Great masterpieces... that suck!

[Singularly Datarific]

"Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens. Had to read it for an English Literature course back when I was 16. I loved Oliver Twist though.

I had lots of trouble getting into Lord of the Rings, I never managed to read the 3rd book because I was so bored with the first two. I forced myself to read them because everyone around me was saying how good these books were, but they just weren't for me.

Read it in 9th grade, but not all the way, we never really had to finish it.
Apparently, since he was paid by each chapter (They were published in magazines and newspapers), he purposely drew everything out to get more money for each story.
Turns out that's why it is 90% drivel.
EDIT: Oh yeah, I also hated it.

 

[tthor]

Star Wars. I understand the graphics were amazing for its time, I understand it's style + structure etc was completely different from other movies of the time and in a way revolutionized film to an extent, but i just have never really like it that much. I bet if i were around when it first came out, i would have loved it, but maybe today i've just been spoiled by modern graphics

and if I find out anyone so much as mentioned Citizen Kane, I will hunt them down and snap their neck with my bare hands, as they obviously lack the cognitive ability to be a true functioning member of society.
Have a nice day

 

[JourneyThroughHell]

I hated War and Peace.

I really hated the way the book was written, and what annoyed me the most was the amount of characters that Tolstoy used. There were WAY too many minor characters, and some would get introduced for like a page, and then Tolstoy would completely forget about them for the next hundred pages, at which point they would get a major part for the next 40 pages, and you were expected to remember who the hell they were.

I mean, I finished the damn book, and I still have no idea what some of the character relationships are. It also doesn't help that so many of the characters have such similar names. Hell, I'm Russian, and I still couldn't distinguish between a lot of the character's names, especially with the previously noted problem of characters disappearing for hundreds of pages, and then reappearing without any kind of reintroduction to keep them all straight.

Then of course, there's all of the aristocratic bullshit in the books that I just couldn't give a crap about. The only interesting parts of the book was the actual war part. The battles were very vividly described, and beautifully written, but everything outside of that was just as dull as the battles were interesting. All in all, a good half of that book (or book series technically since it's in 3 parts) could have been completely removed, and the whole thing would have been better for it.

Bingo.

That one. I figured I had to go through it, but there was just nothing there. I even hated the war parts - it was like a was reading a usual soap opera that was just accidentally set during the Great Patriotic War of 1812.

Also, the philosophy did not appeal to me. At all. They dragged on and, frankly, his view of history is just plain pointless in that book.

Oh, and parts 3 and 4 (the book is in four parts, isn't it?) were terrible.

 

[Klarinette]

Anything by Pink Floyd, the later work of the Beatles, and Radiohead. I know they are geniuses but I think as musicians they fail and produced some truly unlistenable music even if it was deep, meaningful and experimental.

but... but... The Dark Side of the Moon!

And The Wall, Sergant Pepper's and The White Album as well! Ah well I suppose everyone has different tastes.

Gah, White Album, really? As a huuuge Beatles fan, I think the White Album is what I was least impressed with. I know what they were trying to do, but I dunno... it's pretty hit-and-miss for me.

Also... The Wall. I get it, great concept, but when I listen to it... I'm just like, "I don't get it, man." I mean that in the sense that I don't get what everyone thinks is so awesome about it =/ I love Pink Floyd, just not The Wall. Mostly for the same reason as the White Album.

There was a huge hype for Inception, and when I finally saw it, I wasn't really wow'd or anything. I mean, all the great elements of a movie are there - solid actors/acting, great cinematography, amazing graphics, wicked concept, I totally understood it - but I dunno... it was okay. I wouldn't watch it again, alone, because I'd get bored. With a group of people, sure.

I think I let myself run away with other peoples' hype. That might be my problem. I hear about things, discover them, and they always end up getting a resounding "meh". Except for the movie UP, which was fuckin' awesome. And The Incredibles!

 

[Zyxx]

A Farewell to Arms and Hills like White Elephants... actually, most of what I've read by Hemingway has made me question why the guy is considered anything like a genius (The Killers was tolerable.) His dialogue always seems like neither party is really interested in or paying attention to the conversation (and is a blithering idiot besides), so why should I care about what's going on?

The Great Gatsby also annoyed me: every single character is a ninny. If I wanted to watch rich people doing stupid things, I could just go visit my sister.

And I don't know if these strictly count as "masterpieces", but going through old Academy Award winners, I've run into some stinkers. "From Here to Eternity", "Gigi", and "In the Heat of the Night" stand out in my head as particularly dull, though Gigi is certainly the biggest waste of time and film of those three.

 

[InnerRebellion]

Fucking Anne Frank's diary. Ok, yes, the Holocaust happened, it was a bad time. But for fuck's sake people, it was not the ONLY genocide to EVER happen! And why is her diary so important? All it's about is her bitching and moaning about hiding and not being able to see her stupid friends. So why the hell is it such an "important" piece of literature?

 

[TokenRupee]

Books:
The Great Gatsby
The Scarlett Letter
Edit: Most of Shakespeare's works. I understand that he is a great writer and I wholeheartedly agree. And I'm willing to read the margin notes about what phrases,words, etc. mean according to the time period. But the characters are shallow, the "comedy" is absent, and the plots are dull.

Movies:
No Country for Old Men- maybe the book was better, but the movies was boring and nonsensical that I gave up following it halfway through. And the supposed "symbolism" was only there if someone knew the book.

Syriana- the only movie I ever wanted to walk out of the theater during it.

Games:
Fallout 3- I have tried several times to get into it, but I can never do it. Maybe it's the aesthetic or the fact that it's more or less a palette swap of Oblivion in my eyes. Which bugs me to no end because I want to try and like it.

Grand Theft Auto IV- I could not wait until I was done with the story so I never had to play it again, save for the multiplayer. On the same scale as a Scorsesse film, my foot.

That's all I can think of for now.

 

[Sinclair Solutions]

Pride and Prejudice is just 200 hundred or so pages of gossip. Plus, it's the same cliche romantic movie plot that has been rehashed for ages (though it's clear P&P did it first.) I guess you had to be there at the time, eh?

 

[Mordan Freeman]

The Last of the Mohicans. A few pages in, and I was being strangled by the horrifically uninteresting and incredibly irrelevant and unnecessary paragraphs that interrupted the already dull action and story. I couldn't go on to finish it. 'Course, I dunno, there may be people that love it, everybody's mileage varies...

It made me feel better to learn that Mark Twain ruthlessly mocked James Fenimore Cooper's writing style, which was verbose even for its day.

If you haven't already checked it out, the movie of The Last of the Mohicans puts the book to shame.

 

[Semudara]

"The Metamorphosis" by Franz Kafka was simply dreadful. I get that it was a commentary on the bad parts of human nature, but for heaven's sake: humans are not THAT terrible! It was just a pain to read because of how cynical and miserable the story was.

Just plain awful.

 

[MrGalactus]

Mood Indigo. It's Duke Ellington's "masterpiece" song that took him literally months to write. I think it is bloody awful.

 

[Tardjerky]

lord of the flies. everybody says it gets good at the end. no. it doesnt. it continues to suck.
i thought the great gatsby had a cool ending, but yes it was dry and hard to get through the first part. all in all though, i liked it.

 

[pumuckl]

Anything by Pink Floyd, the later work of the Beatles, and Radiohead. I know they are geniuses but I think as musicians they fail and produced some truly unlistenable music even if it was deep, meaningful and experimental.

but... but... The Dark Side of the Moon!

Ok, before I said this, I want to get out that the Dark Side of the Moon was a great album, and it's still one of my favorites.

But I've always wondered why people always think that's their best album. I've always given that award to The Wall, second prize going to Wish You Were Here, and (barely below) Animals taking the bronze, THEN Dark Side of the Moon...

Different strokes for different folks, I suppose.

meh the story behind the making of the wall, and how it basicley destroyed pink floyd basicley makes me hate that album

mine is anything involing ozzy osbourne as a singer, he's been in great bands with great musicians but he's more or less terrible besides select black sabbath... they seriously could of gotten anyone else to sing that woulda been better

 

[Twilight_guy]

Pride and Prejudice. Yeah I know its a classic but why do you have to make teenage boys read a sappy old school romance in high school? I don't see what the great significance is here.
Edit: 3883 posts... palindromes FTW!

 

[CrazyMedic]

Most of Willie Shakespeare's library, I.M.O. Whiney emo-ish protagonists generally in situations of their own creation and continuation that I can't empathize with... The language used is generally we-structured and beautiful, the man was a wordsmith without a doubt, but I just could never bring myself to care for the characters in his tales.

that is the problem I think most have with shakespear is they read it like a story I read just for the pure artistry of the written rather then the stories.

 

[The Rockerfly]

The Mona Lisa. I have never understood why it was always captivated as one of the greatest pieces of artwork ever. There is nothing beautiful, terrifying, incredible, tragic, intense or even anything beautiful about this picture yet for some reason it has an almost logo level of recognition throughout the world. There are apparently mysteries behind it but how many of them are actual intentional mysteries and not just odd coincidences?

It wouldn't surprise me if the art elitists get annoyed about it as well

 

[comet5002]

Halo.

Sorry, had to say it.

Almost every single song by the Beatles. I like 2, I think.

 

[FieryTrainwreck]

I file 90% of the complaints in this thread under "before my time, therefore I have no context to properly judge the thing, but I'm going to ignore it or rag on it instead of adjusting my perspective".

The other 10% can be attributed to raw ADD.

Sometimes I wonder what will pass for entertainment 50 years from now.

 

[Red-Link]

Books: Scarlet Letter, Catcher in the Rye, Grapes of Wrath (I liked some of the characters, but overall I couldn't stand the book, Of Mice and Men was fantastic, though), the Lord of the Rings series (I hate his writing style). For the older than 20 years or so classics, that's all off the top of my head. Tolstoy rules, by the way.

Music: I'm really not a Beatles fan or a fan of any classic rock, be it Hendrix, Zep, etc. Just not my stuff.

Other: I generally like classic movies and television, though I'm not the biggest Looney Tunes fan, I wouldn't say it sucked.

I'm sure I'll think of something that I forgot...

 

[Atmos Duality]

Spoiler: Jame's Camerons Titanic

Honestly. What is so fucking great about that film?
All I'll give it is the special effects/set design. That's all the good I can say about it.

But the story, the characters...good grief.
It's just a fucking soap opera set on the boat of doom. A cliche soap opera at that, only with no twists, no suspense, and not one genuinely entertaining line from either of the leads.
Due to the way the story is told, I felt disinclined to even watch the rest. It took sheer force of will to remain awake and this back when I was still a hyperactive half-monkey 7th grader; Back then, this movie was the cinematic equivalent of Thorazine.

There is not one point in that entire fucking movie where I was interested in the characters or what they were doing (at least until the inevitable Icy Death arrived).

In terms of overhyped dross, its closest modern day equivalent (to me) isn't Avatar, but Twilight.


Fuck Titanic, and fuck all of those pretentious assholes that give the movie accolades it didn't deserve.

(And an extra special, extra strong FUCK YOU to both Clear Channel and Celene Dion for ruining radio music in a worse way than the 90s themselves did. That should not have been possible! I did so enjoy listening to "My Heart Will Go On" on every radio station every hour on the motherfucking hour; and no, I did not exaggerate that last part. The song was so popular that there were fucking COUNTRY STATIONS playing it at least twice a day.)

It is the definitive overhyped "Masterpiece" of my lifetime. I say without exaggeration that no other film comes even remotely close to being this overhyped (not even Avatar, because I can at least understand why that movie succeeded, preachy shiny bullshit that it is) and no other movie fills me with as much overt contempt as Jame's Cameron's nautical opus.