Do you ever watch a film, coming in with low expectations because of the poor reviews, but once you watch it, your expectations have been completely overturned?
I’ve noticed that this has happened to me a lot. It’s as if the reviews and the hype surrounding a film are based on cinematic standards that are different from mine. If a reviewer opines that a film is awful, what are they basing that off of? Perhaps they are just nitpicking certain scenes, such as a line of dialogue, or the way a character said something. Perhaps there are plot holes in the story or undeveloped storylines. Or perhaps the special effects and CGI aren’t up to their standards. The list can go on and on.
But standards have to be aligned with the genre the film belongs to. An action film or a sci-fi film doesn’t need to be an award winning film. And vice versa: a drama doesn’t need to have a lot of action, CGI or special effects. The expectations have to be aligned with the genre a film is in.
All of us have our own standard for what we define as being comedic, exciting, dramatic, intense, etc. Each of us focuses on certain things like dialogue, cinematography, and acting. Some people might overemphasize certain categories, and if one of those categories fail, the film could be judged negatively as a result.
In the end, we have to watch a film to have our own assessment of it. We cannot rely on the judgment of others. There isn’t an objective measure for something like this, although there are statistical averages that give us an idea of what many people think. But do our opinions always fall into the average? Of course not.
We can read the reviews to get a gauge of whether we might like a film or not, but in the end, it’s just a gauge. Our assessment of a film centers on what we take away from the experience.
Fallton Havenstonne 