Little things have been pissing me off lately when reading people’s comments about movies. I don’t know if it is just me, or if people are just getting to the point where they want to bitch about anything and everything and refuse to be happy with anything that they are given. That makes this edition of Renegade Rant one that makes it live up to the original reason for the column.
To recap:
Iron Man 3 was awesome. That is just facts. However, so many people hated the twist in the movie with The Mandarin, that it made them ignore everything that was awesome about Shane Black’s movie. It is why comic book fans might not get great filmmakers like Shane Black for much longer.
Star Trek Into Darkness was a fun, thrill-ride that Trekkies refused to even give a chance. And they are so loud with their complaints that they refuse to not be heard.
Arrested Development returned and people finally got what they have been waiting for since the show was unfairly cancelled. Then they complained that it was not the funniest thing in the world.
Man of Steel was just an amazing movie, but people seemed to focus either on the big spoiler at the end, saying Superman would NEVER EVER do that, even though he did the exact same thing in Superman II and in the comics – TO THE SAME FREAKING VILLAIN. Or people complained about nitpicky things, because honestly, people went into the theater wanting to hate the movie.
That brings me to my big complaint. Why the hell do self-professed movie fans go to movies looking for things to hate? I don’t mean people who go to a movie and end up hating it. I am talking about the society of people now who seem to be looking for things to nitpick. You can tell who they are because they find something that other people may have not even noticed and harp on it until it seems like something important.
These people don’t want to be happy. They are Trekkies who go to the new Star Trek movie despite saying in the months leading up to it that it will suck. They go so they can sound smart when complaining about Chekov’s age or something like that. Maybe some are going, hoping they will be proven wrong, but most won’t stay happy regardless of how the movie turns out.
Those people as bad as the ones who wait to see what movies everyone loves and then decides to nitpick those apart, telling everyone how they are wrong because the movie sucks so much (see: Dark Knight complainers). Actually, those people may be worse because they wait until a movie is loved before pretending to hate it. The people in 2013 came into the year ready to hate everything and won’t let a good movie stand in their way.
I hate those people. They make loving movies seem like such a chore.
I wasn’t thrilled about the way they portrayed the Mandarin in the Iron Man 3 previews, but since I’m a huge Iron Man fan, I decided to go with an open mind. I’m glad I did because I loved it. I agree that people are getting too hypercritical. They ruin and tear apart films even before they give them a real chance.
Agreed. I left this movie absolutely loving it and then saw people ripping it apart online and was just shocked.
I think a lot of this has to do with expectations. It’s impossible for sequels — or reboots, or whatever — to live up to people’s expectations when they are familiar with the brand — character, franchise whatever. Because everyone has their own idea of how Star Trek or Superman or Mandarin SHOULD BE.
At the same time, the internet isn’t everyone in the world, and the most vocal people people are usually the complainers. I think MOST movie-goers totally dug Star Trek ID and Iron Man 3 (I don’t know about MOS, a lot of people I talked to hated it as much as me, and it fell off the map pretty quickly after its opening weekend, but maybe that’s just because of Monsters University).
I find bitchy fanboys annoying too, but at times I just remember to take a step back, take it with a grain of salt, and remember that those same people complaining probably also saw the movie three times in theaters.
“That brings me to my big complaint. Why the hell do self-professed movie fans go to movies looking for things to hate?”
I agree for the most part, but there’s another part to this equation. I’ve seen almost 50 movies at the theatre this year (2013 as I write this), and I’ve paid for them all. Some have been 10 bucks a show, some have been almost 15 for IMAX. I don’t get paid to review movies for free so it makes a difference.
Over time that adds up so I intentionally keep my expectations low. I’d like to see something new come out of storytelling and not see the same shit over and over again. That’s what I hate, the reboots, the re-imaginings and crap that’s really the same story over again or changed just a little. Every time one of these movies are propped up for being ‘original’ it just leads the way for more box office bombs. We’re out 15 bucks, Hollywood is out millions and no one wins.
So I get it. I see why people nitpick. In order to make a quality stories details should matter. Story should matter. Makes for better entertainment in the long run. Most of the movies in 2013 have been average or crap with a few exceptions. True, you could sit back and let the details slide, accept it for what it is and enjoy it. Or I could see the junkfood of cinema for what it’s become and try to change it.
That’s what a true renegade does. =P