Recently, I swung by the local redbox with the intention of renting The Hurt Locker, that movie about a bomb squad in Iraq that won best picture last year. It was pretty good, but for some reason i had a lot of trouble enjoying it.
The truth is, expectations can kill a movie, or a book or a song for that matter. My favorite movie of last year was Up, but I also loved Avatar. Both were beaten out in the Best Picture category, so I was expecting a movie even more amazing than those (District 9, also nominated, was boring and tedious and mostly just the f-word.) Simply put, The Hurt Locker never sucked me in. The whole time I was waiting for it to get good, to wow me. I never once forgot i was watching a movie.
Because of the hype and the critics, I lost much of the experience I could've had. I wanted to like it, but because of the wall i built up and the bar i expected it to meet, I couldn't. To contrast, I enjoyed The Book of Eli immensely, but would not say it was a better movie - i wasn't expecting anything great so i was free to sit back and enjoy. Its almost as if how much i enjoy a movie is determined by how good it actually is minus my expectations.
I didn't like "The Hurt Locker" so much, either, but I thought "Avatar" was, to borrow from another critic, just "Dances with Wolves" set many years in the future.
ReplyDeleteMost importantly, though, I appreciate you taking the time to blog. Love your stuff!
J. Calvin Powell