canoli2006
Member
Phantom Menace is overrated. And so are The Beatles.
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
'The 10 Most Overrated Films of All Time'
- Thread starter ComputerMKII
- Start date
- Status
There are a lot of adjectives thrown at the Star Wars prequels. "Overrated" is not one of them.
Ninja Scooter
Member
Avatar should be number 1 by a mile.
Mutanthands
Member
Ok, now I'm going to be sick, from shaking my head so much.
PSYCHOHYZACK
Member
2001 was also the first Kubrick film I ever saw and I remember wanting to kill myself at how long the shot was of the astronaut floating through the air when HAL attacks him. Then I watched his other films and understood that you either submit to his style and pace or you can go kick rocks that I started to really appreciate him. They grow quite a bit on repeat viewings once you know what you're in for. Once I understood what kind of director he was I realized that the actors might as well be props.
Romars202129
Member
I feel like Clockwork Orange and Apocalypse Now are required viewing material for anyone that considers themselves a film buff... even considering they didn't enjoy 2001. I'd try them, the pacing is faster and the characterization much stronger.
That...isnt Kubrick
Romars202129
Member
Right, I was confusing it with Full Metal Jacket. Excuse the brainfart.
And to add the point, The Shining is awesome too... didn't realize that was a Kubrick...
I think it's even better than the book, which I just finished a couple weeks ago. Because Kubrick goes for something Stephen King clearly shied away from, plot wise.
Nose Master
Member
Departed is pretty bad.
I try not to use it as such, but with 2001 I really can't think of a better adjective. It's technically a masterpiece of effects and cinematography, while being bogged down by a weaponized version of Kubrick's film editing.
I understand that there are many ravenous fans of this film that believe it's the only Sci-Fi masterpiece, so I understand how it could be taken as a insult.
Yep, I totally get that, but that leaves the audience with the dissonance of having to feel empathy for a psychopathic disembodied voice while feeling nothing when Dave's astronaut buddy bites the dust.
Kubrick probably wanted his audience to feel uncomfortable with the idea of relating with a computer though... either way, HAL is the most interesting regardless of act. Even the normal (mostly) humans in Act 2 are cardboard cutouts when we should have had some reason to care about them and what they were doing.
That's a very minor complaint for me however, compared to the pacing and languishing style.
Tastes are one thing, but general knowledge?
Brainfart excused.
Also, The Shining is my favorite Kubrick film, in spite of all it's flaws.
What makes you think an encounter with other intelligent life would be at all anthropomorphic and not strange as hell? Or that 2001 isnt optimistic?
Anthropomorphism is one of the biggest problems with sci fi.
It was a B-tier procedural with Sean Penn and Tim Robbins hamming their way through every scene with awful Boston accents.
plasmawave
Banned
Videodrome feels super out of place on that list.
Like wut? Couldn't they have found a more worthy movie on the list?
Like wut? Couldn't they have found a more worthy movie on the list?
Oh hey look at this lazy ass ad hominem.
I'm not concerned, specifically, with the alien encounter. I'm concerned with the non-anthropomorphic advancement of human society. Kubrick and Clarke clearly have a certain disdain for what humanity has done with technology, on the surface, but it seems under that they are marking human advancement through alien intervention which also gives a pessimistic view of human ingenuity.
2001's optimism comes in the form of a spiritual encounter with alien life, not in the idea of humanities expansion throughout the solar system via scientific advancement.
PSYCHOHYZACK
Member
Once I figured out that Kubrick didn't give a fuck about his human characters, I realized that I didn't have to either and that wasn't what I should be focusing on. As I said in an earlier post, the characters might as well be part of the set.
As for the pacing, I can understand that. Either it works for you or it doesn't.
Really? I found the film deeply pessimistic. Every time we encounter the monolith, killing and violence ensues. There's no doubt in my mind that that space baby at the end wouldn't be any different.
BattleMonkey
Member
Random list.
Buy yes Living Daylights is the superior Bond film
Buy yes Living Daylights is the superior Bond film
Ugh
A human advanced in either way would be closer to the star child then we are. And so what if they have a pessimistic view of humans? There is a lot to be pessimistic about. Much of our sci fi is pessimistic or ambivalent about us and technology.
Romars202129
Member
Oh, he got me, lol.
OldKentuckyShark
Member
Of the 3 movies on the list that I've seen, I disagree with two of them. I personally loved inception, and it is by no means an average, mediocre film. I also fail to see how the Departed is overrated.
Slumdog millionare I kinda agree with. It's still a good movie, but I do think it's a little overrated.
Slumdog millionare I kinda agree with. It's still a good movie, but I do think it's a little overrated.
It's cool I wasn't necessarily trying to implicate you as using it as an insult. I just sometimes get overly mad at things like this article using it as such, which I think is the biggest problem of the whole thing, rather than its choices.
I don't care what you all say inception is great. Watched this video and my mind was blown.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ginQNMiRu2w
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ginQNMiRu2w
Delta Assault
Member
Yeah, I just... I believe in assessing movies on a first viewing. I think that's the correct way to judge a movie, even if they may be enjoyed more on repeat viewings. This is because when you think about it, movies used to just be shown in theaters for a limited amount of time, before leaving and never returning. Back in the old days, there were no TV reruns or VHS or DVD or streaming services, so people would usually get to watch a movie once in the theater before they left forever. So that first viewing is paramount, and if a movie doesn't grab you there, then I do believe it has failed.
And the funny thing is, I actually really love the novelization of 2001 by Arthur C Clarke. I'm a big scifi buff, so Clarke's stuff was what I latched onto at an early age. And the 2001 story in that novel is really epic and interesting and grand. It deals with these huge cosmic ideas that you rarely think about because they span the length of human existence and I really love it. It's partly why I enjoy Contact so much, because that's another movie that deals with those same concepts.
I just think that Kubrick took that story and tortured the life out of it, to the point where it's almost unwatchable.
CharminUltra
Member
This is just wrong.
Jason's Ultimatum
Member
Bourne Ultimatum safe from the list. Fuck off, Skyfall.
TDK is only rated highly on GAF tho.
Everywhere else people realize it's just an okay crime movie.
1000 Branches
Banned
Agreed with Inception, Skyfall, and Slumdog Millionaire. The hyperbole surrounding these films is ridiculous, I mean, give me a break.
Interfectum
Member
The Departed should not be on that list.
As for the rest? Not bad prolly...
As for the rest? Not bad prolly...
CharminUltra
Member
Vertigo > Rear Window 
But Rear Window > Psycho, which I don't like as much as the book.
But Rear Window > Psycho, which I don't like as much as the book.
LOL ok
Dreams-Visions
Member
Gonna have to disagree about Slumdog. Their analysis of the film is pretty shallow and vapid, honestly. "OMG it's about a quiz show" misses the entire concept of the fucking film. The quiz show as simply the centerpiece that brings all of these other things together and is otherwise immaterial. It could have been anything, so long as it offers a reason to recall all of these memories of events that form the story.
If they wanted to add an Oscar-winner, they could have gone with Crash, Avatar, Zero Dark Thirty.
If they wanted to add an Oscar-winner, they could have gone with Crash, Avatar, Zero Dark Thirty.
TDK is seen as the best super hero movie by a large portion of people.
Why the hell is Network on this list?
I fully expected this to be a list comprised of movies from the 50s and 60s with arguments like "It hasn't aged well, therefore it sucks" I've only seen Inception and I'll agree that while I love it, it is a bit overrated at this point
I honestly thought you were being serious for a second
Romars202129
Member
It's not wrong, the answer to not enjoying a film isn't to watch it until you like it.
I'd say it's more about how you go into that first viewing, you have to tear down all your expectations and go in with an open mind. Only right way to do it.
Vertigo > Rear Window
But Rear Window > Psycho, which I don't like as much as the book.
I don't have a problem with that opinion.
For me personally, Rear Window gets better with rewatch. Especially after you've watched a multitude of shit films.
Vertigo is up there though, I love my psych thrillers. (Lol Inception)
PSYCHOHYZACK
Member
I agree. In the second viewing I understood what I was in for more than anything. I feel like for a lot of movies expectations account for a lot. It also doesn't hurt that I first say 2001 when I was 12, and it was so unlike anything that I had ever seen that I didn't know what to make of it.
Home video existed before I was even born. I really don't feel the need to artificially judge it by some 1950s standard that has no real relation to my time.
lazybones18
Banned
I don't see Gone With the Wind on the list
LIST INVALIDATED
LIST INVALIDATED
CharminUltra
Member
Judging or dismissing movies based on a single viewing is exponentially more absurd, any way you slice it, considering that people can change their mindset or mood over time, or that a film could actually be designed with multiple viewings in mind, etc.
Truly a stupefying and narrowminded idea.
Somehow I am skeptical of this claim. I'm not sure I believe you hold ultimate answer to the eternal question of "How to watch a movie the right way?" Just a hunch.
- Status