One of the things about writing for a Film Site like this one is that we like to give our opinions. Just like bellybutton’s everyone’s got one! But I thought I would take a quick moment here to talk about that.
I never deny anyone their opinion. Its very popular to hate on Michael Bay or to think that Neil Blomkamp is destined for greatness for sitting in Peter Jackson’s lap. But those are all opinions.
AND THAT IS GREAT!
On the Movie Blog its our jobs to give our opinions on stuff. And though we might like to express it like we are right, that is just because we are expressing
You are free to disagree, and we rather enjoy it when you do. But not because we want conflict, but we like to engage in different ideas. John once wrote a post about this to clarify how to debate instead of fight and called it Levels of Movie Debate.
But recently we have been faced with a weekend of wonders for those who just live to bash things. Two lowly anticipated comedies opened this weekend and though we didn’t expect much out of them, we also were not condemning them before they came out. The Love Guru justifiably looked like a recycled Meyers’ character comedy, and Get Smart was looking like another weak attempt to monopolize on the popularity of an old tv show. Both of those statements sound like we are already judging the movie, but in reality we are judging our PERCEPTION of the movie.
Our intrepid reviewers hit up the films this weekend and gave their reviews. Now they are justified in their statements and can now give their final opinion on the movies. They can even express how this matches up or contradicts their first impressions. You might disagree with their assessments, but now they have seen it and therefore they can give an opinion on the final outcome of the film.
But if we were to condemn the final outcome of a film before it even comes out, then we would be making presumptions based on things we do not know.
Opinion: Broccoli tastes like ass!
Discussion: I actually like it and don’t believe it tastes like ass.
Debate: Really? Have you tried broccoli? Even Smelled it?
Nothing to Debate: Oh, so you have never tried broccoli, so you are just passing final judgment because you heard broccoli wasn’t good.
Sometimes you can miss out on some great movies because they were poorly promoted or had bad trailers, but at the same time, some films look so amazing in the trailer and turn into asspiles in the theaters. Sometimes they are just what you thought they were. But you won’t know for sure.
You can judge anticipation and outright choose to pass something by because of it, but you cannot condemn a movie you never saw just because you didn’t feel inclined to see it.
But you can say, it didn’t look good so I didn’t bother. Its even safe to say It looked like ass, and everyone who DID see it says so too. These are all justifiable reasons to not see a film. Its your money and your choice. Those people who did go had their reasons for flopping down their allowance on it too.
Calling a movie you didn’t see a pile of crap is like saying you don’t like broccoli, and never once trying it. Make sure when you pass judgment that you are clear on what you are condemning.
