Another fanboy-targeted movie release, another wave of hate mail sent my way.
To be fair, WWTW has only gotten a few nasty comments for my stinging critique of “Sucker Punch,” the latest feature from Zack (“the next M. Night Shyamalan?”) Snyder.
Here’s a typical example of what this film critic hears when he dares to mock a geek-approved feature:
I’ve not read too many bad reviews that have any sort of legitimacy, and all the pretention [sic] lies on the side of the critics … Get over yourself, and stop taking these types of films so seriously for Chist’s [sic] sake.
Ouch. Did I kick this person’s dog or something?
Uber-nasty feedback usually falls under three categories:
- Disagreeing with a film featuring a strong ideological component
- Claiming that any of the “Twilight” features isn’t, like, the greatest movie of all time and stuff
- Daring to dislike a geek movie (“Scott Pilgrim vs. The World,” “Sucker Punch,” and “Tron: Legacy”)
It’s the latter that leaves me scratching my head. I love trashy horror movies and can sit through even the worst zombie film. Yes, I’m talking about “Survival of the Dead” and “Dead Snow.” But I don’t blow a gasket when those films inspire terrible reviews. Nor do I lose my cool when Mrs. WWTW informs me she’s never seen a “Star Wars” movie and has no plans to right that terrible wrong.
My film interests often overlap with Geek Nation. I grew up collecting comic books and love being transformed back into a 12-year-old by the right geek movie. So I’m genuinely curious – why can’t Comic Con types process a bad movie review?
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{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
I think the “Nerd” factor for many (not all) comic-con fans is raging on steroids. They don’t have girlfriends (some probably have yet to kiss an “icky girl”), they work at Radio Shack or Best Buy hawking computers and game consoles, and they live in their parents basement or if they are lucky, over their parents garages.
Don’t blame them. They have nothing going for them anyways.
Geeks are a kneejerk bunch.
If you’re not collecting a few nasty comments, you’re not doing it right. Kyle revels in his feud with the tween fans of the Jonas Brothers.
Geeks have a pretty strong emotional attachment to the subject of their geekdom, usually because it fills some void in their life (and I say this as a proud member of their caste). So if you question the validity of that subject, you become a heretic, a geek infidel, and are dismissed accordingly.
Been in on the Geek circles and was heavy into the Comic and Gaming groups for over 20 years so I feel your pain. So many geeks are willing to overlook massive flaws in movies and TV series simply because it features their beloved heroes. I could never understand why anyone would pay to see a bad rendition of something we all know that Hollywood could do better if they weren’t so interested in trying to get everyone in the world to like it, which of course means changing the story, origin and even the gender of the original. The response I always hear is “Well they may not make another one if we don’t support this one”. Which led me to respond, so you are rewarding them for making a bad movie and thus insuring they make another bad one since they will think you liked this version. Then the argument begins. You can’t win.
I didn’t want this to be a geek bashing because A. that’s pointless and B. i feel a kinship with GeekNation. The comments above mostly? fit the no-bashing guidelines. Any Geek defenders out there who can explain why they’ve sent a nasty email or comment a critic’s way in the past?
Geeks? What geeks? You’re talking about a bunch of fanboys; they’re not the same thing. Both analyze their various media in terms usually reserved for Shakespeare and Proust, but geeks are sincere, and fanboys are posturing. Fanboys try to shoehorn deep-sounding ideas into things they like, and will eat up any work that name-drops those same deep-sounding concepts; geeks can actually explain the ideas, and quickly lose patience with mere name-dropping.
For example, a geek is a person who knows that the Allegory of the Cave is about the hyper-realism of the Realm of Form (a component of which is the comparative unreality of matter); a fanboy is a person who insists the Cave is perfectly encapsulated in The Matrix.
I believe you can find one reason for the heated comments in the fact that geeks/fanboys/whatever utterly love their geeky movie. So when you don’t like it might feel like a personal attack for some. But that’s only a good guess, and it’s not limited to geeks/fanboys/whatever.
Nevertheless I think that some heated comments are a good sign that the blog is lively and you might have hit a weak spot. Otherwise the comment wouldn’t be necessary.
(Oh man, I still fear the day my Tron review makes its round in the web)
>>Snyder…“the next M. Night Shyamalan?”>>
Ouch, is that harsh. I fully admit Sucker Punch is the weakest of his efforts I’ve seen, but, again, ouch.
Also, judging from the negative assault a very film-astute commenter over at Big Hollywood got for daring to question John Wayne’s acting ability, think it’s fair to say geek and/or fanboys cross all genres.
There’s a big difference between a fan and a fanboy. The latter is distinguished by an uncritical and unsophisticated approach to genre movies and shows, a shallow lack of knowledge of the field they purportedly love and its history (for instance, few of them actually read science fiction or know any top authors beyond, say, Douglas Adams or Neal Stephenson), and will react with extreme hostility against anyone who dislikes what they like, or, contrarily, any who likes what they dislike (hence their mocking of fans of Harry Potter, Twilight, and anyone who might admit that not all movies that appeared on Mystery Science Theater 300 were actually bad).
@EricP
The backlash that person recieved was not from Geeks or Fan boys but from a lot of people who see John Wayne as more than an actor but a representation of the Ultimate American. When you step into a lions den with meat strapped on your back you have to expect to be mauled.
Yeah, Aleric, at least Thomas knew he was going to get mauled. For that alone, I had to give him a +1.