Are Our Expectations Too High?

[Thousanth]

Do we expect too much from filmmakers?
Do we expect that Steven Spielberg will make a masterpiece every time out? Or, as it seems here, that he'll make a ?
We expect too much from a name. If someone had come out of nowhere and made "A.I.", a film that virtually missed on all levels, we would have dismissed it quietly and gone on our merry ways. But beacuse Spielberg made it we continually debate its merits and bash it for missing what could have been the most original piece of the decade.

Maybe we expect too little. We assume that the next Cruise flick will be just like the last, it's a formula film, nothing new, just a showcase for his abs.

We seem very forgiving of low-budget fimmakers who blunder, like Robert Rodriguez's "Desperado".

The point is we expect too much. We may try to convince ourselves that we don't expect much from Hollywood anymore. We try to make ourselves that we don't wish that the next Star Wars would be decent, and that Spielberg would do good again, but we still expect good films.
We want good movies in a time when they aren't made very often. We come down on them as being "HOLLYWOOD" or "AMERICAN" but the harder we come down on a movie the more we wanted it to be good.
When we finally get to the point(and it may not be far off) when we stop expecting good films from anyone, then we can look up and see that the horrid films weren't that bad.
Hopefully we won't get there.

I now stand aside for you insults and belligerent conmments.

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"Welcome to the Black Lagoon - Please wipe your feet."

[twister!]

That's quite a good point. I always find that my enjoyment of a film is somewhat affected by my prior expectation of that film.

One example is that when I first saw Terminator 2 (after an ocean of hype and ravings) I only thought it was okay. Seeing it again a couple of years later (when I thought 'oh it was okay, I may as well watch it again') I thought it was excellent.

Another is a friend of mine who had read and loved the LOTR books and has been eagerly awaiting the release of LOTR the film saw it on Saturday and told me he thought it was 'absolutely terrible, souless, boring, poorly acted, pompous, desperately unfunny, laughably bad' - hmmm...

I try to avoid reading too much about films before seeing them - just whether they are supposed to be 'good' or 'bad' based on the views of magazines/newspapers whose views are usually closest to my own.

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[This message has been edited by twister! (edited December 24, 2001).]

[steven_craig]

me too twister - i mean i just started reading LOTR this year but knew about the making of the movies long ago.. and due to my reading of the book i'd say has allowed me to critisise on many levels, aesthetically, narritive and action because i have created my own movie in my head (somtimes my own reality) - i still love the movie, but it that becasue i cant draw myself not to love it?
i have the belief that there are only a few stories in the world, but we manifest them in many ways, some ways excellenly and others are just copies of what has been done before.. this is very depressing and begs me to ask the question will we run out? i would love to hear what you think because i would like to shake off this bad attitude, which has led me lately to writers block

boy i am asking for trouble saying things like this


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My preciousssssss!

[twister!]

Somebody, whose name I don't recall, actually did lots of research and concluded that, basically, there are only 7 dramatic situations (another literary bloke - Georges Polti says there are 36). Every story that has ever been written falls into one of these 7 (or 36) situations.

Of course, these situations can be told in infinite ways. Based on the knowledge that every human being is different and has their own thought patterns and processes (evolved from their own unique life experieinces), there should always be new ways of telling these basic stories.

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[This message has been edited by twister! (edited December 24, 2001).]

[Matt J Heaton]

Anyone who comes down on a film for being American needs a swift kicking. How is that a valid reason to bash a film?

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[ac_01]

To be frank...hell no!

Standards should be increasing all the time. thats what will drive filmmakers in the end. Because the audience has grown more sophisticated over time and they don't want to see the same formula repeated time and time again. Having said this though it still happens.(American Pie2)

Although there is a limit when it comes to hype...Star Wars. Lets face it George Lucas Will never be able to live up to he expectations of all those die hard fans.

The reason expectation is always high for spielberg is the fact that he rarely fails to disappoint.

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There can be only one.

[StudentBoardMember]

I had heard that Romeo Must Die was crap but when I went to see it I was pleasantly surprised, I thought, and still think it's a good film but I made the mistake of telling all my friends how good I thought it was, when they went to see it their expectations were high, they were, of course, disapointed. Thus your expectations do have a big effect on your final opinion, I try to detatch myself from the hype surrounding films because all too often I have been dissapointed.

It will be interesting to see how Matrix 2 holds up, the first one went down so well becuase it crept up on people (shaddowed by the Phantom Menace hype) and they went not knowing what to expect. But now everyone has high expectations of the sequal and I'm convinced that it will not be as well recieved as the first.

Finally, Thousanth, if your still reading what's wrong with Desperado?

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[Rar]

The situation is similar to that of the very excellent Blair Witch Project. In the US it was very popular and liked because people went in with no expectations. In the UK a lot of people did not like it because it was over hyped. People expected Godzilla but got a bunch of people running around with camcorders. They couldn't lose themselves in the reality of the film.

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[Roy Baty]

The problem is that most Studio film are Formula Films. They follow a set pattern/genre/story because the studios, who have a lot of experiance in making films, know that is what sells. When a film comes along that breaks that formula and still entertains then its classed as genius. But does that mean that all formula films that come out of the Hollywood machine are crap? No otherwise there wouldn't be a 'Hollywood'. British film are as much to blame. We tend to go for safe options like romcoms and ganster movies when we should be taking on the big guys, but then again they have the experiance and money. So we all go and see the summer blockbusters and hyped sequals. Catch 22.

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I want more life you f***er!

[twister!]

Hollywood do usually manage to produce 1 or 2 truly great films per year. Not sure if they managed it this year though. However the majority of the stuff they produce is just mainstream formulaic rubbish.

RE: Britain - that actor Nick Moran let rip recently about the state of the UK film industry at the London Film Festival. He says that he was very disappointed that his latest film which he considered to be by far his best work and a very original screenplay was not being given a theatrical release because the distributors said it did not conform to what the public consider a UK film to be - ie it wasn't a second/third rate gangster film!!!

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[This message has been edited by twister! (edited December 25, 2001).]