October 23rd 2009
For the past few years I've been paying quite a bit of attention to the opinions of film critic Mark Kermode. During this period a few films have come and gone that I was really interested to see, but Mark's review somewhat dampened my enthusiasm. I'm wondering whether I would have enjoyed the films more, had I not known, or cared, what he thought of them.
There has certainly been one film that I saw and enjoyed a great deal (Cashback) which Kermode hated. The thing is I saw the film before I heard his review so when I heard the review I was in a good position to disagree. With most films though the review comes first and my viewing of the film is then coloured by the review.
Terminator 4 is a great example. This was the film I had always wanted the Terminator series to get to. It showed a dark and bleak future after the machines had taken over. I was excited about the prospoect of it, excited that Christian Bale was going to be in it, and the trailer did nothing to dissuade me.
When I saw the film though I found it to be boring, light (i.e. it lacked the weight of the original Terminator movie), and uninteresting. The Batman voice got annoying quite quickly as well. In short, I noticed all the things that Kermode had said were wrong with the film. That I left it so long to see was a tribute to that review. I certainly didn't rush out to the cinema to see it.
The question though is this: Would I have enjoyed it more if I wasn't expeting it to be awful?
The same can be asked of Wolverine. Would I have been able to just sit back and watch it, dare I say enjoy it, had I not had the pointlessness of the entire film laid out at my feet? I was certainly aware when I started the film that it was never going to go anywhere, that there would never be any peril, that there was never any emotional connection, and so it proved to be.
It may be that I am becoming more aware of the content of what I am watching, and the fact that I agree with Dr Kermode is just a sign that I understand my reaction to film better, or hold myself to a higher standard of viewing than I used to. But it may also be that I go into the film having vicariously prejudged it and mould my experience to the opinion, instead of deriving the opinion from the experience.
Do you listen to film critics? Do you often disagree with them? Do you think your enjoyment of a film has every been spoiled by knowing a critic thinks it is awful?
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