Whats the longest its taken you to acknowledge disappointment with a film? (1 Viewer)

[Scott Weinberg]

Hmm. Very interesting question/thread...

Well, I'm one of like six people in the known universe who fully admits to liking BOTH of the Star Wars prequels...but both of those have gone "down" a little in my eyes over the past few years. I still think they're damn fine Space Adventures, but repeat viewings have revealed a lot of the rough edges. And admittedly...there are quite a few.

The Matrix Reloaded was in no way a disappointment to me. I loved it.

Know what was a massive disappointment? Dreamcatcher! One of my favorite authors and one of my favorite filmmakers...and the result is...ugh. But I disliked that one right away so I guess it's not really topic-al.

I suspect that I'm the sort who doesn't change his mind too often on a movie. If I love something, it usually stays that way. I used to try and 'convince' myself that certain movies were better than they are, but I'm too old (and there are too many movies to see) to deal with that crap anymore.

 

[Nick T Robot]

I guess I'm lucky (and the other hand, perhaps unlucky)

But I haven't had this experience. Either I hate the film while it's running for the first time, or within a few minutes after it ends and I think about the whole experience.

I've had the experience of seeing flaws in films that I didn't notice after another viewing or they are pointed out to me by fellow filmgoers. But I haven't had my mind changed about a film I can remember.

I haven't read the Lord of the Rings books and wondering how I would feel if I had. Also wondering if I'll like the books now that I have the films as my first impression of the story.

 

[Geoffrey_A]

I was a hard core Star Wars geek. Of every movie ever made, Star Wars had the most influence over my life. It was the single most influential series that shaped my tastes and to a certain extent, my values. I was desperate to see episode 1. I stayed in line for 3 days, was the first in line in my city, was on the news and everything. And I loved it, or so I thought. I had this weird feeling in the pit of my stomach, something that told me that the movie wasn't good, but I refused to believe it. I atributed it to the hype, nothing could live up to the hype I'd tell myself. I saw the film in theaters 13 times. the last time was at a drive in, the first movie I'd ever seen at a drive in. With each viewing the insistent but blocked pang of "this sucks!" grew stronger. Finally, that night, as I watched, I realized, this movie sucks. it was heartbreaking. Yet I've still watched it numerous times afterward. By the time Episode II hit, my expectations were supremely low, which I had hoped would mean the film couldn't possibly disappoint. Alas, the only thing episode II did for me was elevate Episode I in my opinion. Although, I will say this: The Imax edit of Episode II is head and shoulders above the theatrical cut. A thoroughly more watchable film.

The thing that saddens me the most is that, with a little judicious editing, both films could be "good" not great perhaps, but at least good. There are decent movies hiding in these train wrecks, they just need to be culled from the carcass of that which is rotten.

 

[Larry Sutliff]

I've never been disappointed in a SW, LOTR or MATRIX film. All of the SW films, including the Prequels(and especially EPISODE II) have met my expectations, which I try to temper and be realistic about. The LOTR films were also movie magic, and I may be one of the few who actually prefers TTT to FOTR(which I had to warm up to; for some reason I couldn't emotionally connect to the film the first few times I saw it, even though I recognized its greatness right away). As far as THE MATRIX is concerned, I have no attachment to the films whatsoever ,didn't even see the first two in the theater, and just see them for what they are: damn good sci-fi adventures with kickass action scenes(ok, RELOADED has stilted dialogue care of Morpheus that is every bit as stilted as anything in the prequels, and the Rave scene sucks, but other than that it was an entertaining film).
On topic, my biggest disappointments were for SUPERMAN III and SUPERMAN IV. I anticipated III from the moment II was over(I saw that one on opening night in '81 with the greatest audience I've ever been privileged to view a film with on opening night), and it was such a crushing disappointment, especially in those pre-internet days when you really didn't hear much about a movie until you actually went and saw it. When IV was announced, and word was that the film would return to the style of the first two, I was ecstatic. Little did I know that Golan and Globus of Cannon would squander most of the 25 million budget on other projects and leave SUPERMAN IV with very little money to do post-production or f/x work. That film was a bigger disaster than III(which I've grown to like over the years).
So, for me, the last two SUPERMAN films were the biggest disappointments. They took a franchise that was on a par with the best of Spielberg and Lucas and turned it into a low budget farce.