Singin' in the Rain (for the first time)
I'm not much for movies, I prefer booksHow are you just now seeing this for the first time?
The Revenant. It was well done, but honestly, I think it was insanely overpraised. It's a remarkable true story, and it was beautifully photographed by the brilliant Emmanuel Lubezki, but geez, it's just Man In The Wilderness all over again. Leo won the Best Actor Oscar for a role that mostly consists of crawling and grunting?!? It didn't live up to the hype for me.
Having watched it on the big screen as well as television, I can tell you that you will have missed out on its impact. The cinematography has to be viewed on the big screen to understand why people were awed/wowed.I've avoided it for just the reasons you say. I had a feeling it was another example of "Gravity" an overhyped movie that Hollywood and its media acolytes convince themselves is great, meaningful movie making; when, in truth, it is, at best, just okay.
"Gravity" is a decent little film - that's it. I have no idea why it won all those awards and was a "must see" movie for all the "smart" people. I'll probably watch "The Revenant" in the next few years on cable sometime and might even enjoy it if it's been a long enough time from the hype-bubble and I go in with no expectations.
I have felt towards much hyped films as you do towards Gravity. It is when I have viewed them again, with much lower expectations, that I have often enough changed my opinion and seen them to be much better than I thought. Of course, there have been enough moments where my opinion has not changed. I tend to avoid the views of critics until after I have watched a movie. Too often, we do not agree.Dr Strange and TOE all fair points. What gets me is not that these are bad movies - "Gravity" certainly isn't and, while I haven't seen "The Revenant," enough people, like you guys, that I respect leave me little doubt that it is, at minimum, a solid, entertaining movie - what gets me is the insane hype-machine that grabs onto one of these slightly "different" or "artsy" or "daring" movies trying to turn them into the next coming of "Citizen Kane."
It's off putting on the surface and, then, for me, sets up silly expectations that destroys my ability to just watch the film. Instead, I keep waiting for the "Moses is parting the ocean" aspect of this "great work" and it never comes. Had I heard nothing about "Gravity," I would have said it was a good, smart little film - well worth seeing. But it, IMHO, was so overshadowed by its hype, that I was disappointed when everything didn't wow me and I didn't reflect on it for days afterwards.
Yes. I looked forward to it with great anticipation, but felt let down. It had some nice cinematography, but was just okay as a story with entertainment value. It was, for me, the weakest of the series.I understand completely. We have way too many "event films" that are overhyped these days.
For me, the most intensely disappointing film of the last year was Mad Max: Fury Road. I kept hearing it described as "the best film of last year" and an award-worthy four-star movie... and I found it to be a dumb action flick with zero character development, zero comprehensible plot, and "great performances" that were just poses. Okay, it had good action sequences and production design. But it was just a brain-dead action movie, a retread of a series that was junk to start with!
And don't even get me started on Abrams' Star Trek and Star Wars films...
I have felt towards much hyped films as you do towards Gravity. It is when I have viewed them again, with much lower expectations, that I have often enough changed my opinion and seen them to be much better than I thought. Of course, there have been enough moments where my opinion has not changed. I tend to avoid the views of critics until after I have watched a movie. Too often, we do not agree.
This happened with The Third Man for me.This happened to me with "Citizen Kane." I didn't see it as a kid - for whatever reason, this old-movie-loving kid missed that one. By the time I saw it as an adult, it sat atop all those "greatest movies of all time" lists and I had heard all the commentary about it being "brilliant" and "groundbreaking." When I finally saw it, of course I was disappointed, Jesus did not decent from heaven once while I was watching.
Then, after avoiding it for several years, I saw it again and fell in love with it. I didn't even want to watch it the second time, it just happened and with antipathy going in, I got it and now love the movie.
I'm not much for movies, I prefer books
This happened with The Third Man for me.
I disliked it pretty strongly so the first time. It might have been the soundtrack or the expectations, I do not know. Like you, the cast, the cinematography, its reputation, I should have liked it. I couldn't stand it. Years later, somehow I found myself watching it and for whatever reason it clicked. I do not love it, but I now enjoy it. Although I still dislike the soundtrack.Good answer.
I've tried to love The Third Man, but I just . . . can't. Yes, it's beautifully shot. Yes, it's got Orson Welles everyone's seemingly perfect actor. I've seen it more than once trying to see what I've heard others love about it, but . . . nope.