The Curious Case of Zombie Movie-go-ers.

After reading multiple reviews on Variety, IMDB, and many more entertainment websites, I went into christmas day with high expectations.  Unfortunately though, I did not come out of the theatres with the same enthusiasm.  Now I have not seen all of this seasons “Oscar” worthy movies, but the trend that I am speaking of does not only pertain to these particular movies.  It has been somethins that I have noticed for years and I feel as if I must speak about it.  Some may say that I am pasimistic, but I believe that I have higher expectations than others.

The Curious Cse of Benjamin Button is one of this seasons most hyped movies.  Based of a F. Scott Fitzgerald short and boasting a cast of Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, I believed that this movie was sure to live up to its reputation.  However, when the movier opened to an old woman lying in a hospital bed, being read a story from her former lovers diary, I knew I was duped once again.  It only got worse, with countless cliches, a long drawn out story, and an eerily similar storyline of Forest Gump.  To make matters worse, I came home to find out that Eric Roth wrote both screenplays!  Besides for the main character and the bus bench being swapped for a hospital bed, I saw almost no difference.  He even threw in a few historical moments, exactly as he did in Gump, including JFK’s “A Day That Will Live in Infamy” speech, The Beatles on American Bandstand, and launches from Cape Canaveral (though they were in the Florida Keys…Curious how they saw the launch from so far away…).  And the corniest of all was that they set this movie during Hurricane Katrina, in order to jerk a few more cheap tears out of people.  Critics said that the length of te movie was acceptable, becaus it was able to hold your interest, but I had to catch myself from falling asleep several times.  I do not agree with these critics, nor do I believe this movie was Oscar worthy, which brings me to my next point.

As I walked out of the theatre, I saw a line of almost one-hundred people (mind you this is christmas day at 6 pm).  The hype of this movie had drawn such large crowds, but admittedly, I was one of these people.  But, I also heard others ranting and raving about how great the movie was.  I believe that these are “Zombies,” because they just want to seem sophisticated and like movies that are “supposed” to win Oscars.  There was no chance that they would not like the movie, because they had made up their mids even before they saw the movie.  It happened with this movie and others (most notably The Dark Knight).  I wish people could break free from this and form opinions for themselves.

Unfortunately, this also works the other way.  Another movie that I saw on Christmas was Valkyrie.  My friends and I went into this movie knowing that the critics were not impressed and that Tom Cruise is a maniac.  However, from the first scene to the last, I could not control my heart rate and had to calm myself down at certain points.  The movie was able to keep me on the edge of my seat from start to finish, even though I already knew the outcome.  Still, I was left wondering and hoping that Cruise would be able to pull of his impossible mission (no pun intended).  I felt he was able to capture his bad-ass-ed-ness that he had lost since Top Gun and resembled Jerry McGuire when making phone calls.  I know that is a bold call, but it what I truly believe.  I understand that they did not show enough Nazi’s who were actually evil, but I do not care.  It was NOT Schindler’s List.  It may not quite be an Oscar worthy film, but I was extremely impressed.  On the other hand, my friends once again went with the critics and hated the movie.

I am not trying to be different for the sake of being different, rather I am following my heart, rather than listening to critics.  I wish more people would do this and not fall into the trap so many others do.  Critics are not there to tell us what to think, rather to assist us in deciding which movie to go to on a Friday night or to point out a few things we may have missed in a film.  Allow yourself to give the final rating on a movie and do not let others do it for you.