Has the internet somewhat ruined your enjoyment of movies?

weiland79

Specifically forums such as this one.

We had a couple of AAA releases this summer that have been discussed and dissected for over three years. Fever pitch was reached a long time ago with Promethius and of course The Dark Knight Rises.
So much so that i felt decidedly underwhelmed by both titles after seeing them.

I watched Promethius again last night, and I have to say, I really enjoyed it.
Sure it has it's problems (which i don't need to go into here) but all in all i have to say, if you were to compare it to other movies in it's genre, it's pretty much top shelf.

I suppose the problem is as i see it, we spend years devouring every tidbit available for a certain movie.
Stills,screenshots teasers of trailers comments from it's makers and stars. So much that of course it's not possible for the movie to live up to expectations.

This of course is all obvious to everyone here, but for me another problem comes into play after I've seen the movie.

I come home from the theatre as i said a little underwhelmed and have a look at what other people are saying and this just makes it worse.
Worse because things are pointed out to me that i wouldn't necessarily have noticed. Problems with lighting or maybe an editing issue.

Discussion and debate are of course wonderfull. I've learned many things from the internet and at the end of the day i do enjoy learning new things about my interests through this medium.

I just can't help thinking that It's stolen a little bit of magic from movies.

Outkast_IRE

Solution is to not be reading the forums too much afterwards,
some people no matter how good or enjoyable the film will find fault.

I remember after prometheus somone bitching about the space travel and how they did traveled so quick and i was thinking to myself its ****ing sci-fi with aliens in it !!!!!!!!

However i did do a bit of analysis after the dark knight rises.
But i would only point out faults imo with the editing of the movie, or the pacing or the lack of "gothamness" about the world. I dont believe in nitpicking details.

KenSwee

I tend to find the easiest way is to avoid anything to do with a movie before seeing it.

krudler

yes with spoiling and revealing things, no with discussing stuff afterwards.

Memnoch

The only thing I knew about Prometheus was that I had seen the trailer for it a few times from being in the cinema for other films before I went to see it.

It was an average film at best. That has nothing to do with internet forums. Films that are great will still blow you away. Films that are not, will not.

I loved Batman begins. I was hyped up for the dark knight. Yet it completely blew me away. One of my favorite films of all time. I was similarly hyped for Rises. It was an average film.

Why should we feel forced to enjoy a film that isn't good enough? Good films are uncommon, great ones are rare, that's how it is with books also or really any kind of art.

Samsara for example is getting great reviews. I watched it last week not expecting it to live up to the hype. But I came out of it feeling like it could easily be the best film of the year.

Goldstein

weiland79 wrote: »

...Promethius again last night, and I have to say, I really enjoyed it.
Sure it has it's problems (which i don't need to go into here) but all in all i have to say, if you were to compare it to other movies in it's genre, it's pretty much top shelf.

I'll stop you there :pac:

johnny_ultimate

weiland79 wrote: »

I just can't help thinking that It's stolen a little bit of magic from movies.

Movies aren't magic and TBH that's sort of what makes them so much fun to debate, analyse and discuss. How the observable techniques and storytelling still have the power (or, sometimes more interestingly, have not) to keep your eyes glued to the screen. In terms of encouraging the proliferation a wide range of films and discussion about the films, the Internet has been a massive boon to the artform and our consumption of it. Information about world, independent and classic cinema is now more accessible than it has ever been, and I couldn't count the amount of great directors or films I've discovered from even throwaway comments on message boards, blogs or review sites.

Yes, the Internet has also somewhat limited the depth of discussion: obsessions with star ratings, rankings, pre-release hype, fanboy / dissenter hyperbole... But ultimately the benefits outweigh the negatives, and I always look forward to hopping online to read and hopefully discuss a great or awful film I've just seen.

That said, The Dark Knight Rises and Prometheus 'discussions' were disheartening. The films deserved to split opinion down the middle, but the nitpicking, pedantry and ignorance that consumed much of the online debate were depressing to read (and in a few rare cases here, moderate). The higher profile a film is, the more likely it is the discussion will spiral out of hand. Still, while those two examples were unfortunate, I have seen healthy, intelligent discussion around countless other films from the last twelve months, even some of the higher profile films.

Zubeneschamali

weiland79 wrote: »

I watched Promethius again last night, and I have to say, I really enjoyed it. Sure it has it's problems (which i don't need to go into here) but all in all i have to say, if you were to compare it to other movies in it's genre, it's pretty much top shelf.

What I find is that by keeping an eye on the places like this forum, I can learn that Prometheus is the kind of movie which would drive me into a sub-psychotic rage for a week, and I should under no circumstances watch it, ever.

It's a bit of a dance to find out enough about a movie to know whether to watch it without spoiling it, but this forum is far more careful than the official trailers are about spoilers.

syklops

If anything it has enhanced my enjoyment. I grew up a few miles a way from a small village in the wesht of Ireland. If I went to the cinema to see a summer blockbuster, aside from talking about it in the car on the way home, I had to wait until September to talk to anyone in school about it. In 1996 I got a 14.4 modem and discovered bulletin boards, and found there were other people out there like me.

If you dont want to see a movie dissected before you see it don't go on the thread.

Sure it has it's problems (which i don't need to go into here) but all in all i have to say, if you were to compare it to other movies in it's genre, it's pretty much top shelf.

The Dark Knight is what I would call top shelf. I have seen it dozens of times and I can't fault it. Prometheus is full of plotholes. Absolutely full of them. Visually it is a beautiful movie, but I can't get past all the problems in it. I read very little online about it before i went in, but coming out I had a litany of complaints with it.

And as someone else said, fora such as this are much more sensitive when it comes to spoilers than some trailers are. To quote one of my favourite comedies:"Free Willy was a whale. Did you ever see it? They showed the whole story in the trailer, you didn't need to bother going". Unfortunately this is true of many trailers.

Tipsy McSwagger

Being an adult and over critical has spoiled my enjoyment of summer blockbusters. Gone are days of being in awe of films like Jurrasic Park, Batman (1989) and the Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles.

e_e

Without the internet I wouldn't have even gotten to see half of my favorite movies from recommendations, so no.

Galvasean

Actually pre-release discussion is the main reason I don't moderate the Films forum anymore. When there was a big release film coming along it was impossible to avoid spoilers. As per the rules, its the Mods' job to delete/hide spoilers from threads, so when people reported them you'd have to take a looksie. Drove me mad.

As an aside, describing Prometheus as a AAA title is just plain wrong and is an example of the hyperbole that mars internet discussion.

don ramo

the goods massively outweigh the bad, i normally give my few cents worth on if i liked or hated a film, ill stick around and get a few alternative opinions but eventually some people come along who love to over analyses films, and thats usually when i stop checking the threads,

if i have a big interest in the lead up to the film, i usually stop reading everything about it a month or two before its release, just in case people ruin the film for me,

kitakyushu

It's your own choice whether to follow build-up & subsequent fanboy obsession or not to, so you can't really blame 'the internet' for it.

Personally I haven't followed the internet build up of any movie since SW:TPM back in 1999. I don't know whether it was the pointless babble or the trying to download a 25mb trailer at 4kbps without the connection breaking that put me off the endeavour for life.

Either way I think the net has benefited me greatly in terms of getting a better understanding of what's what in terms of film and getting more enjoyment out of the pursuit. I certainly wouldn't want to go back to the days of "pocket guides" or "microsoft cinemania" again anyway (great as they were).

FlashD

Hasn't ruined my enjoyment, if anything i'm more informed and its great to get a cross section of opinions from people other than your regular friends.

After all the build up around Promethius I ended up giving it a miss based on tons of reviews, still haven't seen it and couldn't care less at this stage, I just wouldn't have the time or patience.

On the plus side I watched 'Cabin In The Woods' based on all the reviews here, I probably wouldn't have otherwise, based on the title, thought it was going to be another generic horror but it turned out to be an absolute blast.

Dredd is next on my list now.

Dempsey

Just have to manage your exposure to material on a film prior to a release. Some of the best films I've seen in recent times are those which I knew little about before seeing them.

Prometheus was badly written imo and the suspension of disbelief was broken several times which ruined it abit for me.

Even though I read alot about TDKR before its release I dont think it ruined it in anyway for me. It just wasnt as good at the other 2 films.

Gee Bag

I usually don't read about a film until after I've seen it, usually. And I avoid trailers like the plague.

I tend to stick to the same few reviewers that I trust, Donald Clarke and Tara Brady at the Irish Times rarely let me down. As a bonus they can review a film without giving away the plot. If I'm looking at Rotten Tomatoes I tend to look at the overall aggregate only.

I think the Sunday Times has the worst reviews, I rarely agree with any if their ratings. The feckers gave away the ending of Kill List in the space of four sentences. Grrrrrrr!!!

juan.kerr

No, I go the cinema at least once every 2 weeks but have no problem avoiding reading about a film beforehand. Not too difficult to do.

I have a Blu Ray collection of 280+ Blu Ray steelbooks , and 600 + Blu Rays.
I avoid trailers and movies discussion like the plague.
Makes it a much better experience and so don't get put off or have expectations that most reviewers put on you.

johnny_ultimate

Know what the worst thing about Internet film discussion is, as well as magazines like Empire? That it has shifted the predominant discussion to pre-release hype, flavour of the months and spoiler panic (while its always best to go into a film blind, some recent proclamations of 'you ruined the film' I've seen have been hyperbolic to an extreme). All that nonsense - trailers, script speculation, casting rumours - is by far the least interesting aspect of film. It has its place but should never be allowed to dominate. Indeed, once the film is released, there tends to be a brief flurry of discussion before everyone moves on. I've actually seen a few cases where there's been more pre-release discussion than debate the finished product!

The result is an increasing lack of proper, in-depth criticism and discourse. If I start a thread on a director's career here, or a whole cinema movement, it will inevitably provoke less discussion than a thread about an upcoming Hollywood release will. Even in the wider media there are few writers or broadcasters who step beyond mere surface level criticism.

It's why I value sites like the Criterion website with their essays on classic cinema, or publications Sight & Sound who at least delve deeper in their analysis of both new and old cinema (their current article on symbolism and references in Holy Motors was a particularly welcome read when I got home from the cinema). Indeed, much of such discussion is relegated to typically cold, inaccessible academia. You can sometimes be hard pressed to find in-depth analysis that deconstructs a film's plot, themes or directorial decisions in depth. Since the films that actually deserve such attention are often relegated to the sidelines, I guess its no surprise!

And no, I don't count 'plot hole' nitpicking as in-depth discussion :P

don ramo

i always find that if people hate a film they are always much louder and consume more kilometers of thread, thus leaving me with no option but to unsubscribe from the thread,

you just get sick of reading people bitch and bitch and bitch for pages and pages, and any positive discussion on what happened in the film simply gets drowned out,