Ok I guess this is more of a rant than anything else... but I really need to get this off my chest. Recently there was a movie called the American that came out in theaters. I went to go see it last weekend because I love George Clooney. There were also a lot of good reviews for it and I had been wanting to see it for a while.
So going into it I don't know what I was expecting. That was on purpose... I like movies better if I go into them without expecting anything. It starts out being almost completely silent for around 5 minutes and then action happens. Then it cuts to George Clooney talking on the phone about something mysterious and then shows George Clooney driving somewhere. It was one of those times where I was confused, but I knew they would explain it later so it didn't really bother me. But without sitting here describing the entire movie, I'm just going to say that almost the entire movie is silent. Almost all of it is watching George Clooney exercise and walk around which, to me, felt really cool and I for some reason was watching the movie looking at every detail because the scenery was absolutely gorgeous and it just felt... ambient. But we go deeper into the movie and things start to happen... then some lady shows up and takes off her clothes (this happens several times) and then it goes back to George Clooney walking back and forth and sometimes having a conversation. The problem really wasn't that it was boring because I was really drawn into it... it's just that it was confusing. See, George Clooney would talk to a priest or the camera would subtly show a butterfly tattoo on his back and I would think "Ohh, this is going to be important," but it never was. I'm assuming this is because it was based off of a book and they had to cram in details like that but didn't have time to explain them because the movie was too busy on filming someone make beef stew instead of explaining the plot or motivation.
The problem with this movie was just that it never actually explained anything. It spent its time trying too hard to be just an ambient movie that was artsy and you really have to think about. George Clooney had no personality, things kept coming and going, and I had no idea why anyone was doing anything. But the problem with criticizing something like this is someone will say "Well, you just didn't get it," and I'm honestly insulted. People complained about it being long and drawn out which is a valid complaint, yet others who praised the movie claimed that "If you're not just looking for explosions and action, then you'll love this movie," as if a lack of explosions makes the movie more intelligent somehow. It's like a joke that's punchline uses really big words and you just laugh anyway because you don't want to look stupid.
I'm extremely tired of this... this acting like you're better than someone because you pretended to enjoy a bad movie and claimed that the only reason others didn't like it is because they're unintelligent. This is just completely untrue. The American was not a very good film. Just because it was slow moving doesn't make it better. This is basically proof of the Emperor's New Clothes which you probably should know but I'll put a summary of the story in a spoiler just in case you don't. It's really frustrating to have people say something like that... so have you experienced a similar phenomena? Plenty of examples come in the form of classic novels.
For further reading: Here is another instance. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nat_Tate]
So going into it I don't know what I was expecting. That was on purpose... I like movies better if I go into them without expecting anything. It starts out being almost completely silent for around 5 minutes and then action happens. Then it cuts to George Clooney talking on the phone about something mysterious and then shows George Clooney driving somewhere. It was one of those times where I was confused, but I knew they would explain it later so it didn't really bother me. But without sitting here describing the entire movie, I'm just going to say that almost the entire movie is silent. Almost all of it is watching George Clooney exercise and walk around which, to me, felt really cool and I for some reason was watching the movie looking at every detail because the scenery was absolutely gorgeous and it just felt... ambient. But we go deeper into the movie and things start to happen... then some lady shows up and takes off her clothes (this happens several times) and then it goes back to George Clooney walking back and forth and sometimes having a conversation. The problem really wasn't that it was boring because I was really drawn into it... it's just that it was confusing. See, George Clooney would talk to a priest or the camera would subtly show a butterfly tattoo on his back and I would think "Ohh, this is going to be important," but it never was. I'm assuming this is because it was based off of a book and they had to cram in details like that but didn't have time to explain them because the movie was too busy on filming someone make beef stew instead of explaining the plot or motivation.
The problem with this movie was just that it never actually explained anything. It spent its time trying too hard to be just an ambient movie that was artsy and you really have to think about. George Clooney had no personality, things kept coming and going, and I had no idea why anyone was doing anything. But the problem with criticizing something like this is someone will say "Well, you just didn't get it," and I'm honestly insulted. People complained about it being long and drawn out which is a valid complaint, yet others who praised the movie claimed that "If you're not just looking for explosions and action, then you'll love this movie," as if a lack of explosions makes the movie more intelligent somehow. It's like a joke that's punchline uses really big words and you just laugh anyway because you don't want to look stupid.
I'm extremely tired of this... this acting like you're better than someone because you pretended to enjoy a bad movie and claimed that the only reason others didn't like it is because they're unintelligent. This is just completely untrue. The American was not a very good film. Just because it was slow moving doesn't make it better. This is basically proof of the Emperor's New Clothes which you probably should know but I'll put a summary of the story in a spoiler just in case you don't. It's really frustrating to have people say something like that... so have you experienced a similar phenomena? Plenty of examples come in the form of classic novels.
The emperor of somewhere wants new clothes because he's the fanciest emperor of all time or something. So this guy comes up to him and claims that he has a brand new suit thing that only smart people can see. Of course, there are no actual clothes on him, but the emperor has been told that if he couldn't see them it was because he wasn't smart. And no one doesn't want to be smart. So he goes on a parade and announces that if you can't see his clothes you're stupid and no one can see them because he's not actually wearing anything. But no one wants to seem stupid so everyone claims that his clothes are the most beautiful they've ever seen pretending like they can actually see them. But then some kid comes out of the crowd and announces that he's just simply not wearing anything. And then everyone starts to speak up and admit that he's not wearing anything. And then the emperor admits it to himself so then everybody looks dumb.
For further reading: Here is another instance. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nat_Tate]
