• Doug Walker - Can a Film Be So Good It's Bad?
    40 replies, posted
[QUOTE=TheFilmSlacker;50786899]A lot of people are kinda like this with Lord of the Rings.[/QUOTE] i remember that time i never watched lord of the rings and got the extended edition. "ill watch it all at once" i said i will never watch it again due to this terrible decision. literally passed out at one point and woke up like 2 hours later, and it was the same battle scene it felt like i was trapped in time
Huh. Never thought that you could apply The Uncanny Valley to movies.
It just seems like people keep saying, "Hey, here's a movie that was basically perfect, but here are some problems that I had with it." I really can't think of any movie that I didn't like because it was too "perfect." I can generally think of some specific issue it had.
Maybe this might just seem me but isn't this also a great way to be a snob. Basically saying "well my favorite movie is sooooo good that I don't even like it".
Some movies are just so good they make me forget to actually watch the movie. I found this with Schindler's List I was trying to 'find' all the good parts of it that I forget to actually follow what was happening.
To me, LOTR will be one of those films that's so good, I just can't seem to watch it again. I love all three films to death, but the runtimes are soooo long that I can't finish even one in a sitting. I remember that there were scenes I missed in "Two Towers" and "ROTK" because I dozed off when watching them. Hell I watched The Return of The King at home, and right when Minas Tirith was getting good, I black out and suddenly I'm at the end credits. "Son, you missed this HUGE battle! It was great!"
To me it's just an issue of context and the frame of mind in which you see a movie mattering a lot. Arcoz mentioned Schindler's List, which if you saw it and hadn't really had the holocaust presented to you in a personal way before then it could be a very impactful experience, but if you've been bombarded since elementary school with stories of the horrors of WW2 and the nazis and stuff then it can just feel tiresome. Another example from video games that comes to mind is spec ops the line - if you went into it thinking it was just another modern war shooter then it could be shocking and really effective, but if you've had it spoiled and have seen/read other things in the same vein then it really is just a mediocre third person shooter where you're just waiting for the bits to come that you already expect. This doesn't mean that either of those things are 'too perfect', it just means that they're ruined for some of their audience by being predictable/familiar. His Dracula example is the closest thing to a counter-argument for this but as someone that hasn't seen Bram Stoker's Dracula it honestly just made me want to go watch it because it seems pretty cool.
[QUOTE=Krumbumpus;50798716]To me it's just an issue of context and the frame of mind in which you see a movie mattering a lot. Arcoz mentioned Schindler's List, which if you saw it and hadn't really had the holocaust presented to you in a personal way before then it could be a very impactful experience, but if you've been bombarded since elementary school with stories of the horrors of WW2 and the nazis and stuff then it can just feel tiresome. Another example from video games that comes to mind is spec ops the line - if you went into it thinking it was just another modern war shooter then it could be shocking and really effective, but if you've had it spoiled and have seen/read other things in the same vein then it really is just a mediocre third person shooter where you're just waiting for the bits to come that you already expect. This doesn't mean that either of those things are 'too perfect', it just means that they're ruined for some of their audience by being predictable/familiar. His Dracula example is the closest thing to a counter-argument for this but as someone that hasn't seen Bram Stoker's Dracula it honestly just made me want to go watch it because it seems pretty cool.[/QUOTE] I feel this way about stuff like Goodfellas. I honestly could not give a shit about how influencial that movie was or how unique it was at the time or how it created the tropes or how masterfully it was done, all I saw was "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAY BADABING BADABOOM CANOLI GET THE FUK OUTTA HE'"
I can imagine my cousin saying that in the most guinea voice possible and it's fantastic.
[QUOTE=Pops;50802049]I can imagine my cousin saying that in the most guinea voice possible and it's fantastic.[/QUOTE] My extended family is like this, though I would be surprised if my cousin wasn't part of some Italian gang.
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