To Erik: Are there types of movies you just avoid completely?
Yeah, bad ones. ...well, okay, that's not really true, but I will give you an honest answer.
There are two types of movies I never really understood the purpose of. One is the "disaster porn" movie, usually made by Roland Emmerich. The other is the "slasher" genre, but more specifically the horror "rape and revenge" genre.
Regarding the former, I guess I just don't get what's so appealing about seeing the world come to an end over and over and over. Now, before anybody thinks I took this mentality after a particularly notable moment in American history just over thirteen years ago, I never got this. I'll admit, I got sucked a bit into Independence Day, but a) it had aliens, and b) it had Will Smith, and at that point in his career he couldn't really do any wrong.
But there are questions that spring up to mind every time I see one advertised that I can just never shake out of my head.
"Why is it fun to watch billions of people across the planet die?"
"Why is it fun to sit in a theater and think "gee, there's a pretty good chance I and everybody I know in that movie universe is now dead?""
"Why can't they ever get the science right? I mean, seriously, a nuclear bomb thrown at the sun?"
Now, there have been a few exceptions. As I said, I did see Independence Day, and that involved every major city (and yet, none in China or India, go figure) getting bombed out. I also saw Deep Impact, but that seemed to be less of a "disaster movie" and more of a "how do you spend the time you have left" story. I also really enjoyed Knowing, but that was more about the fact that it took the time to also closely examine the "is everything really preordained" question. Those are the three I enjoyed.
The ones I didn't enjoy were Godzilla (the American one with Matthew Broderick), Twister, War of the Worlds, and a bunch of others.
But I couldn't bring myself to watch 2012, The Day After Tomorrow, The Core, Battle: Los Angeles, or a lot of the other more modern disaster porn films. How many times can you see New York take it on the chin to represent the death of humanity? How many times can you watch thousands of imaginary CG people burn/explode/get crushed/drown before you have to start wondering about your own mental health?
As for the "rape and revenge" plots, I'm not saying they can't be done well. Kill Bill was, essentially, a version of this, and it was well made. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Pulp Fiction, and quite possibly one of the finest pieces of cinema ever created, Red Sonja.
But now it seems Hollywood just enjoys making the movies as graphic and horrible as possible. The Last House On The Left, I Spit On Your Grave (1 and 2), and so many others just seem to revel in the amount of torture the characters can deliver onto other people.
The Death Wish movies faced a similar problem when they came out. Anybody who read the book knows that it's supposed to point out how terrible vigilante justice is, and how it shouldn't be used. The movies completely turned that on its head and had Charles Bronson appear to be the manliest, toughest guy in the world who we should all cheer for.
Although, by the last film, you'd think he'd have gotten everybody guilty by then.
Anyway, any time I look at a movie trailer for a film that fits either of those two genres, I find myself having to force myself to get at all excited over the fact it's even going to exist. It has to be something truly unique, creative, or do something else imaginative to get my interest.
Or just take place in the 90's and have Will Smith. You know, before Wild, Wild West came out.
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