KNOCK IT OFF!!
I’m trying to help the OP.
You are NOT helping!
I’ve thought about it a bit and I think there are three different reasons people instinctively don’t want to see a movie after they hear recommendations.
1.) “I feel like I’ve already seen it”: Sometimes a movie gets so hyped that people are already familiar with it. Star Wars was mentioned up thread, and probably falls under this reason. People that have never seen it could probably still name most of the characters and outline the basic plot. It’s understandable that they don’t want to see it.
2.) The “hipster” reflex: This one is a little annoying. Some people will refuse to watch a movie simply because it’s popular and too “mainstream”. To me, it’s the weakest reason, but it is certainly there.
3.) Distrust of the “true believer”: I sometimes fall into this one. If somebody won’t shut up about a movie and their eyes shine just a little too bright when talking about it, there is a part in my brain that throws up red flags and starts sounding alarms. It’s as if they have heard The Call and must preach the word so that the unwashed masses will hear the Good News that this film has arrived. Do they want to take me to a movie or is this a trick to get me in a Scientology meeting?
But, Lord Il Palazzo, don’t you see what you’ve done here? You’ve cleverly reversed the situation by creating negative expectations for yourself. Now you’re expecting to be disappointed, which means that you’re actually likely to be pleasantly surprised!
So now you might as well see it.
If only so you “get” various pop-cultural references.
Eh, I loved Serenity/Firefly and I also loved the Kushiel books. But I wouldn’t say that Inara and Phedre have much in common other than both being strong female characters who are courtesans. Inara is a respected courtesan who’s on the spaceship to give a “legitimate” cover to the crew’s illegal activities, and Phedre lives in an alternate history/fantasy version of Europe and she was sold into being a bond servant/courtesan at a young age and but later earns her freedom, who feels immense pleasure from pain/torture, and is involved in spying and huge political intrigues.
Movies I’ve resisted seeing due to their hype are mostly old movies. For newer movies that are over-hyped, the hype itself bothers me but I usually also have another reason to avoid it (e.g. Twilight is definitely not my cup of tea). There’s a bunch of hyped recent movies I haven’t seen that I just didn’t want to pay movie theatre prices to see them - but I wouldn’t mind seeing them in a year or so on tv or DVD.
I haven’t seen some older movies that are hyped as classics that everyone loves (e.g. The Godfather or Citizen Cane) because some of the older/classic/hyped movies I have seen disappointed me and I thought they were underwhelming (e.g. Casablanca) or even boring (e.g. Psycho).
I put off watching both for months, then broke down and rented them. They’re both okay, but nothing I’d watch again. For those of us that have seen literally thousands of movies, films like these present little that’s new and impressive.
Currently all the rage with my co-workers is The Human Centipede which they claim will totally gross me out. After having seen films from The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover to Irreversible to Three Extremes to The 120 Days of Sodom to Antichrist…well, I think not.
If it helps,Lord Il P, I thought Inception was a turgid POS with plot holes you could sail an aircraft carrier through. Nolan cannot direct an action scene to save his life. The concept was unbelievably silly. Nice score though.
There, now you can watch it.
Actually, I can think of a time when I shared the OP’s mindset completely - not with a movie, but with Twin Peaks.
Everyone was talking about it? On the cover of every magazine? Specialist publications brought out for it? Of course, it could only mean that David Lynch had fallen from grace; it certainly couldn’t be worth watching.
I avoided it completely, for three years or so. (Turned out well, 'cuz when I was finally forced to watch the pilot, I could then blaze through the rest of the series on VHS in a few wonderful, delirious days.)
courage, tdn, i never have, either. or any of the sequels.
and i fell sound asleep during inception.
Well, all my friends are all “ZAMFIR! Inception is the BEST MOVIE EVER!!!” Only they don’t say ZAMFIR because it hasn’t been invented yet…
Are you sure that you’re awake now? :dubious:
I never choose not to watch a movie because of the excess hype, but will often not choose to see a movie despite the excessive hype.
For me there are three kinds of movie (or TV show):
[ol]
[li]One I definitely want to see, no matter what the negative or positive buzz is. I will always see them, and may or may not agree with the general public’s opinion. Example: Cars 2 is a great fun movie.[/li][li]One I am of no firm opinion of. May see it, may not. If I do see it, I may or may not like it. The majority of movies fit into this category.[/li][li]One I definitely do not ever want to see, no matter how good everyone says it is, no matter what people are saying. I just get this vibe of it definitely being something I would never like. If, by some foolish reason, I bow down to pressure and watch a movie in this category, without a single exception I have regretted it. I trust my instinct for this type of movie 100%, and yet still I occasionally lapse. Examples: The English Patient; The Big Lebowski; Atonement.[/li][/ol]
I also rarely go to cinemas anymore, so have the benefit of six months or so of general feeling to know if it’s going to be my kind of thing or not.
Ya I had a similar reaction to inception, I ordered it on netflix, when I got it I didn’t put it in for a couple weeks, I started watching it and them was like, “This intro is so cheezily hollywood flush garbage.” and I stopped it, never went back to it. Maybe it gets better but the beginning made my bad movie sense tingle.
Same here. I think maybe I went in determined not to like The Usual Suspects, Inception, and Avatar. And sure enough, I didn’t like any of them.
But, do you think you would’ve liked them had you seen them without hype, or pre-hype?