I try to go into any movie without any excess baggage. I walked into The Descendants and Rise of the Planet of the Apes with about the same mindset. I like the film itself to form an opinion, rather than me forcing my own feelings on the film.

I go into every movie with an open mind, but it has to give my brain something worth chewing on in the first ten or fifteen minutes or so, or i'll end up picking it apart the whole time, starting with "This movie still doesn't have a plot that I can see..."

Very rarely can a film shake me out of that nitpicky mindset once it's kicked in.

I watch every movie assuming I'll enjoy it on some level and try to take the movie on its own terms. I'd rather be pleasantly surprised than disappointed, so I try to avoid expecting much. My biggest disappointments come from hearing that a movie is getting great reviews and then finding it doesn't gel for me.

When I was in Titanic 3D the other day, they ran a trailer for Prometheus but I closed my eyes, as it's a film I want to see anyway, but want to be surprised. I've been avoiding all press about it

But for normal movies, an enticing trailer and a good Rotten Tomato meter rating (say, over 70%) is sufficient...

After "Epic Movie", I learned, the hard way, that a trailer can be ever so deceiving. The trailer made the film(IMO, gents) look funny as hell. The trailer shots, however, were the only funny things about it, and put into context, not as much as the trailer led me to believe.

After that, I've pretty much gone into a film knowing as little as possible about it, or remembering watching the trailer, but not exactly what it was about.

Take "How to Train Your Dragon", for instance. I went in knowing NOTHING about it. I didn't even know the damn thing was animated(I'll have you know I pirated it, which explains the latter). All I had was a title.
I've since purchased it on blu-ray, and started my own little project to re-dub it, since my son wanted to see the Norwegian version of it, which sucks.

My point is, though, I try to go in knowing as little as possible, to ensure I won't be disappointed, but rather pleasantly surprised, or at least entertained.

It usually works.

Did you just hotlink an image that doesn't allow hotlinking?

[DORKMAN EDIT: Shut up you.]

Last edited by Dorkman (2012-04-30 06:03:46)

I go into a movie fully invested for 8 minutes.  Those first 8 minutes the movie can do no wrong, it can be whatever it wants, do whatever it can.  I make absolutely no judgments for 8 minutes.  After that it's gotta start doing something or else my mood will sour, and it becomes increasingly hard to win me over.  Now, this is a much wider net than it may seem.  I'm not saying story beats need to perfectly be laid out, or that a fat dude has to fall off a chair, or all the cars have to explode.  But it has to give me an idea for the ride Im in for, intro characters that do something of note, or pique my curiosity in some way.  People vary in their opinions of Inglorious Basterds, but the first 8 minutes worked for me.  Sleeping Beauty (the new one with the chick from Sucker Punch) is a pretty slow paced movie comprised mostly of one'ers, but something drew me in.  Compare that to a movie like Enter the Void which completely face rapes you with its credits for 2 minutes, before going on (an admittedly well done) DMT trip for 8 minutes.  We're at 24 minutes in before anything actually happens, and all the badass jib shots and neon psychedelia couldn't save it for me.

A great example of the 8 minute rule?  Officer and a Gentleman.  By the time the title comes up you have the main characters back story, his motivation, and an idea of where we're heading.

Enter the Void's credit sequence.

Last edited by Eddie (2012-04-29 16:43:54)

I'm a confusing person and honestly could not articulate well the reason why. I can trace it back to high school were my friends would be like, "Dude, this CD/movie/video game/whatever is soooo cool! You have to try it!" and I would be, "Maybe." The more they pushed, the more I became more "Whatever" about it. So, I just must need to rebel against something and it is the movie industry, I don't know 
I'll admit I don't like change, but if I discover the movie on my own and enjoy it, then that is fine. I didn't go to see Fellowship of the Ring in theaters and saw Two Towers with absolutely no information on the movie save for passing conversation with a friend. On the other hand, I watched Chronicle of Riddick in the theater and loved it from the opening scene, so my tastes are perhaps off kilter from others.

BUT YOU HAVE TO

RIGHT NOW, STOP WHAT YOU'RE DOING AND WATCH THEM

If I keep doing this long enough, Dorkman will never see anything.

It doesn't work with stuff I already intended to see.

SO THERE

By the way, I'm totally the most pushy person I know about stuff I think others would like/should see. So I'm just a big ol' hypocrite.

/everyone go watch JACKIE BROWN right now

Unfair as it may be, the movie is tied to my predictive abilities. I paid to go see Green Lantern, but I had a good idea that it was gonna suck hard. It did, and the Jack Daniels helped make for a good time. Everyone's happy. The Artist was supposed to be great, but it wasn't. So I rate it worse than I might have going in with zero expectations. So it's a sliding scale, what I give a film walking in.

As rtambree said, I paid money. And while I take advertising with a grain of salt, if you bill yourself as a comedy you damn sure better make me laugh.