Do people even LIKE movies anymore?! (rant)

Okay, I'm starting to get really really tired of the way people behave regarding the cinema.

At first I thought it was just Star Wars "fans", who are really fans of the mental perception of what they believe Star Wars to be, and this explained (though it did not excuse) their insistence that "George Lucas raped their childhood." Despite the fact that it's not their movie, and he was not and never was making the SW movies for them, they felt for some reason Lucas should have consulted them.

But suddenly this is the norm. No matter how interesting or amazing a movie looks, from the trailer alone, it seems people go out of their way to make people aware that they think it's a terrible movie. For some reason these people are bound to see the movies in question at least twice (Terminator 3 is a good example).

I was getting more and more frustrated over this, but a comment posted on another board about Matrix Reloaded made me snap ("I hope it's not as bad as the trailer makes it look").

Save your money then! $10 a pop is a lot to spend for an excuse to belittle something that you decided you hated before you even saw it. Not only that, but throwing money just makes the studio think you LIKED it, and they create more of the same. This is how movies like The Core get made.

Can someone PLEASE explain this moviegoing mentality to me, because honestly, it BOGGLES me!

EDITS: Grammar

M. Scott

 

Preach on Brother Man!!!!

 

Amen!

 

While I admit that it is rather funny to see folks rip a movie before they have seen it, I must play devil's advocate here. I think alot of pessimism that movie goers have stems from Awesome Trailers that failed to live up to expectations. Case in point- The Phantom Menace. Now granted, this movie was up against an unreasonable amount of high expectations, and the trailers were dern good, but the final product failed to deliver. I mean, let's face it- outside of the hardcore fan base, nobody walked away from TPM saying "Wow! That was one of the best movies I've ever seen". People did say this though when walking out of seeing ANH, and ESB so people had come to expect that kind of film from Uncle George. This doesn't really play into your "Why do people who hate trailers still go see the movie based on the trailer they hated so much" rant, but coming from my perspective I can say my attitude has changed about movies. I now have to watch movie trailers with guarded skepticism. I think it's easier for some folks to convince themselves that a movie will suck before going to see it so that just in case the movie turns out good in the theater they will be pleasantly surprised. If it still sucked then they can be that guy who walks around saying, "I told you it would suck." and wouldn't really disappoint them.

 

i agree with dorkman

 

well i can understand when you see a great trailer which results in a crap movie

for example i though ALI would hve been good but IT SUCKED ASS

but i agree why complain about every movie you see

i see lotr fans saying they ruined the seconded movie but i disagree it made it diffrent and they made it intresting for those who havent read the books

peace

 

So are these your friends that complain about movies...or people in forums you frequent...?

I don't think that "idiots" that complain about movies drive box office sales. It seems that the quality of the movie does that. Crappy movie = crappy sales. However, if a crappy movie does well, then there is clearly an audience for that crap, so more crap is made for them. That is just business.

 

People in forums. Notably the films discussion section of the AMFilms forums, the indy scene to TFN's Hollywood.

M. Scott

 

Hey, stop the hatin' on amfilms! We're not all bad, hell, none of us are.

 

The Internet is a communications tool used the world over, where people can come together to b***h about movies and share pornography with one another...
This is a site populated|by militant movie buffs--sad, pathetic little bastards living in their parents' basement--downloading scripts and what they think is inside information about movies and actors|they claim to despise yet can't stop discussing.

- Holden McNeil, "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back"



Plus the quote in my sig.

Says it all.

 

I think we have to remember that there's a difference between a GOOD movie, and a FUN movie.

do i think the matrix sequels will be good? no. will i enjoy seeing them? you bet your sweet booty!

 

Well, let's face it: Hollywood has made some movies that are rather insulting to the intelligence of many viewers, especially recently. And people have kind of almost come to expect that, in fact. I think a lot of rants against movies have been because we're now trained to pick them apart, and not see the good in them.

By the same token, I know for myself, personally, that there have been some movies that I've walked out of knowing I'd be buying the DVD eventually. Sometimes even despite a glaring plot hole or two (for example, Signs).

With the advent of the internet, it's easier to access peoples' stupid opinions than ever before. There will always be people who do nothing but complain. What can you do, really?

 

Well i meant to edit my above post, but the edit feature doesn't seem to be working. anywho...

Hey, stop the hatin' on amfilms! And "I hope it's not as bad as the trailer makes it look" was said by Net, I believe. But read the rest of the thread for god's sake! You act like he said that and then ran off. Your "rant" is horribly misguided in that aspect.

 

^ That's another thing. I think people need to stop going into movies expecting them to be American Beauty or Schindler's List when they're not MEANT to be anything more than Terminator 3. Especially since movies that have messages tend to go over a lot of their heads and thy think it's just boring.

TJA, you know I love AMFilms (my first home, though I'm there less often). It's just that the Film Discussion board frustrates me to no avail. One user in particular whom I won't name.

EDIT: Okay, we named him. I dunno. It's seemed to me lately that Net has had only negative things to say. That's his perogative though. I did read the rest of that thread, and it went like so many other threads go, for real or fan films: everyone's jazzed in the beginning, then someone decides he hates it and it all goes downhill from there.

Like I said, love the community and the rest of the boards, but I think I may need to start making myself stay out of the FD board.

M. Scott

 

Well, you know, it's funny...I've noticed, too, that a lot of the objections to movies these days is that they don't meet expectations. But that means that people going to see these movies are going in with preconceptions, and not taking movies on their own merit.

For example: the Star Wars prequels. People are expecting something more than Star Wars is, or ever was. Star Wars began life as homage to old Saturday Matinee cliffhangers and sci-fi, just like Indiana Jones did. Star Wars is more Duck Dodgers and Flash Gordon than it is, say, Dune or 2001. And I think people seem to have forgotten that.

Another example: Starship Troopers. I loved the book. I mean loved it. Read it a bajillion times before the movie was ever greenlit. And when I saw the first trailer for it, I knew instantly that the movie was going to bear very little resemblance to the book. I went in expecting that and was actually surprised at how faithful they were to the book, though not nearly as faithful as they could have been, of course.

Still another example: The Mummy. A lot of people went to that flick expecting a horror movie, and were disappointed when they ended up with what amounted to a Xena episode. But I took one look at the director name--Stephen Sommers--and knew that it was going to be a funny adventure, with maybe some scary moments, but not a full-on horror movie. I'd seen Sommers' work before, and I know he's a master of campy humor and action. So my expectations were exactly that and nothing more...and I loved the movie.

So preconceptions play a major part in our enjoyment of a movie, it's true.

 

Well you're certainly entitled to your own opinion, Dorkman. I guess I'm just not seeing what you're seeing in that thread. The discussion seems to be going fine to me. ?

 

Seriously go read the boards at aint it cool news. They fuss about everything. The Hulk looks fake! Matrix Reloaded will suck. Lucas is a hack. I've even heard some say that Spielberg isn't any good... now that's just going too far. Hmm what did he do this year? Minority Report and Catch Me If You Can. Yeah lousy year. MI was Ebert's #1 film of the year. It used to bug me but now it's just so ridiculous that I laugh it off.

 

And you know the part that bugs me the most? When people start re-casting and re-crewing movies:

"George Lucas is a terrible director, but I liked 'Lord of the Rings', so I think Peter Jackson should direct Episode 3!"

And it's not just Star Wars. Take nearly any movie, but especially ones with a history, be it a sequel or an adaptation, and you'll get someone who says, "I didn't like [fill in cast or crew memeber] in [fill in name of movie]. I think [fill in someone else who is known for performing the same function in a movie as the fire cast or crew member mentioned] should/should have been in/directed/written/whatever [fill in name of movie or sequel to first movie mentioned]."

It's enough to drive you batty.

EDIT: Removed inappropriate apostraphe

 

I love movies.

 

What I think a lot of people forget is that by all accounts, NONE of the Star Wars films are really that "good", per se. It's just that Star Wars has become such a phenomenon that the films are viewed as some type of holy trinity instead of the plain ol' movies that they really are.

I think a lot of people just have their expectations set waaaaay too high. They expect everything that comes out of Hollywood to be the greatest piece of art ever put on film.. Where oh where do they get that idea? They talk about how much films suck, but you never hear them talk about any good movies.. because to some people, there ARE no good movies. You ask them about films like Gladiator, Schindler's List, The Godfather, and they say "Yeah, all those sucked, too".

I think the argument was summed up pretty well around this time last year, I think it was, or late 2001. People were complaning about the "schlock" coming out of Hollywood, said they wanted a real movie that would make them think. Speilberg gives them "A.I." And they didn't like it because it was too boring, or too confusing (I happen to agree with some of the reviews I've read of "A.I.".. if you didn't like it, that means you didn't understand it).

Plus, bear in mind that Hollywood doesn't make movies to make art. Some directors do, yes, but Hollywood as a whole does not. They spit out movies left and right to make money. Lots and lots of money. Nothing else matters. It doesn't matter whether the critics bash the hell out of a movie, so long as it sells at the box office.

I actually read a report one time.. not just an article, an actual researched report, on the "schlock" that's been coming out over the last few years. They actually do it on purpose. They purposefully release garbage. They green-light a film who's one-paragraph synopsis sounds great, but that they know won't make a good film. Stuff like "Dude, Where's my Car?", "Just Married", or "National Security".. they tend to be comedies. Anyway, they hype the movie as much as they can.. spend millions on advertising. So that everyone gets the idea that the film will be worth watching (except those of us that have more of an understanding of films, we see right through it, and quickly get annoyed at the constant bombardment of advertistments and trailers). So everyone goes out on opening weekend, and the film, which cost $20 million to make, rakes in $30 million in the first weekend. Then word of mouth spreads that the movie isn't worth the celluloid it's printed on, and the film is out of theatres in less than a month. But the folks in Hollywood don't care.. they've made their money, on that first weekend. It's a process that not only ruins the movie scene, but actually works, and works well, so they'll continue to do it. And it's becoming the end of true filmmaking as we know it.. So when someone actually does come out with a good film, like a "Gladiator" or a "Lord of the Rings", it's almost lost in the shuffle of all the crap that they're spitting out.

 

Wow what a great thread!

Cheers Dorkman


I'll add something:

I saw two towers yesterday and before it played there were 7 trailers shown. 6 of them were sequels. Some looked fun and some not. regardless of that fact I wish there was a little less dead-horse beating going on. Like re-doing Superman. puleez!

but thats just me.

 

But 2016, Gladiator did quite well and was mostly universally liked by everyone. It definately wasn't lost in tht shuffle of silly movies.

Don't forget the internet is starting to counter-act that thing you said Hollywood was doing. Internet buzz can quite possibly make or break a movie these days. Star Trek Nemesis probably failed because of bad internet buzz a few weeks before it came out. And of course we can't forget how well The Blair Witch Project did because of the huge internet hype it had like a year before it came out. Internet buzz is becoming more important in how a movie may fare at the box office now.

 

I toitally agree with jedi. I mean, i saw Lotr (15th in line I might add), and I LOVED it! I was so stoked coming out of the theatre. I wanted to go see it again, and I told everyone about it.

Then, by the end of that week, The movie was already at the bottom of the marquee (sp?). I mean, It was an awsome film, but there was so much else crap out there that it was just lost in the sea of them.

Your right, Hollywood doesn't care and we don't need to see any special report telling us that. We can see it in the way they make their films. Most of them are just slapped between two buns, smothered in onion, with fries on the side. There terrible. Grant you, there have been Several good films out, but like jedi said, they just get lost in a sea of CRAP!

= *My two bits worth*


-Josh

 

Jedi2016: I fully admit that I didn't quite get AI. Oh, I understood most of it, and even liked it...but I feel like a lot of people, that the movie should have ended the first time.

You know the bit I mean, with the robot kid sitting on the bottom of the ocean until his batteries ran out? I mean, it's creepy and depressing and sad, but it at least made a perverse kind of sense.
Not like the next bit with the weird alien-lookin' things and a machine suddenly magically being able to dream with no real explanation tied to it...that was just weird, and seemed out of place with the rest of the movie.

 

I'll just say this: A few weeks ago Just Married was the number one movie in America. The number one movie in America And what was it knocked down by? Kangeroo Jack. Kangeroo Jack! Kangeroo F*#&#% Jack! And what was it knocked down by? DARKNESS FALLS?!?!?!?!

I'm telling you, these have got to be the signs of the apocalypse!!!!


EDIT: As for AI, yeah I got it. I just didn't like it. And please don't patronize me by saying I didn't understand it, I understood it perfectly, thats not he reason I didn't like it. The reason I didn't like it is I thought it was just too damn manipulative. It was just intentionally, and obviously, trying to pull at the ole' heart strings and I didn't think much of that. Most of the people in the theatre cried throughout the whole damn thing. I realize that can be cathartic, but I don't think it was done very well, on the part of the writers anyways. Visually Spielberg did a wonderful job. The acting was also top notch. I just think it could have been better writen.