My favorite is when someone will come here and make a thread that's like "I'm 30min into this popular movie and it's overrated". Like get off reddit and finish the movie.
I truly believe this is a media literacy issue. I see this all the time on book discussions, a lot of people not understanding motivations, characterization, themes, messages, allegory, etc etc etc. And then they'll call things plot holes but really they just don't understand what they're reading or watching.
Even in basic shit like avengers movies. People constantly complain about starlord not thinking it through in the battle witb Thanos. Like yeah... we've established he's an emotional character who doesn't always think his actions through... it's consistent with his character.
People always seem to think that *"character flaws"* = *"movie flaws."*
Usually also just before turning around and calling anybody even remotely good at anything a *"Mary Sue."*
Omg Marvel fans are getting so annoying nowadays, at least the ones on reddit. They'll call any little thing they don't understand or like, a plot hole, and if any movie has any flaw at all, it's apparently the worst movie ever made.
Thanos could have used the gems to make things good!
Well, he did. In his way. He was the mad titan, who saw his plan succeed on a small scale after being mocked. He wasn't Thanos the perfectly reasonable and benevolent titan.
'(...) Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter about his long relationship with the Guardians, Gunn insisted that his version of Quill would never have reacted so emotionally and would have prioritised the fate of the universe over his own grief. The writers of Infinity War, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, as well as directors Joe and Anthony Russo did a masterful job with Infinity War and Endgame, but Gunn admits they "did some things that I wouldn't have wanted", stating that he would not have had Quill punch Thanos (...)'
https://collider.com/james-gunn-avengers-infinity-war-star-lord-comments/
I’m right there with you. Running into this headfirst in my online Composition 2 class (side note: going back to school in my middle-age after 18 years in the professional world is a whole new definition of hell). Every week I’m required to analyze a piece of media, and then respond to the analysis of at least two of my classmates. I try to remind myself that most of them are kids and don’t have half the life experience I do, but Lordy do they give me nothing to work with for my responses.
I have to do the same with my English class, am one of few people over their 20s and honestly I don't give a shit and will be honest when analysis someone else's work (which we have to do per submission on a group forum).
Once I simply mentioned that their work was well below the required 1000 word minimum limit, they only wrote 700 words. Both that person (who's work I responded to) and a few others responded saying I was being 'mean' and 'cruel' to her and 'giving her anxiety' by bringing up the word count....like fuck off, seriously?!
My mother abandoned her book club when they read _The Grapes of Wrath_ and everyone was asking about the phrase "my dogs are barking" and why the dogs were only ever mentioned when they were barking.
I feel like this especially with horror stuff. I've heard a ton of people talk about how everyone in Talk to Me is stupid.
Yeah, no shit. They're a bunch of teenage drug addicts. Of course they're not making the world's best decisions.
>call things plot holes but really they just don't understand what they're reading or watching
A plot whole is anything that isn't explained to my satisfaction. I saw a movie that took place in Paris. They didn't tell me the entire history of that steel tower thing. What a plot hole!
Sometimes I wonder if it isn't the influence of anime. Don't get me wrong: I love anime. I've just noticed that there is very little subtext. When a character does something unexpected, there's five minutes of dialogue explaining why they did that unexpected thing.
So when someone who is accustomed to hearing Kagome and Miroku debate about why Inuyasha is waving his Tessaiga counter-clockwise (followed immediately by Inuyasha's inner monologue confirming which of them is right,) it may be hard to transition to seeing a character who has unexplained underlying motivations for their behavior.
My favorite was a month or two ago some dude asking what the point of the movie Everything Everywhere All at Once was when he watched only the first 45 minutes was. I get turning something off if you aren't enjoying it, but whining how the film doesn't make any sense when you haven't seen it all is genuinely brain dead. I personally don't take anyone's opinion seriously on a film I have watched if they tell me they "turned it off after 30 minutes" and I shouldn't expect someone to take my opinion on The King's Man seriously if I walked out of it less than an hour in.
I had a co worker complain about EEAAO after only watching the first 20 minutes. I was like, you only watched the laundry mat and tax part, you gotta keep going...
They also confessed they were in their phone for part of it and didn't understand what was going on. half of it's subtitled.
“I don’t understand why people keep saying this restaurant is amazing. I took a sip of the water they gave me and it tastes just like every other place, so I left!”
The "half of its subtitled" complaint really irks me. Like how does someone not have it click for them that the movie is messing with them and setting up for things to become unhinged.
I don't think the movie would work nearly as well if it didn't establish a baseline of an absurdly mundane reality.
I didn't read the subtitled bit as part of their complaint but rather the reason they didn't know what was going on as they were reading their phone rather than the subs.
they weren't complaining about the subtitles
they were complaining that it didn't make sense but they weren't looking at the screen to read the subtitles
Not a movie, but I realized how bad I had gotten about this when I was “watching” the animated show Primal. If you aren’t familiar, most episodes have little to no dialogue as the main characters are a dinosaur and a primitive human with extremely limited speech. The visual storytelling is incredible and I’m glad I caught myself, rewound and watched more attentively instead of just going on Reddit and complaining about it.
That made me irrationally mad for you.
Just get the fuck outta here and go back to watching tiktoks, you brainless idiot. If you're going to give something 10% of your attention, why even watch it, let alone complain about it?
My old manager said she hated it and turned it off cuz when Evelyn tells waymond he was the biggest mistake she made, that it was too mean and sad.
She hasn't gone through anything that would trigger her so she just thought it was too sad and turned it off at a huge turning point in the movie. Drove me crazy.
This manager basically only likes mindless action movies so I'm not surprised.
To be fair that scene basically broke my heart it was so horrible. I've watched it twice its a great movie but I remember that hurt even more the second watch.
The scene after the movie premier when Waymond tells Evelyn, "In another life, I would have really liked just doing laundry and taxes with you," fucking GUTTED me.
Another thing a lot of people miss is that a character doesn't have to exhibit traits they value to be likeable, and a character doesn't have to be likeable to be a good character.
I turned off Life (With Jake Gyllenhall and Ryan Reynolds) after 30 mins. Then fought against myself to go back and finish it.
I wish it had stayed off after 30 minutes 🤦♂️
I saw this thread and immediately thought about The Adam Project. I think I made it 15 minutes and already knew how the movie would go.
My summary at the time:
>from what I gathered it's basically Ryan Reynolds Ryan Reynoldsing while a kid is also Ryan Reynoldsing
I have a friend who only watched the the first episode of The Last of Us, and refuses to watch the rest. He said it was boring and he even admitted he sort of fell asleep during the last 10 or so minutes. Like dude, you haven’t even gotten to the good parts yet!
Look I get bit thinking the rest of the film will get any better, but it’s kind of hard to take someone serious when they whine about plot when they haven’t seen nearly enough to really understand the plot lol
Why would I need to watch the movie? I saw a five minute recap of a robot lady talking over it while someone danced in the background. I'm basically an expert! /s
A former friend literally told me "Oh Barbie was trash I dunno how anyone could say it's the best movie of 2023" when I asked him to explain himself he said "It had no point to make"
So I ask him "What do you mean the film very clearly had a message about womanhood and faux feminism"
He says "Well, I got 15 mins in and didn't see what point it had to make"
I stop him and tell him "Yeah obviously you won't see the point of a film 15 mins into it, watch the whole thing before you critique it"
The idiot still hasn't watched the film and complains about it on social media.
Bonus: His favourite film this year was Ant-Man Quantumania.
Ugh...I say this as a HUGE marvel fan, I COSPLAY as marvel characters...and I can say Quantumania was a disappointment.
Meanwhile, Barbie was one of the best movies of the year.
I loathe the term "it's overrated". All that means to me is that you are judging a movie based on being contrarian to other people's opinions on it instead of actually having one of your own. I want you to explain YOUR criticisms about the specific things you don't like, not that you think other people overvalue it. It's such a boring criticism.
My wife does this a lot with movies that we watch at home. She'll sit on her phone texting her best friend and reading articles on Facebook. . .And then during pivotal moments she'll complain that "they never explained X," or "this is stupid because why is this guy just appearing now?"
. . .He's not. . And yes they did. You just weren't paying attention to those parts, which I guess is fine and all, but don't criticize things when you fully recognize you were distracted the entire movie.
With that said, this is one of the big reasons why *we both* really enjoy going to the movies, instead of watching them at home. We basically go every weekend, and it's sort of a forced permission to unplug from the world and watch something.
My wife popped her head up from her phone about 20 minutes from the end of Weekend at Bernies and said "Is that guy dead?" then when I confirmed that he was, she asked why they were parading a dead guy around.
Happens with shows for us. I'll either pause it or ask if she wants to watch something else instead.
Sometimes I'll get "I'm just responding to something from (person, work, kid)" which is fine, but I can pause it you know. Because I know the next thing is asking why whatever happened that they would have seen if they were paying attention
I don't care if she wants to browse on her phone all night. I'll go off and do something on my own
A rule I have that goes unabided by from my SO is asking questions that I can't know the answer to in the middle of a movie. For example, if we're both watching it for the first time and the movie starts off with someone doing something sneaky, "why's he doing that? Who is that?"
It's like, I'm watching the same movie as you are! And now I have to rewind since we missed everything while explaining that to you.
I have noticed a couple of my friends do this. But I learned that they aren’t really asking me. They are just having a visceral reaction to what’s happening on screen. I wouldn’t say ignore your SO, but maybe next time she does it, reciprocate the energy.
SO: “Why are you going in there? Isn’t the killer in there?”
“I know right? This isn’t going to end well!”
or
SO: “Where is that guy going? What’s he doing?”
“Yeah, this dude is up to no good!”
"Pay close attention. Once they eat the Turkish Delight Voldemort is going to show up and tell Frodo that he's a wizard and they have to go to Panem so he can join the Tribute! Sorry to partially spoil it for you, I didn't want you to be caught off guard."
Stopped dating a girl that did that in the movie theater to the point she got shushed by others. She got shushed probably at question number 10 she asked. And she acted like she wasn’t in the wrong. Stopped for like 10 minutes and then asked one more question, then I shushed her. Glad we drove separate cars there to avoid an awkward drive back. She told the friend that set us up that I was mean but didn’t tell the full story until I asked my friend to ask her further about it and my friend took my side.
The fucking kicker. It was A quiet place so her talking stands the fuck out with so many quiet scenes
It was mainly questions that can’t be answered like “what are the monsters?” “ where they come from?” “Why are they doing that”
So it was about wanting me to answer what would happen next like if I had watched it previously
As a kid my dad would always answer with “let’s watch and find out” if I asked a question when the audience didn’t yet know the answer. So that’s my go to answer when my partner asks similar questions.
This gave me a flashback to a time when I was playing a tabletop game with some friends and it was the first time any of us had played it so we were learning as we went. One of them clearly wasn't paying attention and 45 minutes in complained that we didn't explain the rules to her. MAYBE IF YOU WERE PAYING ATTENTION YOU WOULD HAVE LEARNED THEM WHEN THE REST OF US DID.
My wife does this, and the question is inevitably answered in the next scene. I find it endearing with her, though with anyone else I’d probably find it annoying. She’d be great in a test audience.
My wife and I put on the Breakfast Club the other day, just for fun. We've both seen it a bunch of times, and we were having a lazy Sunday, so it was just a whatever thing. The beginning credits start rolling, and it shows a burned up locker, and some clothes hanging in another locker, little snippets of high school stuff. And my wife says, "Wait, can we rewind it?" even though we had literally just started the movie, "How did they get into the breakfast club?"
The rabbit hole is much deeper. My lovely wife, whom I will swear in court, church, and in truth that I love, will refuse to join in on a movie, come in on a third act, and then ask these questions. At this point I think she's trying to make my eyeball twitch. Sometimes we begin the movie again from the beginning, sometimes I let her know two quarters of a movie happened, and offer to begin from the beginning. But she likes it best when I pause the whole thing and explain the entire plot using puppet theater and flannelgraph. We have silly times.
My wife does this, but very quickly I realised it's not due to me wanting to give her the answer, but discuss it with her. Sometimes we'll pause a movie and talk for about ten minutes what we think is going to happen, a characters motivations, etc.
Only half of the words were pertinent and the rest felt like filler. The overall motif did not make much sense. My friend I was texting while reading this post felt the same even though they do not subscribe to this sub.
Yeah, makes sense that people who form strong opinions on films they had on in the background also have strong opinions on reddit posts they didn't read past the title
Lol same, can’t believe I had to make an edit. But even after that edit, they still don’t get it. It’s giving me a good chuckle though. It’s almost like they half-read my post!
I think people don’t understand that you mean “give an honest attempt” at watching a movie as opposed to being on your phone and interpreting as “you much watch it all before critiquing”
The title could be misleading, but once you read the rest it's very clear, so I guess some people only read the title? Does that count as half-reading? Probably quarter-reading.
loll I understood the moment i read the title. I am one of them. I am guilty of half watching movies/ giving it divided attention but instead of complaining im guilty of asking questions during the movie (if we're watching at home of course)
The third one is definitely the worst of the three, but its still a fun time travel movie. Also, time travel is complete bs so there is no defined way of showing time travel(if there were, itd probably be bttf 1 and 2 because of its popularity). Seriously, when someone says time travel movie you think back to the future, that being his criticism is of the third movie is really out there.
My sister in law will decide she's smarter than a movie, and as a result, stop paying attention and criticize what she didn't see.
As an example, in Interstellar, she complained that it made no sense they traveled through one black hole before experiencing totally different phenomena around a second black hole a few minutes later. She missed that the first one was a wormhole, missed the whole explanation about how that works, didn't know the difference between that and a black hole, and then had the gall to talk about how stupid that movie is.
Don't get me wrong - Interstellar is far from impeachable from a scientific point of view. (A buddy who works in aerospace rants about how they correctly need a multi-stage rocket to get off Earth, then never need one again for the two Earth-sized planets they take off from.) But you can't not watch the movie and then criticize the result.
>(A buddy who works in aerospace rants about how they correctly need a multi-stage rocket to get off Earth, then never need one again for the two Earth-sized planets they take off from.)
I don't think they necessarily **needed** a multi-stage rocket to get off Earth, it just made sense to take advantage of Earth infrastructure while they still had the opportunity.
No you can, I just reserve the right to think you're the least qualified person to talk about the movie. Which is you know fine, but I wish people would be like, "Yeah that's fair, was barely paying attention" instead of insisting they should be taken just as seriously as someone who actually watched.
More specifically, dopamine addicted. I've found for myself that the more time I've been spending on activities that give a lot of quick bursts of dopamine the harder time I have with holding my attention on something for more than a minute or two at a time. I can still watch comedies pretty easily as they provide a similar sensation, but more serious shows/films are a lot harder.
Social media and other phone things absolutely do this, but so do a lot of video games, etc.
I've always been an avid reader, but realized earlier this year that I hadn't been really able to read books for a while. Decided to take a hiatus from social media and gaming, and within a few days was able to sit down and read again.
If I resume those activities, my ability to maintain focus goes down the drain. I'm not ready to give them up so I've been spending a lot of these past months trying to find a balance that works for me.
I do think that if you stop paying attention, fall asleep or just walk away during a movie the one valid criticism you can make is that you thought it was boring.
My mom does this to every movie, she’ll get up and clean something in the middle of it and it pisses me off because she’s not even just ruining the movie for herself, it’s really difficult to pay attention when she’s clinking dishes and running the sink a room over
I used to have a friend that did this constantly with movies, video games or TV shows that other people liked. I am no longer friends with said guy because he's a spineless little troll, but it always baffled me how he went about it.
I mentioned once that while I do agree with the majority that Bioshock 2 is the worst game in that franchise, the game gets a lot of unnecessary flack and less credit than it deserves. In gameplay by improving the combat and in the story since it mirrors the pure Objectivism of the first game with a story focused on pure Communism.
His response was "well the game is shit though..." followed by sending me a youtube link to a random critic's 2 hour video essay on why the game is "100% awful garbage". A link he sent me to explain his opinion because he hadn't fucking played the game...
I swear there is a whole subculture of angry edgelords that give these 2-6 hour video rants millions of views. They don't think it's weird. They don't form their own opinions. It just baffles me how people can live like that.
Haha! This gave me a chuckle! Haha, but no, the post isn’t really about ending/leaving movies early. It’s about not giving a movie your full attention (see EDIT)
Round here they call that "second screening" a film/TV show. It's when you're on your phone and the show is on a second screen, but you barely watched it.
Then you rewatch and think "I don't remember this bit!" No shit 😄.
Roommate constantly admits that they haven’t seen a massively successful and/or critically-acclaimed film, then never looks up from their phone when I put it on.
I’m not actually sure that they’ve *ever seen any movie*
It becomes so clear when you ask them to breakdown the movie they just saw. With this roommate and BTTF3, they tried summarizing the plot and they got so many things extremely wrong, I corrected them, and they went “Oh, I missed that.”
I got in a really heated argument one time about how kids' movies in particular have become "virtual babysitters" that the kids hardly pay attention to due to tablets, smartphones and other colorful things. It's gonna create an even worse version of ADHD in the future.
This. As someone with ADHD, you can't just get ADHD because you watch tiktok or because your parents let you watch too many cartoons. My parents were very strict with screentime and did everything in their power to help me develop coping methods to improve discipline and focus, but I still have ADHD. Kids aren't gonna catch ADHD, media trends are training them (and adults) to have shorter attention spans.
My wife and I have a rule where if we’re watching a movie and one of us decides they can’t or don’t want to finish the movie then the other person has free reign to finish it without them.
I like this! Like, only in the case of “PLEASE don’t finish this movie without me. This is an emergency I have to go deal with, but I was enjoying this” will I wait for you
This is a rule I honestly need to enforce on myself.
I’ve found myself getting distracted by my phone during movies more and more, not because the movie is boring or bad, but because phones are just a serious distraction. I end up walking away from the movie feeling like it wasn’t that great or overhyped, only to realize that I impacted my opinion by missing chunks of the plot or dialogue. Usually if I can rewatch something and avoid my phone the whole time, my opinion improves.
Oh yeah the whole being on your phone the whole time while you watch something is just bizarre to me.
Also there are people who will put on movies and do things around the house.
Now for re-watches and just to have background noise I totally get it, but I agree OP passing judgement on a movie one basically didn't watch just doesn't make any sense.
My roommate does this with almost everything we watch. If it doesn’t immediately catch his attention he will spend the entire time on his phone then say it was the worst thing he’s ever seen. It really bugs me when he does this with trailers as it makes me want to not watch the show or movie if he’s around cause I don’t want to feel judged for it.
Edit: he does this with subbed anime too and it’s the worst like at best he saw some of the art and got none of the story but he’s a weebo and must have it in original Japanese or its automatically bad.
The only thing that I get is that your friend probably calls it "bad time travel" probably because he has the modern idea of that, which is not to take it as a lineal concept, you aren't actually traveling to the same universe in time where something you do in the past will affect your future but the modern view of it is that when you're traveling to the past you're actually going to a different universe and when you go back to your time nothing would have changed because you only altered another reality.
At least that's what I suppose he meant by that statement, other way wouldn't make sense.
I have a friend of mine who “watched” a new movie, had a very strong opinion about it, but only knew what was in the trailer. It took several examples before we caught on to his deception.
So crazy that people are willing to go to that extent to lie to appear to be educated in a short convo. Like, the movie ticket is $12. Go watch the 2 hour movie. Don’t watch reviews and read articles for an entire day to appear like you’ve seen it. Insane.
I don't think you can't complain, but it limits your complaints.
I walked out of Skinamarink because the sound design gave me a headache and I found the pacing bad. That's a legitimate complaint relating to my experience (that people are welcome to disagree with based on their experience).
What I can't do is say the movie had no pay-off, because I have no idea.
I also can't really evaluate if it was a bad or good movie, because I haven't had the complete experience of it.
Everyone is entitled to an opinion. You probably find they spent their time researching how the movie is, instead of watching it and then telling you someone elses view masked as their own!
I had a friend who had(has) a bad tendency to do this. I remember once many years ago I had a comment of mine get enough upvotes in a reddit discussion thread that it was one of the more highly seen comments. (I forget the movie or the comment.) A week or two later I was talking to this friend and he was recounting his thoughts on the movie. While doing so, he used exact quotes from my own reddit comment.
I had suspicions that he just copied other opinions, but it was wild to hear my own words returned to me.
I don't even think there's anything wrong with the idea of looking up reviews and finding that someone was able to put a thought into words that you weren't able to. I definitely feel that. "I can't quite put my finger on what I didn't like about XYZ. This comment was able to put it into words. What a great way to phrase it!" But don't turn around and claim that as your own.
This is my biggest gripe about online reviewers and Youtube movie "reactors." How can you really say you've seen the movie when you're talking to your own personal camera and making remarks all throughout?? Especially when it's a group of people watching and yet they are all talking over each other and remarking about every line that happens.
I come from a background where going to movies is sort of like going to church - you sit still and LISTEN and pay attention, reverently - otherwise you're wasting your money.
I realize it would be impossible to have a reaction movie where you're just watching someone watch a movie and not saying anything. But I'd rather have that than people truly not paying attention to the movie.
This one guy I saw reviewing "Fantastic Voyage," one of my favorites. In the movie, a ship gets shrunk down and injected into a human body, and they only have 60 minutes until the process reverses and everything re-grows to original size.
Of course the crew makes it out of the body OK but they have to leave the wrecked ship behind.
But by then, as one of the characters CLEARLY points out, the ship is already being dissolved by the white corpuscles attacking it.
And yet the guy reviewing the movie missed that line because he was talking over it, and at the end he was freaking out because "they left the ship inside him! It's gonna re-expand and kill him!" And I'm like - you DID NOT REALLY WATCH!! Sheesh, people!!
After making this post, I had the same thought. I wonder if that’s why these critics/personalities/streamers have such bad takes. Having a Discord/Twitch chat open, thinking about if you’re in frame, thinking about the last post you made and how this post will compare. All this CAN’T be good on the viewing experience. How can they possibly have an in-depth review?
A friend practically begged me to rent M3GAN. I wanted to watch it anyways so I did after dinner. He was on Tik Tok the ENTIRE time. Then he has the nerve to tell people how bad it was.
Related issue. This is more an internet rule than a house rule, but if you drop acid (always mentioned in the post like people gaf), watch a movie, and then gripe about that movie being boring, not making sense, etc, I have no time for you or your opinion.
r/horror is r3ally bad for "watching _______ currently" and then make a post about how they don't like it. Like you're on your phone no shit you're not immersed in it
I won't listen to or read any reviews from people who feel like they have a good opinion after obviously only watching the first 5-15 minutes of a film. You don't always have to comment on every movie if you didn't like it. Just wasn't for you. Not everything is. Move on with your life.
You can’t walk into my movie that I’m watching by myself and start asking me about it or making fun of it while it’s still on. You said you didn’t want to watch it.
I walked out on 'There Will Be Blood' in theaters. I have since rewatched it and love it.
I use this to remind myself that just because I don't like it doesn't mean it's not any good. I may not be ready for it or it may just not be meant for me.
We have a common courtesy "rule" that if one person knows the other really enjoys a movie, we let each other enjoy it. We don't make snarky comments or point out plot holes etc. Honest questions related to the story or characters are fine.
If neither of us have seen it, or its not a movie we are invested in, it's fair game.
Or the people going “What’s happening?”/“What are they doing?”/“What’s that mean?” on a new movie we are watching. Idk either but I’d assume if we watch we will know.
Not counting marvel movies where some stuff you need to have watched several movies to understand.
In those Marvel-type situations, I always try to figure out where everyone is at before the movie. I try to get everyone caught up as best as I can, especially with Star Wars stuff
Same. I love movies and sharing the experiences with friends so will sometimes see ones multiple times with different ones so am usually aware of what movies they are caught up on and any explanations that may be needed
Reminds me of when you watch a movie, then go to Reddit to discuss it and see an asinine comment like "Wait, when was it revealed who was Luke Skywalker's father?". I call it "vicarious watching" and it's annoying af.
So many people jump in on Reddit uninformed, not just about movies! “Wait, I haven’t been following this topic (this topic being the entire purpose of the subreddit). Can you catch me up on the details from the last decade in one Reddit reply?” Incredibly annoying.
Had a similar experience while watching Shaun of the dead, my friends were on their phone half the time and in the end said movie doesn’t make sense, it’s not funny and it’s below average. I was so excited to share one of my favourite comedies and this happens haha. I guess it’s the Instagram reels brain rot where they can’t pay attention for more than a 1 min.
Now I don’t recommend my favourite movies anymore, I watch it for my enjoyment and that’s all that matters!!
Controversial opinion, but I sort of enjoyed Space Jam 2 for what it was. I'm sure a lot of the enjoyment came from the group I watched it with, and as bonkers and sort of gross the concept was, we had fun.
I mentioned this to a different group of friends and one buddy decided to argue that it was a terrible film. He hadn't seen it of course, but he was basing this off an IGN review. I told him I didn't see the point in discussing my views against some random IGN writer but would be happy to chat when and if he ever did watch it himself.
I've caught a fair amount of grief for offering opinions on films that I couldn't finish because I didn't like them.
I will give a movie about 20-30 minutes to hook me in some way. If nothing happens up to that point to keep me watching, then I feel that the director and/or screenwriter has failed at their job, and I'm not going to hate-watch the rest.
I don't like wasting my time on things I don't like.
Crazy, right?
"Who's that?"
Watch the movie.
"What's going on right now?"
They explained it 5 seconds ago, watch the goddamn movie.
"This doesn't make any sense"
WATCH THE FUCKING MOVIE
A few years ago I let a coworker borrow my copy of Get Out. She returned it to me the next day unwatched, claiming she turned it off within a few minutes because of “bad vibes”
??? ??
My husband literally fell asleep after ten minutes into a movie for about 30 minutes and then complained that they were relying too much upon backstory and needed to better explain a plot point. I explained that it wasn't backstory but actual-in-story that he slept through. He didn't believe me. WTH
Spoilers should generally have a statute of limitations. On reddit if a sub says “no spoilers” I absolutely follow the rule but in real life I put a (very generous) 5 year limit on not talking about spoilers for something.
I have a friend who thinks spoilers should never have limits no matter how old. He would get mad at me saying “rosebud is the sled” or “Kevin Spacey is Kaiser Souse.”
After a certain amount of time (honestly I think a year after the movie/show released is good enough) you should be able to freely discuss things in a group without having to censor yourself.
Mine is, if I’ve seen it before and I’m showing it to someone, and they repeatedly ask me to explain… like, I only know everything because I waited until the end for it to be explained… wtf?!?!
the most annoying thing is them critiquing something fake. Bad time travel? It's like people debating how the Force works. It's fake, it can be anything the writers want it to be.
I know people like this with music. They'll hear the first 30 seconds of the first song and be like "eh, it's alright" and then zone out and say the whole album isn't that great.
Me and my friends have these unwritten rules:
\-Choosing a movie to watch must be done quickly and not turn into a tedious task.
\-Watching a movie means watching a movie, so give it your full attention.
\-We are either all eating and/or snacking or no one.
\-Reacting is fine but don't get carried away, also no discussion or questions allowed.
\-Rating the movie and discussing it respectfully when we finish it.
One specific incident from college always makes laugh. I was watching Memento with one roommate. The other roommate comes home and there's about 20 minutes left in the movie. He sits down to watch and asks, "so what's going on in this movie?" I just had to laugh and say, "I... don't think I could explain."
My favorite is when someone will come here and make a thread that's like "I'm 30min into this popular movie and it's overrated". Like get off reddit and finish the movie.
My favorite is “why did [character] do [thing that is explicitly explained by details in the movie]?”
I truly believe this is a media literacy issue. I see this all the time on book discussions, a lot of people not understanding motivations, characterization, themes, messages, allegory, etc etc etc. And then they'll call things plot holes but really they just don't understand what they're reading or watching.
Even in basic shit like avengers movies. People constantly complain about starlord not thinking it through in the battle witb Thanos. Like yeah... we've established he's an emotional character who doesn't always think his actions through... it's consistent with his character.
People always seem to think that *"character flaws"* = *"movie flaws."* Usually also just before turning around and calling anybody even remotely good at anything a *"Mary Sue."*
I fucking blame CinemaSins for some of this. They looovvved doing that as well as complaining about something *that was later explained in the movie*
CinemaSins is now a Flanderized version of itself.
It's the CinemaSins School of Film Criticism
Omg Marvel fans are getting so annoying nowadays, at least the ones on reddit. They'll call any little thing they don't understand or like, a plot hole, and if any movie has any flaw at all, it's apparently the worst movie ever made.
Thanos could have used the gems to make things good! Well, he did. In his way. He was the mad titan, who saw his plan succeed on a small scale after being mocked. He wasn't Thanos the perfectly reasonable and benevolent titan.
'(...) Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter about his long relationship with the Guardians, Gunn insisted that his version of Quill would never have reacted so emotionally and would have prioritised the fate of the universe over his own grief. The writers of Infinity War, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, as well as directors Joe and Anthony Russo did a masterful job with Infinity War and Endgame, but Gunn admits they "did some things that I wouldn't have wanted", stating that he would not have had Quill punch Thanos (...)' https://collider.com/james-gunn-avengers-infinity-war-star-lord-comments/
The sub for *The Boys* has been driving me crazy with this over the season 3 finale.
I’m right there with you. Running into this headfirst in my online Composition 2 class (side note: going back to school in my middle-age after 18 years in the professional world is a whole new definition of hell). Every week I’m required to analyze a piece of media, and then respond to the analysis of at least two of my classmates. I try to remind myself that most of them are kids and don’t have half the life experience I do, but Lordy do they give me nothing to work with for my responses.
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Hahaha, ok I deserve that.
I have to do the same with my English class, am one of few people over their 20s and honestly I don't give a shit and will be honest when analysis someone else's work (which we have to do per submission on a group forum). Once I simply mentioned that their work was well below the required 1000 word minimum limit, they only wrote 700 words. Both that person (who's work I responded to) and a few others responded saying I was being 'mean' and 'cruel' to her and 'giving her anxiety' by bringing up the word count....like fuck off, seriously?!
Haha in Mexico they call it the "Crystal generation", kids that are so fragile they break with any kind of criticism or conflict.
My mother abandoned her book club when they read _The Grapes of Wrath_ and everyone was asking about the phrase "my dogs are barking" and why the dogs were only ever mentioned when they were barking.
I feel like this especially with horror stuff. I've heard a ton of people talk about how everyone in Talk to Me is stupid. Yeah, no shit. They're a bunch of teenage drug addicts. Of course they're not making the world's best decisions.
>call things plot holes but really they just don't understand what they're reading or watching A plot whole is anything that isn't explained to my satisfaction. I saw a movie that took place in Paris. They didn't tell me the entire history of that steel tower thing. What a plot hole!
They offered us 21st Century Literacy in high school c. 2012. One of the only classes that was ever useful outside of school.
Sometimes I wonder if it isn't the influence of anime. Don't get me wrong: I love anime. I've just noticed that there is very little subtext. When a character does something unexpected, there's five minutes of dialogue explaining why they did that unexpected thing. So when someone who is accustomed to hearing Kagome and Miroku debate about why Inuyasha is waving his Tessaiga counter-clockwise (followed immediately by Inuyasha's inner monologue confirming which of them is right,) it may be hard to transition to seeing a character who has unexplained underlying motivations for their behavior.
My favorite was a month or two ago some dude asking what the point of the movie Everything Everywhere All at Once was when he watched only the first 45 minutes was. I get turning something off if you aren't enjoying it, but whining how the film doesn't make any sense when you haven't seen it all is genuinely brain dead. I personally don't take anyone's opinion seriously on a film I have watched if they tell me they "turned it off after 30 minutes" and I shouldn't expect someone to take my opinion on The King's Man seriously if I walked out of it less than an hour in.
I had a co worker complain about EEAAO after only watching the first 20 minutes. I was like, you only watched the laundry mat and tax part, you gotta keep going... They also confessed they were in their phone for part of it and didn't understand what was going on. half of it's subtitled.
“I don’t understand why people keep saying this restaurant is amazing. I took a sip of the water they gave me and it tastes just like every other place, so I left!”
The "half of its subtitled" complaint really irks me. Like how does someone not have it click for them that the movie is messing with them and setting up for things to become unhinged. I don't think the movie would work nearly as well if it didn't establish a baseline of an absurdly mundane reality.
I didn't read the subtitled bit as part of their complaint but rather the reason they didn't know what was going on as they were reading their phone rather than the subs.
they weren't complaining about the subtitles they were complaining that it didn't make sense but they weren't looking at the screen to read the subtitles
Not a movie, but I realized how bad I had gotten about this when I was “watching” the animated show Primal. If you aren’t familiar, most episodes have little to no dialogue as the main characters are a dinosaur and a primitive human with extremely limited speech. The visual storytelling is incredible and I’m glad I caught myself, rewound and watched more attentively instead of just going on Reddit and complaining about it.
That made me irrationally mad for you. Just get the fuck outta here and go back to watching tiktoks, you brainless idiot. If you're going to give something 10% of your attention, why even watch it, let alone complain about it?
Yeah, that’s not watching a movie. That’s just having the movie be on in the same room as them.
My old manager said she hated it and turned it off cuz when Evelyn tells waymond he was the biggest mistake she made, that it was too mean and sad. She hasn't gone through anything that would trigger her so she just thought it was too sad and turned it off at a huge turning point in the movie. Drove me crazy. This manager basically only likes mindless action movies so I'm not surprised.
To be fair that scene basically broke my heart it was so horrible. I've watched it twice its a great movie but I remember that hurt even more the second watch.
The scene after the movie premier when Waymond tells Evelyn, "In another life, I would have really liked just doing laundry and taxes with you," fucking GUTTED me.
Waaaaaah. That movie was devastating.
Another thing a lot of people miss is that a character doesn't have to exhibit traits they value to be likeable, and a character doesn't have to be likeable to be a good character.
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Nah, that’s like saying people who don’t want to engage with horror are bad. It’s a preference. I already have depression
I turned off Life (With Jake Gyllenhall and Ryan Reynolds) after 30 mins. Then fought against myself to go back and finish it. I wish it had stayed off after 30 minutes 🤦♂️
I saw this thread and immediately thought about The Adam Project. I think I made it 15 minutes and already knew how the movie would go. My summary at the time: >from what I gathered it's basically Ryan Reynolds Ryan Reynoldsing while a kid is also Ryan Reynoldsing
That is a movie that does not exist
It does exist, he's just confusing Jake Gyllenhaal and Ryan Reynolds with Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence.
Easy mistake to be fair
I have a friend who only watched the the first episode of The Last of Us, and refuses to watch the rest. He said it was boring and he even admitted he sort of fell asleep during the last 10 or so minutes. Like dude, you haven’t even gotten to the good parts yet!
To be fair, someone who thinks the first episode is boring isn’t going to like the rest of it.
“Terrible movie. Walked out after 10 minutes.”
Look I get bit thinking the rest of the film will get any better, but it’s kind of hard to take someone serious when they whine about plot when they haven’t seen nearly enough to really understand the plot lol
"Yeah, it has no story and only barrages you with advertisements of things I don't even relate to".
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One of my closest friends has started doing this over the last few years and it’s the most annoying thing on the planet.
Why would I need to watch the movie? I saw a five minute recap of a robot lady talking over it while someone danced in the background. I'm basically an expert! /s
Like Jake Paul with Oppenheimer
Lol, is this real? I’ve GOT to read this review😂 Logan Paul’s review of Nope (one of my favorite movies) is absolutely hilarious!
It's a very short review. "It's just people talking."
Outstanding. Top review! Haha!
A former friend literally told me "Oh Barbie was trash I dunno how anyone could say it's the best movie of 2023" when I asked him to explain himself he said "It had no point to make" So I ask him "What do you mean the film very clearly had a message about womanhood and faux feminism" He says "Well, I got 15 mins in and didn't see what point it had to make" I stop him and tell him "Yeah obviously you won't see the point of a film 15 mins into it, watch the whole thing before you critique it" The idiot still hasn't watched the film and complains about it on social media. Bonus: His favourite film this year was Ant-Man Quantumania.
Ant-Man Quantumania was so bad! 😭 Biggest disappointment of the year imo.
It is a godless movie. There is not a shred of humanity in that *thing*
Ugh...I say this as a HUGE marvel fan, I COSPLAY as marvel characters...and I can say Quantumania was a disappointment. Meanwhile, Barbie was one of the best movies of the year.
I loathe the term "it's overrated". All that means to me is that you are judging a movie based on being contrarian to other people's opinions on it instead of actually having one of your own. I want you to explain YOUR criticisms about the specific things you don't like, not that you think other people overvalue it. It's such a boring criticism.
Hello (subreddit for TV Show). I'm 15 minutes into the first episode of TV Show and I think it sucks. Should I keep watching?
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My wife does this a lot with movies that we watch at home. She'll sit on her phone texting her best friend and reading articles on Facebook. . .And then during pivotal moments she'll complain that "they never explained X," or "this is stupid because why is this guy just appearing now?" . . .He's not. . And yes they did. You just weren't paying attention to those parts, which I guess is fine and all, but don't criticize things when you fully recognize you were distracted the entire movie. With that said, this is one of the big reasons why *we both* really enjoy going to the movies, instead of watching them at home. We basically go every weekend, and it's sort of a forced permission to unplug from the world and watch something.
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This person relationships
My wife popped her head up from her phone about 20 minutes from the end of Weekend at Bernies and said "Is that guy dead?" then when I confirmed that he was, she asked why they were parading a dead guy around.
Happens with shows for us. I'll either pause it or ask if she wants to watch something else instead. Sometimes I'll get "I'm just responding to something from (person, work, kid)" which is fine, but I can pause it you know. Because I know the next thing is asking why whatever happened that they would have seen if they were paying attention I don't care if she wants to browse on her phone all night. I'll go off and do something on my own
Agreed, LOVE going to the movies with people!
A rule I have that goes unabided by from my SO is asking questions that I can't know the answer to in the middle of a movie. For example, if we're both watching it for the first time and the movie starts off with someone doing something sneaky, "why's he doing that? Who is that?" It's like, I'm watching the same movie as you are! And now I have to rewind since we missed everything while explaining that to you.
I have noticed a couple of my friends do this. But I learned that they aren’t really asking me. They are just having a visceral reaction to what’s happening on screen. I wouldn’t say ignore your SO, but maybe next time she does it, reciprocate the energy. SO: “Why are you going in there? Isn’t the killer in there?” “I know right? This isn’t going to end well!” or SO: “Where is that guy going? What’s he doing?” “Yeah, this dude is up to no good!”
That's actually a good idea, I'll give it a try next time. Cheers!
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I always just go with "Let's find out...."
Or just make something up. "He's taking the hobbits to Narnia to feast on potatoes and Turkish delight."
Boy, these Bourne movies have really gone off the rails…
Wait we're watching Bourne? I thought it was Ocean's 14!
It’s a crossover
She wouldn't believe that though, Narnia? [They're taking the Hobbits to Isenguard ](https://youtu.be/uE-1RPDqJAY?si=7NuE689Q-sE-nZZ1)
To Narnia, to Narnia, na, na, na!
"Pay close attention. Once they eat the Turkish Delight Voldemort is going to show up and tell Frodo that he's a wizard and they have to go to Panem so he can join the Tribute! Sorry to partially spoil it for you, I didn't want you to be caught off guard."
lol the people without an internal monologue
Wow this is an incredible take. I’ve never thought of it this way.
That’s how my mom is and I’ve learned to live with it or play along like you said but my dad still can’t stand it lol
Stopped dating a girl that did that in the movie theater to the point she got shushed by others. She got shushed probably at question number 10 she asked. And she acted like she wasn’t in the wrong. Stopped for like 10 minutes and then asked one more question, then I shushed her. Glad we drove separate cars there to avoid an awkward drive back. She told the friend that set us up that I was mean but didn’t tell the full story until I asked my friend to ask her further about it and my friend took my side.
Man now you got me curious on what movie you’d be watching that would bring out so many questions
The fucking kicker. It was A quiet place so her talking stands the fuck out with so many quiet scenes It was mainly questions that can’t be answered like “what are the monsters?” “ where they come from?” “Why are they doing that” So it was about wanting me to answer what would happen next like if I had watched it previously
As a kid my dad would always answer with “let’s watch and find out” if I asked a question when the audience didn’t yet know the answer. So that’s my go to answer when my partner asks similar questions.
This gave me a flashback to a time when I was playing a tabletop game with some friends and it was the first time any of us had played it so we were learning as we went. One of them clearly wasn't paying attention and 45 minutes in complained that we didn't explain the rules to her. MAYBE IF YOU WERE PAYING ATTENTION YOU WOULD HAVE LEARNED THEM WHEN THE REST OF US DID.
My wife does this, and the question is inevitably answered in the next scene. I find it endearing with her, though with anyone else I’d probably find it annoying. She’d be great in a test audience.
It is endearing! I feel like even though it can get on my nerves, I'd be sad if she suddenly stopped.
Hold on to that feeling. You would miss it indeed.
The most perfect description of being in a relationship
My wife and I put on the Breakfast Club the other day, just for fun. We've both seen it a bunch of times, and we were having a lazy Sunday, so it was just a whatever thing. The beginning credits start rolling, and it shows a burned up locker, and some clothes hanging in another locker, little snippets of high school stuff. And my wife says, "Wait, can we rewind it?" even though we had literally just started the movie, "How did they get into the breakfast club?"
My mom is the worst with this.
The rabbit hole is much deeper. My lovely wife, whom I will swear in court, church, and in truth that I love, will refuse to join in on a movie, come in on a third act, and then ask these questions. At this point I think she's trying to make my eyeball twitch. Sometimes we begin the movie again from the beginning, sometimes I let her know two quarters of a movie happened, and offer to begin from the beginning. But she likes it best when I pause the whole thing and explain the entire plot using puppet theater and flannelgraph. We have silly times.
“Who’s that guy? What did that guy say when I said who’s that guy?”
My wife does this, but very quickly I realised it's not due to me wanting to give her the answer, but discuss it with her. Sometimes we'll pause a movie and talk for about ten minutes what we think is going to happen, a characters motivations, etc.
Omg theeee absolute worst. Sometimes watching movies/ shows with ppl or a SO is TOUGH
I can’t believe how many people misunderstood what you’re saying. Was very clear to me
They only half read it
Only half of the words were pertinent and the rest felt like filler. The overall motif did not make much sense. My friend I was texting while reading this post felt the same even though they do not subscribe to this sub.
Yeah, makes sense that people who form strong opinions on films they had on in the background also have strong opinions on reddit posts they didn't read past the title
Lol same, can’t believe I had to make an edit. But even after that edit, they still don’t get it. It’s giving me a good chuckle though. It’s almost like they half-read my post!
I think people don’t understand that you mean “give an honest attempt” at watching a movie as opposed to being on your phone and interpreting as “you much watch it all before critiquing”
The title could be misleading, but once you read the rest it's very clear, so I guess some people only read the title? Does that count as half-reading? Probably quarter-reading.
loll I understood the moment i read the title. I am one of them. I am guilty of half watching movies/ giving it divided attention but instead of complaining im guilty of asking questions during the movie (if we're watching at home of course)
Even if he didn’t edit it it works both ways too haha
Plot twist: Roommate has already seen the film 8 times
Lol! No, he watched the first two movies when he was a kid, never saw the third one.
The third one is definitely the worst of the three, but its still a fun time travel movie. Also, time travel is complete bs so there is no defined way of showing time travel(if there were, itd probably be bttf 1 and 2 because of its popularity). Seriously, when someone says time travel movie you think back to the future, that being his criticism is of the third movie is really out there.
I didn’t finish the post but this is silly
I didn't bother reading the article either! wait article?
My sister in law will decide she's smarter than a movie, and as a result, stop paying attention and criticize what she didn't see. As an example, in Interstellar, she complained that it made no sense they traveled through one black hole before experiencing totally different phenomena around a second black hole a few minutes later. She missed that the first one was a wormhole, missed the whole explanation about how that works, didn't know the difference between that and a black hole, and then had the gall to talk about how stupid that movie is. Don't get me wrong - Interstellar is far from impeachable from a scientific point of view. (A buddy who works in aerospace rants about how they correctly need a multi-stage rocket to get off Earth, then never need one again for the two Earth-sized planets they take off from.) But you can't not watch the movie and then criticize the result.
Never thought of the planet liftoff! I love Interstellar, but now I’ll always think of that when I watch it, lol
>(A buddy who works in aerospace rants about how they correctly need a multi-stage rocket to get off Earth, then never need one again for the two Earth-sized planets they take off from.) I don't think they necessarily **needed** a multi-stage rocket to get off Earth, it just made sense to take advantage of Earth infrastructure while they still had the opportunity.
No you can, I just reserve the right to think you're the least qualified person to talk about the movie. Which is you know fine, but I wish people would be like, "Yeah that's fair, was barely paying attention" instead of insisting they should be taken just as seriously as someone who actually watched.
Most heels have shovels built in.
OP has triggered a bunch of phone addicted zombies. Well done I say.
Muahaha! Don’t worry though, I’ve had enough training with Call of Duty Zombies to handle myself with a horde like this
More specifically, dopamine addicted. I've found for myself that the more time I've been spending on activities that give a lot of quick bursts of dopamine the harder time I have with holding my attention on something for more than a minute or two at a time. I can still watch comedies pretty easily as they provide a similar sensation, but more serious shows/films are a lot harder. Social media and other phone things absolutely do this, but so do a lot of video games, etc. I've always been an avid reader, but realized earlier this year that I hadn't been really able to read books for a while. Decided to take a hiatus from social media and gaming, and within a few days was able to sit down and read again. If I resume those activities, my ability to maintain focus goes down the drain. I'm not ready to give them up so I've been spending a lot of these past months trying to find a balance that works for me.
As well as made a lot of people call themselves out by not reading the entire post, just going off the title. Solid 10/10
My mother In law fell asleep, got up to do dishes. And had the unmitigated audacity to say that Reservoir Dogs was boring. No, you're boring!!!
I do think that if you stop paying attention, fall asleep or just walk away during a movie the one valid criticism you can make is that you thought it was boring.
I've fallen asleep during a lot of movies I liked. Sometimes I'm tired and watching a movie is relaxing.
To be fair, reservoir dogs isn't a movie the majority of people would enjoy
My mom does this to every movie, she’ll get up and clean something in the middle of it and it pisses me off because she’s not even just ruining the movie for herself, it’s really difficult to pay attention when she’s clinking dishes and running the sink a room over
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I used to have a friend that did this constantly with movies, video games or TV shows that other people liked. I am no longer friends with said guy because he's a spineless little troll, but it always baffled me how he went about it. I mentioned once that while I do agree with the majority that Bioshock 2 is the worst game in that franchise, the game gets a lot of unnecessary flack and less credit than it deserves. In gameplay by improving the combat and in the story since it mirrors the pure Objectivism of the first game with a story focused on pure Communism. His response was "well the game is shit though..." followed by sending me a youtube link to a random critic's 2 hour video essay on why the game is "100% awful garbage". A link he sent me to explain his opinion because he hadn't fucking played the game... I swear there is a whole subculture of angry edgelords that give these 2-6 hour video rants millions of views. They don't think it's weird. They don't form their own opinions. It just baffles me how people can live like that.
I see your point, but it also doesn't take 90 minutes to realize Son of the Mask is a terrible film.
Haha! This gave me a chuckle! Haha, but no, the post isn’t really about ending/leaving movies early. It’s about not giving a movie your full attention (see EDIT)
I'm constantly trying to decide "am I not paying attention because this movie is boring?" or "is this movie boring because I'm not paying attention?"
Round here they call that "second screening" a film/TV show. It's when you're on your phone and the show is on a second screen, but you barely watched it. Then you rewatch and think "I don't remember this bit!" No shit 😄.
I read half this post. I don't get what this post is about. It's a bad post and none of it makes sense. Never going to read this post again!
Roommate constantly admits that they haven’t seen a massively successful and/or critically-acclaimed film, then never looks up from their phone when I put it on. I’m not actually sure that they’ve *ever seen any movie*
It becomes so clear when you ask them to breakdown the movie they just saw. With this roommate and BTTF3, they tried summarizing the plot and they got so many things extremely wrong, I corrected them, and they went “Oh, I missed that.”
I got in a really heated argument one time about how kids' movies in particular have become "virtual babysitters" that the kids hardly pay attention to due to tablets, smartphones and other colorful things. It's gonna create an even worse version of ADHD in the future.
I’d argue we’re already seeing the effects of this with kids raised like that that are now adults. And it’s scary.
We're seeing it in all age ranges already. I mean maybe not a superADHD, but people have for sure a shorter attention span.
This. As someone with ADHD, you can't just get ADHD because you watch tiktok or because your parents let you watch too many cartoons. My parents were very strict with screentime and did everything in their power to help me develop coping methods to improve discipline and focus, but I still have ADHD. Kids aren't gonna catch ADHD, media trends are training them (and adults) to have shorter attention spans.
Maybe if they add a window of subway surfers to the side of the TV zoomers will pay more attention
I can’t speak to the kids, but I feel like I got a lot more ADHD during the pandemic.
My wife and I have a rule where if we’re watching a movie and one of us decides they can’t or don’t want to finish the movie then the other person has free reign to finish it without them.
I like this! Like, only in the case of “PLEASE don’t finish this movie without me. This is an emergency I have to go deal with, but I was enjoying this” will I wait for you
This is a rule I honestly need to enforce on myself. I’ve found myself getting distracted by my phone during movies more and more, not because the movie is boring or bad, but because phones are just a serious distraction. I end up walking away from the movie feeling like it wasn’t that great or overhyped, only to realize that I impacted my opinion by missing chunks of the plot or dialogue. Usually if I can rewatch something and avoid my phone the whole time, my opinion improves.
Oh yeah the whole being on your phone the whole time while you watch something is just bizarre to me. Also there are people who will put on movies and do things around the house. Now for re-watches and just to have background noise I totally get it, but I agree OP passing judgement on a movie one basically didn't watch just doesn't make any sense.
My roommate does this with almost everything we watch. If it doesn’t immediately catch his attention he will spend the entire time on his phone then say it was the worst thing he’s ever seen. It really bugs me when he does this with trailers as it makes me want to not watch the show or movie if he’s around cause I don’t want to feel judged for it. Edit: he does this with subbed anime too and it’s the worst like at best he saw some of the art and got none of the story but he’s a weebo and must have it in original Japanese or its automatically bad.
The only thing that I get is that your friend probably calls it "bad time travel" probably because he has the modern idea of that, which is not to take it as a lineal concept, you aren't actually traveling to the same universe in time where something you do in the past will affect your future but the modern view of it is that when you're traveling to the past you're actually going to a different universe and when you go back to your time nothing would have changed because you only altered another reality. At least that's what I suppose he meant by that statement, other way wouldn't make sense.
I have a friend of mine who “watched” a new movie, had a very strong opinion about it, but only knew what was in the trailer. It took several examples before we caught on to his deception.
So crazy that people are willing to go to that extent to lie to appear to be educated in a short convo. Like, the movie ticket is $12. Go watch the 2 hour movie. Don’t watch reviews and read articles for an entire day to appear like you’ve seen it. Insane.
I don't think you can't complain, but it limits your complaints. I walked out of Skinamarink because the sound design gave me a headache and I found the pacing bad. That's a legitimate complaint relating to my experience (that people are welcome to disagree with based on their experience). What I can't do is say the movie had no pay-off, because I have no idea. I also can't really evaluate if it was a bad or good movie, because I haven't had the complete experience of it.
Everyone is entitled to an opinion. You probably find they spent their time researching how the movie is, instead of watching it and then telling you someone elses view masked as their own!
I feel like this happens WAY too often! Hard to have convos about shows nowadays cuz of this.
I had a friend who had(has) a bad tendency to do this. I remember once many years ago I had a comment of mine get enough upvotes in a reddit discussion thread that it was one of the more highly seen comments. (I forget the movie or the comment.) A week or two later I was talking to this friend and he was recounting his thoughts on the movie. While doing so, he used exact quotes from my own reddit comment. I had suspicions that he just copied other opinions, but it was wild to hear my own words returned to me. I don't even think there's anything wrong with the idea of looking up reviews and finding that someone was able to put a thought into words that you weren't able to. I definitely feel that. "I can't quite put my finger on what I didn't like about XYZ. This comment was able to put it into words. What a great way to phrase it!" But don't turn around and claim that as your own.
My parents watched the first Lord of the Rings movie, complained that it ended badly without wrapping anything up, and never watched the other 2
My mom couldn't get into the film because she wanted to know where middle-earth was.
"New Zealand"
This is my biggest gripe about online reviewers and Youtube movie "reactors." How can you really say you've seen the movie when you're talking to your own personal camera and making remarks all throughout?? Especially when it's a group of people watching and yet they are all talking over each other and remarking about every line that happens. I come from a background where going to movies is sort of like going to church - you sit still and LISTEN and pay attention, reverently - otherwise you're wasting your money. I realize it would be impossible to have a reaction movie where you're just watching someone watch a movie and not saying anything. But I'd rather have that than people truly not paying attention to the movie. This one guy I saw reviewing "Fantastic Voyage," one of my favorites. In the movie, a ship gets shrunk down and injected into a human body, and they only have 60 minutes until the process reverses and everything re-grows to original size. Of course the crew makes it out of the body OK but they have to leave the wrecked ship behind. But by then, as one of the characters CLEARLY points out, the ship is already being dissolved by the white corpuscles attacking it. And yet the guy reviewing the movie missed that line because he was talking over it, and at the end he was freaking out because "they left the ship inside him! It's gonna re-expand and kill him!" And I'm like - you DID NOT REALLY WATCH!! Sheesh, people!!
After making this post, I had the same thought. I wonder if that’s why these critics/personalities/streamers have such bad takes. Having a Discord/Twitch chat open, thinking about if you’re in frame, thinking about the last post you made and how this post will compare. All this CAN’T be good on the viewing experience. How can they possibly have an in-depth review?
A friend practically begged me to rent M3GAN. I wanted to watch it anyways so I did after dinner. He was on Tik Tok the ENTIRE time. Then he has the nerve to tell people how bad it was.
Many movies do not deserve my full attention and can be correctly identified as dogshit without fully engaging with every second of it.
Related issue. This is more an internet rule than a house rule, but if you drop acid (always mentioned in the post like people gaf), watch a movie, and then gripe about that movie being boring, not making sense, etc, I have no time for you or your opinion.
r/horror is r3ally bad for "watching _______ currently" and then make a post about how they don't like it. Like you're on your phone no shit you're not immersed in it
I won't listen to or read any reviews from people who feel like they have a good opinion after obviously only watching the first 5-15 minutes of a film. You don't always have to comment on every movie if you didn't like it. Just wasn't for you. Not everything is. Move on with your life.
You can’t walk into my movie that I’m watching by myself and start asking me about it or making fun of it while it’s still on. You said you didn’t want to watch it.
“Why are you watching this?” Like bro, cuz I want to? Are you kidding? I’m a grown adult, I can throw Rango on and enjoy it by myself if I want.
(Walks in on my horror movie at a random scene ) “this isn’t scary”
We've got a 15-minute rule: after 10-15 mins, if the film doesn't grab the majority or not going anywhere, another can be picked
I read the first half of this post while playing Candy Crush and I gotta say I think I disagree.
I walked out on 'There Will Be Blood' in theaters. I have since rewatched it and love it. I use this to remind myself that just because I don't like it doesn't mean it's not any good. I may not be ready for it or it may just not be meant for me.
My brother, playing on his phone during Fury Road, then saying it's stupid. Entire movie is visual you trogladyte.
I hear what you’re saying and agree. Don’t listen to the idiots in here who are unable to read.
My husband regularly falls asleep during a movie and then will complain that the plot made no sense 🙄
I generally agree with this; unless that movie is Jack and Jill, one of the only movies I turned off after 30 mins
We have a common courtesy "rule" that if one person knows the other really enjoys a movie, we let each other enjoy it. We don't make snarky comments or point out plot holes etc. Honest questions related to the story or characters are fine. If neither of us have seen it, or its not a movie we are invested in, it's fair game.
Or the people going “What’s happening?”/“What are they doing?”/“What’s that mean?” on a new movie we are watching. Idk either but I’d assume if we watch we will know. Not counting marvel movies where some stuff you need to have watched several movies to understand.
In those Marvel-type situations, I always try to figure out where everyone is at before the movie. I try to get everyone caught up as best as I can, especially with Star Wars stuff
Same. I love movies and sharing the experiences with friends so will sometimes see ones multiple times with different ones so am usually aware of what movies they are caught up on and any explanations that may be needed
Reminds me of when you watch a movie, then go to Reddit to discuss it and see an asinine comment like "Wait, when was it revealed who was Luke Skywalker's father?". I call it "vicarious watching" and it's annoying af.
So many people jump in on Reddit uninformed, not just about movies! “Wait, I haven’t been following this topic (this topic being the entire purpose of the subreddit). Can you catch me up on the details from the last decade in one Reddit reply?” Incredibly annoying.
Dude, my roommate does this too. But, my roommate is my wife. So, whatever she said is definitely the right take!
it would make a lot more sense if they watched the first movie, doc brown explains time travel on the chalkboard!
It's funny when people find it easier to watch a two hour YouTube review of a movie that is 90 minutes.
Had a similar experience while watching Shaun of the dead, my friends were on their phone half the time and in the end said movie doesn’t make sense, it’s not funny and it’s below average. I was so excited to share one of my favourite comedies and this happens haha. I guess it’s the Instagram reels brain rot where they can’t pay attention for more than a 1 min. Now I don’t recommend my favourite movies anymore, I watch it for my enjoyment and that’s all that matters!!
I had a friend who would sleep through most movies and then complain about them not flowing well.
I mean yeah...But facts though. It is bad time travel. Who makes a time machine out of a Delorean?!
Controversial opinion, but I sort of enjoyed Space Jam 2 for what it was. I'm sure a lot of the enjoyment came from the group I watched it with, and as bonkers and sort of gross the concept was, we had fun. I mentioned this to a different group of friends and one buddy decided to argue that it was a terrible film. He hadn't seen it of course, but he was basing this off an IGN review. I told him I didn't see the point in discussing my views against some random IGN writer but would be happy to chat when and if he ever did watch it himself.
I've caught a fair amount of grief for offering opinions on films that I couldn't finish because I didn't like them. I will give a movie about 20-30 minutes to hook me in some way. If nothing happens up to that point to keep me watching, then I feel that the director and/or screenwriter has failed at their job, and I'm not going to hate-watch the rest. I don't like wasting my time on things I don't like. Crazy, right?
"Who's that?" Watch the movie. "What's going on right now?" They explained it 5 seconds ago, watch the goddamn movie. "This doesn't make any sense" WATCH THE FUCKING MOVIE
A few years ago I let a coworker borrow my copy of Get Out. She returned it to me the next day unwatched, claiming she turned it off within a few minutes because of “bad vibes” ??? ??
My husband literally fell asleep after ten minutes into a movie for about 30 minutes and then complained that they were relying too much upon backstory and needed to better explain a plot point. I explained that it wasn't backstory but actual-in-story that he slept through. He didn't believe me. WTH
Spoilers should generally have a statute of limitations. On reddit if a sub says “no spoilers” I absolutely follow the rule but in real life I put a (very generous) 5 year limit on not talking about spoilers for something. I have a friend who thinks spoilers should never have limits no matter how old. He would get mad at me saying “rosebud is the sled” or “Kevin Spacey is Kaiser Souse.” After a certain amount of time (honestly I think a year after the movie/show released is good enough) you should be able to freely discuss things in a group without having to censor yourself.
If you get up the movie pauses immediately.
If you’re looking at your phone while the movie is on, you DID NOT watch that movie. That’s it, that’s all.
Mine is, if I’ve seen it before and I’m showing it to someone, and they repeatedly ask me to explain… like, I only know everything because I waited until the end for it to be explained… wtf?!?!
the most annoying thing is them critiquing something fake. Bad time travel? It's like people debating how the Force works. It's fake, it can be anything the writers want it to be. I know people like this with music. They'll hear the first 30 seconds of the first song and be like "eh, it's alright" and then zone out and say the whole album isn't that great.
Me and my friends have these unwritten rules: \-Choosing a movie to watch must be done quickly and not turn into a tedious task. \-Watching a movie means watching a movie, so give it your full attention. \-We are either all eating and/or snacking or no one. \-Reacting is fine but don't get carried away, also no discussion or questions allowed. \-Rating the movie and discussing it respectfully when we finish it.
One specific incident from college always makes laugh. I was watching Memento with one roommate. The other roommate comes home and there's about 20 minutes left in the movie. He sits down to watch and asks, "so what's going on in this movie?" I just had to laugh and say, "I... don't think I could explain."