"Expectations couldn't be any higher." - Coach Gary Gaines, Friday Night Lights
My friend the other night told me how Contagion wasn't what he expected it to be. He enjoyed the movie, but he was expecting something different from the documentary-like film that was given to us. It made me think of how my expectations for movies has changed over the years. There were movies I would have high expectations for and when those expectations were not met, I was usually disappointed. Nowadays, I have learned to let go of my expectations and just enjoy the show.
Friday Night Lights mentioned above was one of the earliest movies that I remembered that I had high expectations for and those expectations were at least met. When I first saw the teaser trailer, I was pumped. I couldn't wait to see the movie. I even went out and bought the book the movie was based on. And despite knowing how the story ended and seeing the trailer many times, I was still able to enjoy the movie.
Transformers 2 was the most recent and last movie I had high expectations for. I watched the trailer for it so many times, I lost count. The trailer was just full of energy and it got me excited for the movies like all trailers should (but not all of them do). I enjoyed the first Transformers movie and I loved the subtitle of the movie, Revenge of the Fallen. If you're going to make a trilogy, the bad guys need to win in the second movie. When the movie finally came out...needless to say, I was disappointed.
Lessons learned from Transfromers 2:
1. Never have high expectations for a Michael Bay film.
2. Never watch a trailer more than a few times (unless it's based on a book and you've read the book already and know what's going to happen).
3. NEVER have high expectations for a Michael Bay film.
I have a friend, who chooses to not know anything for big tent pole release movies. He doesn't watch previews, TV spots, or read anything about the movie. For example, the Harry Potter movies, he would not read the book until after he saw the movie. I thought I would try out this no-trailer-watching method out on a movie. I had a chance to fully test this method out at the 2010 Sundance film festival where it was very easy to avoid watching or hearing anything about a movie. I saw roughly 32 films, and just about enjoyed most of them but it was probably because I was on an independent film high and it was a nice change from main stream films.
I continued the experiment with a popular film, Iron Man 2 (I actually first tried to experiment with Avatar, but I ended up only watching the trailer once). It is extremely difficult to not watch a trailer for a popular movie because it's usually on the trailer pack for everything you watch. To counter this, I would either have to wait out in the hallway until trailers are done, or I would bring in my headphones and listen to music over certain trailers I didn't want to see. I experimented a few more times with some popular films but in the end, I learned that knowing very little about a film before going in, doesn't make the film any better.
The positives about knowing as little as possible. I enjoy the comedies a little more. Almost all the time, you will find the funniest scenes in the trailer. By not watching the trailer, you're hearing the funniest jokes for the first time. And by not watching a trailer, you can eliminate any possible spoilers that may have been in the trailer.
Today, I still try to avoid trailers as much as possible but when I do see a trailer I really like, I don't watch it a hundred times. This has helped me reduce my expectations for a movie. A lot of the times, a trailer could be misleading. I've seen enough movies to dissect a story and I figure out most movies by the end of the first act, so there's usually nothing that surprises me anymore. Most of the time when I am going into a movie, all I know is the plot and actors and sometimes I don't even know what the plot is. I even try to avoid reviews and other people's opinions when I can.
I finally learned never to have high expectations for a movie. It just sets you up for disappointment. I've learned never to expect what a movie will be like based on a trailer, because trailers can deceive you. I can finally just sit back and let the movie unfold in front of me.
What was the last movie you saw where you had high expectations that were not met? Or it wasn't what you expected?
Oh my, this is a topic we could talk about for days.
ReplyDeleteI guess Another Earth was a movie that I saw the trailers for and was not disappointment when I saw the movie. I liked it more.
On the other hand, I watched everything there was to see about The Tree Of Life and I felt let down by that movie, like I could have gotten the entire point in the trailer.
Oddly, these are both movies I saw with you.
Generally, I will watch trailers and keep it at that. I avoid reviews like the plague, I used to read reviews all the time and it taints (lol, taint) everything. Going in cold works well.
I know this is a blog about movies, but I always suggest that people go into musical theatrical productions having NOT listened to the music prior. SO that could apply to movie musicals. I feel it creates huge expectations. Every musical I've gone into cold, I loved. Rent was one, Aida, Caroline or Change, etc. When I hear the music before, I'm usually less impressed... (Wicked)
Musicals usually are made into movies, lol
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