"Classics" that you were underwhelmed by.

[ReservoirAngel]

Pulp Fiction wasn't particularly good. I had to watch it in like 3 sittings cause I couldn't stand sitting through it all at once.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

To Kill a Mockingbird.

It took me a while to actually know who the main character's name is and that she's a girl, and I just wasn't that excited throughout the book. The court case I was interested in, but I don't even think they focused on that too much.

 

[Vault101]

Subject is in the title but I got to say I watched blade runner and........
It was either really boring or I'm really stupid. And I don't think I'm particularly stupid because I have read the entire wheel of time series thus far and you need allot of patience to keep reading book 10.
that aside I don't understand the whole stigma around the movie. I walked in expecting a slow burn but talk about no burn. Instead of you know investigating and stuff he just roams around getting in arguments about philosophy with the replicant girl before very suddenly everyone starts very suddenly getting in gun fights. and then at the end it just ends. I mean the bad guy dies suddenly no kind of personal goal is achieved and the movies over. I walked in with the highest expectations yeah but I still never once enjoyed, was intrigued, liked the characters or anything that would typically constitutes a good movie.
I'm not saying it's a bad movie so don't get angry but I seriously didn't get it.
anyway what classics were you less then fond of.

yeah I also didnt "get" bladerunner I dont think its bad but...wheres the brilliance? instead its more just an hour or so of weirdness in fact I can bearley remember remembering what the hell was going on

but that said after a bit of thinking I guess perhaps the "themes" and/or Ideas of Philip K. Dick (and I guess you could say its an early example of cyberpunk in film) were more groundbreaking back then (the visual style certainly is/was theres no denying that)

so mabye it was so underwhelming because to us its really nothing all that new (except you know...weirdness)

eather way its not hard to see why it didnt do so well at the time

I guess for me S.T.A.L.K.E.R. there are actually alot of good things aboutt he game but really its just not very engaging

Yeah I guess what you say makes sense but still I wish i liked blade runner more than I did. And I like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and for that matter a lot of other Russian games. But hey it's all just opinion right?

dont get me wrong I dont dislike S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (its not like..in my oh so smug and supiror opnion which goes against popular veiw which makes it better..I mean some people act like their opnion is fact because they dare insult somthing popular)

I can see why its considered good and even ground breaking, I just couldnt get into it mainly because of the way the story was presented and the gameplay, I have alot of trouble reading big chunks of text in video games (not in real life however) it was the same with the witcher (not so much text as....wait...what am I doing here again?)

similar thing with AVATAR I dont think its a bad movie...by all logic I should really really like it but I dont because both sides are dicks and I dont like being told how much I suck compared to blue cat people

I didn't like AVATAR because I'd seen it before and it was better the first time. You know when it was still called Dances with wolves.
All right an exaggeration yeah and a far from an original argument but the reasoning still stands. Also I found it way easier to support the humans. Dicks they were but at least I enjoyed them being dicks as opposed to the "I think you should hug more trees" thinly disguised environmental message.

"thinly disguiesed?"

actually I found it more like

"YOU SHOULD NOT DESTROY THE ENVIRONEMNT AND BE RACIST"......mmmmmmkay?

gee how many times have we been told that before...

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

game: dangerous dave...

seriously, who played this crap?

movie: pulp fiction wasnt that great, and probably "the birds"...

Pulp Fiction was brilliantblahrgfkaogjerghairhga!!! Funnily enough, I didn't like it the first time I watched it. Re-watch made all the difference for me.

Game: Half-life 2. But that was purely circumstantial, not the game's fault at all.

Movie: Citizen Kane. Again, my fault. I was expecting something really clever but it felt like something average done to perfection... if that makes sense?

Oh thank god someone feels the same way about Citizen Kane. Beautiful movie yes, but it was slower than molasses in January, and wuite honestly it was boring.

As far as games go (and I'm probably throwing myself to the wolves here) but Final Fantasy VII. One of the most overrated/underwhelming games. But then again, this was mostly just bad timing, mixed with my distaste for JRPG's.

You're free to dislike the game just don't call it overrated. It is definitely not overrated especially seeing the hate it gets. This site is particularly bad for JRPGs if you didn't like JRPGs you weren't going to like it anyway but I digress.

So far I am a little underwhelmed by Half Life. I will finish it and I know it is somewhat open with exploration and doing puzzles but it really needs a minimap or some sort of navigation system other than I hope I am going the right. Although I am sure there is a mod for that.

Other classics would be Quake 2(same sorta problem as HL), Catcher in the Rye and Pulp Fiction and Fight Club(still a good movie and not very deep I understood it on the first run through).

 

[xFullmetalx]

Game:Bioshock-
Movie-Inception
Book-(can't think of any right now)
Music-(can't think of any right now)

How is Inception a classic? I don't think Bioshock is either, but both good in there own right.

 

[xFullmetalx]

We find Half-Life 2 to be the most over-hyped of games.

I agree.

 

[CrazyGirl17]

Some people might hate me for this, but... I never cared much for the "Rocky Horror Picture Show".

I'm sorry, but... I just don't get the appeal of it. I get that it's a spoof of "Frankenstein", but that's just it.

(Ducks into bomb shelter, blocks the entrance with riot shields and sets up a paintball gun)

As someone who loves Rocky Horror, I do think it has a limited appeal. It think it depends on your age when you see it, what kind of background you have and other social/personal factors as to whether it will click with you.

It's a bad movie. It's trashy and cheap and the music isn't all that clever.

But something about who I am appreciates it, and I can watch it endlessly. I saw a stage production a few years back and thought it was equally fantastic.

But don't let anyone make you feel bad for hating it. I know fans of most anything will get upset if you trash their thing (see: music arguments, console wars, etc.) but Rocky Horror fans are even more fanatical in that respect.

Thanks for the support, I really appreciate it. And frankly, crazy fans scare me. Give us well-meaning fans a bad name...

...As for the movie itself, I do admit really I like the song "The Time Warp", but that's pretty much it.

EDIT: As for "Recent" Classics, I find "Avatar" and "Twilight" to be over-rated and overhyped. And they could have been good, too...

 

[Hemlet]

The most underwhelming gaming classic I've played to date is Zelda: A Link To The Past. Of the ones I've played (1, 2, LttP, OoT, MM, WW, OoS) it is my least favourite. I just can't get into it.

As for movies, I'm inclined to agree with the earlier posters' opinions about Blade Runner. I don't see why it is so highly regarded.

Totally with you on LttP. I can't even really explain why, but that game just annoys the hell out of me.

The one classic that really "underwhelmed" me though was Pride and Prejudice. For some reason or another I've had to read the book multiple times and bear witness to the movies, and my opinion on the book has not wavered. Indeed my opinion has only been driven deeper and deeper into my heart: I hate this goddamn story. It's the characters really. The unlikable, pompous, self-righteous, preachy, useless gits who are supposed to be the characters the reader or audience can relate to.

It's not like I don't get why the story is considered great either, I've had to read the damn thing several times after all. I'm pretty sure I get it: it's a story of manners, clever word play, and it introduced the tropes of the romantic comedy that we get to "enjoy" every summer. All of these reasons are exactly why Pride and Prejudice pisses me right the fuck off. The clever word play and manners amount to page after page of backhanded compliments, pointless polite small talk, and characters pretending to be aloof and uncaring while showing little emotion anyway when they do decide that it's appropriate to show that they give a damn. Plus, thanks to being the progenitor to now well known tropes, we can all tell from the get-go exactly what's going to happen anyway!

TLDR: The women in Pride and Prejudice are a bunch of shrews and harpies sniping at each others reputations, and the men are a bunch of posturing dick heads. It doesn't help that the story is predictable as the sun coming up now, even if it was new and fresh back when it was first released.

 

[xFullmetalx]

Street Fighter 2. I love fighting games but I don't like Street Fighter.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

Subject is in the title but I got to say I watched blade runner and........
It was either really boring or I'm really stupid. And I don't think I'm particularly stupid because I have read the entire wheel of time series thus far and you need allot of patience to keep reading book 10.
that aside I don't understand the whole stigma around the movie. I walked in expecting a slow burn but talk about no burn. Instead of you know investigating and stuff he just roams around getting in arguments about philosophy with the replicant girl before very suddenly everyone starts very suddenly getting in gun fights. and then at the end it just ends. I mean the bad guy dies suddenly no kind of personal goal is achieved and the movies over. I walked in with the highest expectations yeah but I still never once enjoyed, was intrigued, liked the characters or anything that would typically constitutes a good movie.
I'm not saying it's a bad movie so don't get angry but I seriously didn't get it.
anyway what classics were you less then fond of.

yeah I also didnt "get" bladerunner I dont think its bad but...wheres the brilliance? instead its more just an hour or so of weirdness in fact I can bearley remember remembering what the hell was going on

but that said after a bit of thinking I guess perhaps the "themes" and/or Ideas of Philip K. Dick (and I guess you could say its an early example of cyberpunk in film) were more groundbreaking back then (the visual style certainly is/was theres no denying that)

so mabye it was so underwhelming because to us its really nothing all that new (except you know...weirdness)

eather way its not hard to see why it didnt do so well at the time

I guess for me S.T.A.L.K.E.R. there are actually alot of good things aboutt he game but really its just not very engaging

Yeah I guess what you say makes sense but still I wish i liked blade runner more than I did. And I like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and for that matter a lot of other Russian games. But hey it's all just opinion right?

dont get me wrong I dont dislike S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (its not like..in my oh so smug and supiror opnion which goes against popular veiw which makes it better..I mean some people act like their opnion is fact because they dare insult somthing popular)

I can see why its considered good and even ground breaking, I just couldnt get into it mainly because of the way the story was presented and the gameplay, I have alot of trouble reading big chunks of text in video games (not in real life however) it was the same with the witcher (not so much text as....wait...what am I doing here again?)

similar thing with AVATAR I dont think its a bad movie...by all logic I should really really like it but I dont because both sides are dicks and I dont like being told how much I suck compared to blue cat people

I didn't like AVATAR because I'd seen it before and it was better the first time. You know when it was still called Dances with wolves.
All right an exaggeration yeah and a far from an original argument but the reasoning still stands. Also I found it way easier to support the humans. Dicks they were but at least I enjoyed them being dicks as opposed to the "I think you should hug more trees" thinly disguised environmental message.

Avatar isn't really a classic it is what like a year or two old. It is no where near old enough to be considered a classic.

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

Book: The Da Vinci Code. I have nothing against the controversy, far from it. But Jesus, who knew a story about global conspiracy and murder could be so FUCKING BORING!

Film: Alien didn't scare me at all, and couldn't even manage to be a good movie to make up for it.

Music: Elvis. Why? Just Why? People say he's the king of rock n' roll, but The Beatles have been about 10 million times more influential. Overall he's just underwhelming.

Game: (heavy duty flame shield at the ready) The Elder Scrolls games. I just don't like melee based combat from a first person viewpoint, it just looks and plays so much better from the third. Also the story to me seems like pretty much formula fantasy RPG, not bad in the slightest but nothing I haven't seen before.

Actor: (I hope my flame shield still works) John Wayne. Even if he was the dog's bollocks at the time in retrospect he's just not a very good actor, and pretty much everything he did Clint Eastwood did better.

Captcha: anatiti discussed... They're just f*cking with us now aren't they.

 

[harrflawless]

I feel like I should defend Lord of the Rings, particularly on the style. (over-descriptive/involved in the made up world)
Obviously it is a matter of taste but for me the beauty of all epic fantasy is the sense of really being part of another world. I mean, isn't that why we play videogames? The escapist, anyone? I've personally read the books dozens of times and love that each time I do, I generally learn something new (maybe I'm just not a very good reader lol). It's impossible not to get caught up in his passion for the world that he created. And no plot? It's like, incredibly intricate...Personally I think Tolkein would have thrived in our milieu, imagine if he could use that imagination and level on designing a computer game?

To the question.

2001 A Space Odyssey. Give me my three hours back. Key redeeming feature has to be the 'grip-shoes' the airline hostesses wear. (hey wow, in the future we can label things).

 

[Norris IV]

Game: FF7, I hated cloud and Vincent
Film: LOTR, Just too long, yeah i know it's petty but I dislike watching extremely long films and each one of the LOTR trilogy takes this biscuit

 

[Mr Somewhere]

I wish people would stop feeling the need to justify their hatred of beloved works...
On topic, I've never had a hatred for any "classic" work. I've never had a problem appreciating something, regardless as to whether the work has dated, I can still see why it was (usually still is) so influential.

 

[elvor0]

The thing is, if you play some of those Classics now of course they're going to seem boring or "done this before" because you didn't play them at the time, and instead you've played all the games/movies/books they've inspired and are now coming back to the original, of course the original is going to seem old hat in comparison to all the spick and span new stuff, but the classics are classics for a reason.

 

[Weofparadigm]

Link to the past. It didn't do anything especially daring except for the Dual-World idea. Plus the fight against Gannon was kind of underwhelming

 

[Woodsey]

Game: Bioshock. More personal biases than the game itself.

In what sense?

OT: BioShock for me too. The gameplay loop is rather archaic (its a slightly more complex version of the blue key for the blue door), which also destroys the pacing. The game's momentum rests too much on backstory and themes too, and the actual story really does only show up for 5 minutes to tell you the twist. And the twist doesn't work that well because its attributed to a non-character.

 

[y1fella]

Subject is in the title but I got to say I watched blade runner and........
It was either really boring or I'm really stupid. And I don't think I'm particularly stupid because I have read the entire wheel of time series thus far and you need allot of patience to keep reading book 10.
that aside I don't understand the whole stigma around the movie. I walked in expecting a slow burn but talk about no burn. Instead of you know investigating and stuff he just roams around getting in arguments about philosophy with the replicant girl before very suddenly everyone starts very suddenly getting in gun fights. and then at the end it just ends. I mean the bad guy dies suddenly no kind of personal goal is achieved and the movies over. I walked in with the highest expectations yeah but I still never once enjoyed, was intrigued, liked the characters or anything that would typically constitutes a good movie.
I'm not saying it's a bad movie so don't get angry but I seriously didn't get it.
anyway what classics were you less then fond of.

yeah I also didnt "get" bladerunner I dont think its bad but...wheres the brilliance? instead its more just an hour or so of weirdness in fact I can bearley remember remembering what the hell was going on

but that said after a bit of thinking I guess perhaps the "themes" and/or Ideas of Philip K. Dick (and I guess you could say its an early example of cyberpunk in film) were more groundbreaking back then (the visual style certainly is/was theres no denying that)

so mabye it was so underwhelming because to us its really nothing all that new (except you know...weirdness)

eather way its not hard to see why it didnt do so well at the time

I guess for me S.T.A.L.K.E.R. there are actually alot of good things aboutt he game but really its just not very engaging

Yeah I guess what you say makes sense but still I wish i liked blade runner more than I did. And I like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and for that matter a lot of other Russian games. But hey it's all just opinion right?

dont get me wrong I dont dislike S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (its not like..in my oh so smug and supiror opnion which goes against popular veiw which makes it better..I mean some people act like their opnion is fact because they dare insult somthing popular)

I can see why its considered good and even ground breaking, I just couldnt get into it mainly because of the way the story was presented and the gameplay, I have alot of trouble reading big chunks of text in video games (not in real life however) it was the same with the witcher (not so much text as....wait...what am I doing here again?)

similar thing with AVATAR I dont think its a bad movie...by all logic I should really really like it but I dont because both sides are dicks and I dont like being told how much I suck compared to blue cat people

I didn't like AVATAR because I'd seen it before and it was better the first time. You know when it was still called Dances with wolves.
All right an exaggeration yeah and a far from an original argument but the reasoning still stands. Also I found it way easier to support the humans. Dicks they were but at least I enjoyed them being dicks as opposed to the "I think you should hug more trees" thinly disguised environmental message.

Avatar isn't really a classic it is what like a year or two old. It is no where near old enough to be considered a classic.

No I'm definitely not saying it's a classic it's just we were half way through a conversation you apparently missed.

 

[Anti Nudist Cupcake]

2001: a space odyssey.

Nice music, I get the messages in the film but I was very very very BORED, even by the "Special effects" which aren't great in today's world at all.

ALIEN

I liked it a bit but it wasn't scary and felt a little...thin, if that's the right word.

AVATAR

Is this a classic? No matter, it just didn't have anything good about it, it was mediocre.

These are all just my OPINIONS of course so it differs from person to person.

 

[plugav]

The Waste Land by T.S. Elliot. It only gave me the impression that he was a pretentious prick.

Ann Rice's vampire books after Interview with the Vampire. The more perfect and godlike and indestructible the vampires become, the more nauseating it is to read about them.

Also Dracula. I get why it's a classic but, my God, is it boring! And that comes from a person who enjoyed The Picture of Dorian Gray and À rebours.

Movie: Citizen Kane. Again, my fault. I was expecting something really clever but it felt like something average done to perfection... if that makes sense?

It does. It's because the stuff that made it revolutionary back in the forties is commonplace now.