credit: Ghostbusters
Just to clarify, fans get to enjoy whatever movie they want and call it good if they feel that it is, the critics don’t have the right to affect that, but they certainly have the influence and power to make people think one way or another. The hate/love relationships that a lot of people have with various movies are confusing at times since, all too often, it happens that people will follow certain trends and decide to trash one movie or another because critics or someone else happens to say that a movie is no good or because it doesn’t conform to one norm or another.
I’ll admit to trashing movies when it feels necessary, but not with at least an attempt to state what worked or what could have been tweaked to make the movie just a little better. No one is perfect when it comes to estimating how worthwhile a movie is, not even the supposed experts, since, like it or not, they have their own biases that come into play when determining which movie is worth praise and which isn’t.
But the unfortunate fact is that many people around the world will allow their decision to watch a movie and enjoy it to be decided by critics rather than their own personal preference. What’s even more frustrating is that a lot of people might like a movie upon watching it but will flip the script when the majority of people state that it’s no good. Oh, the hypocrisy.
credit: Avatar
We’re only human, after all.
As human beings, we’re not perfect, no matter how much some folks might think they are, and our opinions when it comes to the movies aren’t bound to be any more perfect than any other person’s. One individual might love a movie they’ve just seen, while another might think it’s trash, and that’s okay. Would you like to know why? It’s because everyone has different tastes in movies, which is only one reason why the entertainment industry is as expansive as it is.
The love/hate relationship that some folks have with certain movies is frustrating because they essentially allow another person, or a group of people, to metaphorically badger them into claiming that what they just professed to love is nothing but a hot, steaming pile of garbage because of…reasons. Strong-willed individuals will stick to their guns and not bother to defend their decision to enjoy something, while those who find it necessary to fold and cave to the mob are kind of pitiful since, well, they just proved that they’d do anything the mob says. Sadly, that’s part of being human as well.
Peer pressure is a pain in the neck sometimes.
It is kind of tough to stand up to a mob when they’re telling an individual that they’re wrong, that their opinion is only one out of thousands or millions, and that they should just give in and agree with the mob’s point of view. Some folks cave quickly, while others take their time and try to assess whether it’s worth being cut off from the company of others simply because they don’t think the same way.
The truly strong-willed tend to make it clear that their mind isn’t changing, no matter if they’re in the minority, and while it’s true that standing apart from the group can be lonely, there are often enough people willing to do this since one way or another, joining the mob might provide safety in numbers, but it’s often a great way to lose one’s identity and allow others to dictate what is acceptable. I get it. That sounds a little too heavy for this discussion, and it kind of is, but the point is that if one decides to compromise on the little stuff, one way or another, they’ll start figuring that compromising on anything is bound to sound like a good idea.
credit: Terminator: Salvation
Too often, great stories get downplayed because of past mistakes or a lack of continuity.
A lot of people tend to take up the habit of pointing out past mistakes in a story or the fact that things don’t line up all that well from one movie to the next. Hey, I’ve done it, but thankfully like many others, I’ve matured and decided that unless it’s so erroneous and purposeful that it kind of ruins the story, it’s not that big of a deal. The latter is usually easier to state since it’s not something that’s worth stressing over that much. But seriously, worrying too much about what happened in the past kind of ruins the present-day movie-watching experience.
One can usually count on truly bad movies being given an excuse these days.
There have been several movies over the past decade or two that have been bad enough to warrant the abuse they’ve been given, but those that have been truly reviled are often given an excuse as to why they were so bad. There are a lot of reasons for this, but too often, it’s because the audience can’t make up their minds whether they love or hate a movie.
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