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See The Movie
by
Tom Maguire
9 May 2004
The release of Van Helsing this week brings
to mind a defining moment in my movie going history. I distinctly remember
in the summer of 1990 I highly recommended Darkman to
a coworker of mine. For me it was a huge release because it was the first
new film from Sam Raimi, bringer of all things Evil Dead. I saw it three
times in the theater, bought the movie posters (the teaser and
regular no less), and picked up the score by Danny Elfman to complete
my geek trifecta. Several days later my friend from work approached me
and said he took his girlfriend to the movie on my recommendation and
that he was embarrassed (embarrassed!) by the film and was forced to apologize.
I wasn't too concerned about the embarrassing the girlfriend part as he
seemed able to get any girl he wanted to sleep with him but how dare he
not revere Darkman as the triumph of filmmaking it was!
Had he not heard the radio ads and seen the televised commercials taunting
us with the question "Who Is Darkman?" Did he not know the genius
of cinematic style that is Sam Raimi, the greatest living low budget horror
director of our time and how this film was his calling card for larger
scale Hollywood productions? The nerve! Anyway this incident scarred me
for life as from that point on I stopped recommending films to people.
My terse response now to anyone asking if they should go see a particular
film is to say that I either liked it or didn't like it but that they
should see it for themselves because in the end, my opinion is worthless.
As is everyone else's. Unfortunately there is an entire industry built
around the exact opposite of this theory and it's employees are called
"Movie Critics." Now no one says you're supposed to listen to
these "critics" or their "reviews" but people invariably
do. And now thanks to the internet you can find out what even less qualified
people than critics have to say about the latest releases. Those people
are called the public.
What's this have to do with Van Helsing? Well against the advice of almost everyone I just wanted to go see it . "Oh that's supposed to suck," or "Oh that got really bad reviews," are the most common responses. Do I have any illusions that Van Helsing is going to be a classic? No. Do I even think it's going to be any good. No. That's not the point. I know exactly what to expect from a movie like this, I just want to see it and judge for myself. If I avoided every movie that somebody didn't like I would have never seen a movie in my life. I can't avoid bad movies, they're all around me. But if I don't want movies ruined for me I can try to avoid other peoples opinions and reviews. For me, seeing a bad movie is preferable to sitting at home online reading reviews of bad movies. First, there is always the possibility of seeing something you like but no one else does. Second, if you are interested in the process of filmmaking you can't learn anything from reading bad reviews. But you can learn from going to see bad movies. Seeing a movie with an audience is the only true way to gauge a genuine reaction. Feeling an audience squirm and get restless says more about whether a film works than any review ever will. So listen to me when I say don't listen to anyone else.
Later:
Post movie thoughts - It sucked. And I'm glad I saw it.
tm
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