Movies that You Liked at First Viewing But then Began to Hate

[Mal12345]

Re: Peacebaby's thread on the opposite side of this topic, it has never been the case for me that I disliked a movie at first but then started to see its good points.

I did however get caught up in the excitement over Independence Day. I awaited this movie with high expectations, loved every minute of my first, second, third, fourth viewing. Now for some reason I can't stand that movie. I hate everything about it. I own the VHS version and now I regret wasting my money. I want to blow that tape up with an H-bomb, and then spread its atomized components throughout the galaxy. I hate it even more than George Lucas hates the original undigitized version of the Star Wars trilogy, and that's saying quite a bit.

I do however respect Independence Day for avoiding the trope of all the bad guys impotently falling to the ground just because the mother ship (or other evil source) blows up. For the latest example of this trope, The Avengers. Are the alien invaders remote controlled in that movie? Or did they suddenly just become severely depressed and lose interest in living? If they are remote controlled, then how did this work? Was it related to some god-like powers beyond all human compression? If they are god-like, then how were they so easily defeated by us uncomprehending humans? Moreover, how did Ironman survive the rigorous vacuum of outer space? Is his suit air-tight like a space suit? Then how does he breathe? And what force drew him back to Earth, since he was obviously beyond the reach of Earth's gravitational field at that point in the movie?

As for ID4: How did the African natives defeat their own alien ship problem? Did they gang up and chuck spears into the alien battleship's 'primary weapon' as soon as the weapon hatch opened up? And if so, how did they know to do this, as they had no ability to receive the telegraphed instruction manual on "how to defeat the alien invaders" that was sent out by the Americans? Did the African ship self-destruct in a fit of despair over losing its mother ship? Then why didn't the other alien ships around the world do this, but had to be defeated through the kamikaze tactic? And where did other countries get the nuclear capability to use this tactic, particularly unarmed Japan where they undoubtedly would have had thousands of volunteers rushing to go out in a blaze of glory to save the motherland?

But these aren't reasons to hate ID4, they are only excuses to hate it. I hate it for its lame characters played by Goldblum and Fierstein (the latter thankfully died off early in the movie, which is a point in its favor). Will Smith did a fine acting job portraying himself, as he does in all his movies, although I doubt that even Will could defeat one of those aliens simply by punching it in its - is that a face? - area. Bill Pullman rose to the task and gave a fine, rousing patriotic speech at the end, the sort of thing we'd all like to see from our presidents at least occasionally. And ID4 did influence the creation of one of the funniest pictures I've seen in all my time on the internet:

 

[EffEmDoubleyou]

No matter how this thread goes, that picture will be reason enough for it to ever have existed. Bravo. I feel like punching an alien.

 

[EffEmDoubleyou]

I actually thought of a movie, too. The Breakfast Club.

I think most of the time when people like a movie at first and then come to dislike it, it's because the first time through it just washes over you, but then subsequent viewings start to make you think about how the movie is constructed.

I should preface this by saying that I love John Hughes movies and Sixteen Candles is probably in my top 10 of all time, so I'm not just a hater of this kind of movie. It's THIS movie. The first time I watched it, I was probably 16 or so and I had a giant crush on Molly Ringwald and found it easy to identify with the nerd. So I liked it. But I soon came to hate the way it not only embraced stereotypes, but built a whole movie around them. I know that the point was to have the movie start with easy stereotypes and then by the end have you realize that people are multidimensional. But the movie actually reinforced the stereotypes; whenever a character behaved in a manner inconsistent with their given stereotype, it rang false. I suppose there is an argument to be made that this is because movies have ingrained in us the consistency of one-dimensional characters, but I reject that argument. It's up to the filmmaker to make behavior ring true.

Also, Judd Nelson's fist pump at the end is probably the single most cringe-inducing scene I've ever witnessed. I want to punch that character in the face. Repeatedly.

 

[Epiphany]

I liked Independence Day when it first came out...although I was 12 at the time. I didn't know any better. It was on tv the other day. He pronounces Earth correctly.

 

[Mal12345]

Disprove it? What was it trying to prove?

'Disprove' wasn't the word I was looking for. Neither are these Droids.

 

[OrangeAppled]

I liked Independence Day when it first came out...although I was 12 at the time. I didn't know any better

A lot of movies would fall under this for me... when you get older your taste changes & refines of course.

I'm still easy to entertain, but hard to reach. Once the initial entertainment rubs off, then I tend to see little value in a lot of movies. But I rarely go from loving to hating now.

Oh I liked the Austin Powers movies & the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, although I didn't love them & probably only saw them twice each or so. Now I'd rather never see them again.

Oh, I liked Moulin Rouge, but I couldn't get through it now. It's a mess.

 

[Mal12345]

A lot of movies would fall under this for me... when you get older your taste changes & refines of course.

As I get older, my tastes do change and refine. Others however are not so lucky. When they reach adolescence they stop liking forms of entertainment such as Barney. But then their tastes never move beyond the adolescent level.

 

[Such Irony]

Titanic

 

[Mal12345]

Titanic

Why? Because its smarmy plot has such a poor basis in history?

 

[Mal12345]

Movie genres that I once liked have now gone by the wayside. The whole action-hero genre has gone the way of other childhood things. Perhaps there is some dissatisfaction with portraying them with real actors in physical settings where the laws of nature are more apparent. If Spider-man's wall-climbing ability comes through his hands and feet, then why doesn't the Spidey costume interfere with this? The reality of the movies brings this out. If I watched Spidey in a cartoon or video game, I wouldn't bother to question it because it's just a cartoon or video game.

I watch some of them now out of a sense of nostalgia or commitment, for the same reason that I continue to watch these bad Star Wars movies.

 

[Ivy]

I am so confused. I moved some posts out into a new thread about racism and memes and whatnot. PLEASE do not continue the hostility in that thread or either of these others. (I just realized there are two threads, "movies you thought you hated" and "movies you thought you liked" or something.)

CIVIL discussion about whether certain memes are racist or not can continue here:

http://www.typologycentral.com/foru...reotypes-memes-racism-oh-my-split-thread.html

 

[burymecloser]

Gladiator. I liked it the first two or three times I watched it. The most recent time, I could not get over how many logic problems and plot holes there were. I don't know why I suddenly decided it was too stupid to tolerate.

Peter Jackson's The Return of the King. On first viewing, I was struck by the beautiful scene with the lighting of beacons to aid Minas Tirith. At this point, I don't even remember any other reasons I might not have hated this movie. I think Fellowship is the least bad of the trilogy, mostly for the scenes in The Shire at the beginning.

So I Married An Axe Murderer. I actually own this on DVD. It has one awesome scene (Head! Paper! Now!) surrounded by a bunch of others that mostly fall flat.

I awaited this movie with high expectations, loved every minute of my first, second, third, fourth viewing. Now for some reason I can't stand that movie. I hate everything about it.

This is one of the times I'm glad no one on this forum knows me IRL... I love Indepence Day. If I notice it's on tv, I will watch it. Every time. But the first time or two I saw it, I thought, "Meh, okay action movie." I like it MORE now than I did when it came out.

Also, Judd Nelson's fist pump at the end is probably the single most cringe-inducing scene I've ever witnessed.

IMO, it's not even the worst scene in that movie. Ally Sheedy is so interesting and cute through most of the picture, and turning her into a glamour girl was fucking crime. Like, she's all independent and quirky, and then they "fix" her by turning her into fucking Molly Ringwald? (no offense to 16-year-old crushes)

 

[Mal12345]

Gladiator. I liked it the first two or three times I watched it. The most recent time, I could not get over how many logic problems and plot holes there were. I don't know why I suddenly decided it was too stupid to tolerate.

Peter Jackson's The Return of the King. On first viewing, I was struck by the beautiful scene with the lighting of beacons to aid Minas Tirith. At this point, I don't even remember any other reasons I might not have hated this movie. I think Fellowship is the least bad of the trilogy, mostly for the scenes in The Shire at the beginning.

So I Married An Axe Murderer. I actually own this on DVD. It has one awesome scene (Head! Paper! Now!) surrounded by a bunch of others that mostly fall flat.



This is one of the times I'm glad no one on this forum knows me IRL... I love Indepence Day. If I notice it's on tv, I will watch it. Every time. But the first time or two I saw it, I thought, "Meh, okay action movie." I like it MORE now than I did when it came out.

I never thought about how unrealistic the lighting of the beacons is while reading the book. Now that I can actually see the reality of it, I have to ask: you mean there are solitary individuals living on top of mountain peaks, where it is freezing cold, windy, and snowy the entire year, waiting for the opportunity to light a lamp? Where do they get the supplies to live, food to eat, wood to burn to keep warm? Is there enough oxygen up there to breathe? How do they survive the cold in those huts? And where do they find such special people to live 10 - 15,000 feet in the sky?

I don't hate the movie or the series. But the end of Sauron in Return was more spectacular in the book. The actual imagery of Sauron's spirit rising up taller than the Earth itself, leveling a dour finger at the armies of the good, and then being blown away piece by piece by the wind from the West, would have looked spectacular on the big screen. But all Jackson did was have Sauron's tower fall down - for no particular reason, I might add. There was nothing about the destruction of the One Ring that would cause the tower to fall. The scene was well done, but unnecessary.

 

[sleuthiness]

They Live
Could any infp sunglasses at night kid with a silent me-against-the-world plotline resist their reflection in grandpa Roddy. Don't have any feelings one way or another but we'll say I loved it because I am egotistical, though am no longer nor able to write coherently or surprised by the absence of plot development or cool wresting moves.

Decline of the Western Empire
Almendros may have been pulling strings covertly because we've a well-executed, beautifully-shot ensemble and despite the lack of character depth became a fun alternative to Scary Movie ten years ago but I've grown braincells since, in that I can now tell time.

Saving grace: "I always fuck my wife better after I've cheated on her."

A Clockwork Orange
Let's recycle the same great theme 5000x over 2+hours of drawn-out, exaggerated dick jerking. Hip, but who cares?

Lolita
Powerful first hour, though maybe if Kubrick revamped Lolita and Hump's lines so they didn't come off so strikingly one-dimensional after momma cluck cluck dies or straightup cut out the last hour I'd still enjoy this.

Honorable mention: Friedkin's To Live and Die in L.A., in a dimension where the thing remotely matches the intensity of each trailer yet dated enough to earn an F.

 

[Mal12345]

A Clockwork Orange
Let's recycle the same great theme 5000x over 2+hours of drawn-out, exaggerated dick jerking. Hip, but who cares?

I didn't think that movie had a theme. If it appeared 5000 times in 2 hours then it must have zoomed by me.

 

[anti-villain]

I used to love the LOTR movies, and have seen each of them dozens of times. After a while though, I found the amount of pomp throughout the movies to be grating, and haven't been able to watch them since.

 

[Killjoy]

Pretty much all of Tarantino's movies since Death Proof.

 

[Glycerine]

Probably like 98% of the movies I like because I hate rewatching films.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Star Wars prequels. I think this was because I was a rabid fan and I didn't want to admit that, apart from the visuals, they weren't that good.

 

[prplchknz]

parental guidance