called formula because its already been done "regular" a million times which makes it pointless to see your film if its just yet another like the others.

That also isn't being a snob. Star Wars was NOT something I'd seen before, but TPM was. Star Wars WAS Pirates of the Carribean, meaning that it was enjoyable for many of the same reasons, though it took it to another level (thanks to Ford, JEJones, Guinness, Fisher and Cushing among others).

So IMO, if SW came out today it would be received AT LEAST as well as POTC was, which was pretty darn good. Add to that reception they "I've never seen anything like that" aspect and you see why SW did so well. It had nothing to do with there being less snobby viewers back then, it was just a magic film.


And I look at the reviews and box office of LOTR so far and I have a very tough time swallowing your "trashed like everything else". Clearly there are at least 2 examples that contradict the "everything" view, that are popular as well as respected. It can be done and is still being done. It's just that studios want to sell us the idea that they will each be putting out 5 films like this per year. Well look at the "classics" list and you will see that this has NEVER BEEN TRUE.

Why should it suddenly be true now.

Or maybe you haven't seen the crap that is "Earthquake".

 

[Glenn Overholt]

But Earthquake was so cool!

Ok, maybe I like earthquakes, and any movie that has an earthquake in it I will automatically love, and overlook any flaws in it.

Any good movie can be totally ruined it something happens in it that you know cannot happen. If you are an expert hacker, and watch any movie involving hacking, it will crack you up because you know that they 'fudged' a bit to make the story work.

It goes back to that 'leave your brains at the door' saying. It is a movie, so overlook technical flaws and just enjoy it, or you'll die a bitter person.

Glenn