"Classics" that you were underwhelmed by.
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Ok, change the term "universally aimed media", and replace it with "universally accessible media". An opinion cannot be wrong, it can be merely "badly informed". Which isn't the same thing. Every opinion is valid, if not useful.KafkaOffTheBeach said:
Anyway, the question asked for opinions.
Game: Bulletstorm. It was a fairly average shooter that wasn't really that bad in spite of all the hype about it being pure evil.
Book:Jaws. Just...what?
Film: Halloween. The series has always been insanely underwhelming. The same goes for Friday the 13th.
Book:Jaws. Just...what?
Film: Halloween. The series has always been insanely underwhelming. The same goes for Friday the 13th.
Oh dear...I fear I may be the only one who says this, but the classic anime movie 'Akira' did nothing for me at all.
Edit: And what's with all the Twain hate? Is it because you studied his work in school?
I can imagine him being present on the American high school booklist
Nothing wrong with a little Twain!
Edit: And what's with all the Twain hate? Is it because you studied his work in school?
I can imagine him being present on the American high school booklist
Nothing wrong with a little Twain!
Well like I said It's not just the fighting that bothers me. There's nothing particularly 'wrong' with the story, it's just that it's nothing more than LOTR clone no. 1 million and 1 IMO.Novs said:
Alright, this should be fun.
Movie: Have to go with Blade Runner myself. It wasn't bad by any means, it was just, slower, than I'd expected.
Game: The original Sonic. So gonna hear about that one, but running sideways never really appealed to me I suppose.
Book: Dante's Inferno. Part of that is my own fault, as half way through I had the realization that I was reading Pokemon Snap for the damned. Kinda colored my opinion after that.
Movie: Have to go with Blade Runner myself. It wasn't bad by any means, it was just, slower, than I'd expected.
Game: The original Sonic. So gonna hear about that one, but running sideways never really appealed to me I suppose.
Book: Dante's Inferno. Part of that is my own fault, as half way through I had the realization that I was reading Pokemon Snap for the damned. Kinda colored my opinion after that.
I think it has been mentiond a few times by now, but my pick goes without a doubt to Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Yeah, it was probably awsome back when 3D was still considerd something new, but all I could see when I tried it in 2008 was just Twilight Princess with worse level design and horrible grafics.
I don't really have a good one for film and book though.
Oh, and one more thing: flameshild up.
I don't really have a good one for film and book though.
Oh, and one more thing: flameshild up.
Deus Ex is weird in that almost every aspect of it is technically poor. Combat, graphics, animation, dodgy voice-acting, countless ways to break the game, etc. Somehow it still turns into a masterpiece if it finally hooks you.Owlslayer said:
I got sick of it around the Hell's Kitchen point and quit the first time. Gave it a second chance and with only ONE complete play through it's been in my top five ever since. Granted it was never going to age well.
Games: Mario 64, Ocarina of Time, Final Fantasy VII (Loved VIII however), Red Alert 2.
Books: Lord of the Rings, Anything by Dan Brown, Harry Potter series after Azkaban.
Films: Citizen Kane, Shawshank Redemption, Saving Private Ryan.
Music: The Rolling Stones, Iron Maiden, Megadeth
Books: Lord of the Rings, Anything by Dan Brown, Harry Potter series after Azkaban.
Films: Citizen Kane, Shawshank Redemption, Saving Private Ryan.
Music: The Rolling Stones, Iron Maiden, Megadeth
Video game: God of War
Movie: Jaws
Music: Metallica (I still listen to them, but I think they're alright, not awe-inspiring)
Pro-wrestler: The Ultimate Warrior
Movie: Jaws
Music: Metallica (I still listen to them, but I think they're alright, not awe-inspiring)
Pro-wrestler: The Ultimate Warrior
I don't think people dislike the film itself so much as we dislike the Cult of Durden. The story has a nice twist, but it's not particularly deep or profound.curintedery said:
My own disappointments: The Great Gatsby, Huck Finn, U2's music/appeal, the Beatles, 2001 (film), The Godfather, and the Zelda series.
New to this Forum, first post. This thread seemed interesting so I felt I'd respond. Note I didn't read any of the other comments before writing mine, so mine may overlap with some of the previous posts.
My most underwhelming classical book(s) has got to be the J.R.R. Tolkien's the Lord of the Rings. While the work itself may have pioneered classical fantasy and all the novels, movies and tabletop games that came from it, actually reading it was quite a chore. The depth of the world portrayed within the book and the vibrant mythology that intertwines the epic historical events of the First and Second Ages, and the sheer effort that must have gone in creating several complete fictional languages and their corresponding alphabets belies the quality of the storytelling in the book itself, which in certain places reads more like a stiff documentary than a flowing, fictional story. As a result, the Lord of the Rings was, to me, an underwhelming read that serves to starkly underline the differences between a linguist and a writer. The first is needed to make the LEGOs, and the second uses them to build something great. Tolkien just made his LEGOs and then left them in the box.
My most underwhelming movie classic has got to be... hmm, this is hard. I've seen thousands of movies in my life, but if the words of internet critics are to be believed the recent film Inception is considered a modern classic, so let's go with ... Inception. From the critiques we have read we were promised a revolution in filmmaking unlike any other, creating a movie that couldn't be categorized about layered dreams within dreams within dreams until you didn't know you were still dreaming. Roger Ebert even claimed that the movie was 'immune to spoilers'. I enjoyed this movie a lot but I couldn't help feeling cheated somehow. While the visual effects may be called astounding with a straight face, in the end the elements used to visualize the mental conflict inside of a dream were the same old staples of regular action movies; gun fights and vehicle chases. Wow. Movies like eXistenZ and The Cell did a better job of illustrating the contrast between reality and dreams, and they did it with a budget much smaller, both in terms of money and time. Way to turn a screen play ten years in the making into a somewhat above average action flick rife with pseudo-intellectual babble, Mr. Nolan. I recommend checking out Paprika instead, an anime cited by Nolan to be one of his inspirations for his magnum opus, and infinitely more interesting.
My most underwhelming video game classic has got to be the first Halo (or, alternatively, the entire franchise). The X-Box needed a good launch title at the time and they ended up choosing a game about as colorful. It was a good marketing maneuver though; look at all the sequels it's got now. I never played it on the X-Box, but I finished a run through on the PC. I kept waiting for the immersion factor to set in, for some switch to flip in game to suddenly make me interested in what happened and what was going to happen, to make me feel like I was into it. But it never came, and it's not just the overuse of gunmetal gray in the game. The original 1997 (or was it '98) Half-Life had plenty simplistic areas in the game and yet it managed to suck me in easily, and kept me glued to my monitor until the very end. Anyway, Finished Halo once, and never touched it or wanted to touch it again. A true classic should always leave you wanting more, but this didn't.
My runner-up most underwhelming video game classic is the single player campaign of the first Neverwinter Nights. I love Dungeons and Dragons and I love video games, but this classic game's horrible, horrible pacing was like a dagger in its back. It's got quite a vibrant multiplayer community, though...
What saved NWN's single player from this list for me were the add-on campaigns; Shadows of Undrentide and Hordes of the Underdark which were infinitely more engrossing.
My most underwhelming classical book(s) has got to be the J.R.R. Tolkien's the Lord of the Rings. While the work itself may have pioneered classical fantasy and all the novels, movies and tabletop games that came from it, actually reading it was quite a chore. The depth of the world portrayed within the book and the vibrant mythology that intertwines the epic historical events of the First and Second Ages, and the sheer effort that must have gone in creating several complete fictional languages and their corresponding alphabets belies the quality of the storytelling in the book itself, which in certain places reads more like a stiff documentary than a flowing, fictional story. As a result, the Lord of the Rings was, to me, an underwhelming read that serves to starkly underline the differences between a linguist and a writer. The first is needed to make the LEGOs, and the second uses them to build something great. Tolkien just made his LEGOs and then left them in the box.
My most underwhelming movie classic has got to be... hmm, this is hard. I've seen thousands of movies in my life, but if the words of internet critics are to be believed the recent film Inception is considered a modern classic, so let's go with ... Inception. From the critiques we have read we were promised a revolution in filmmaking unlike any other, creating a movie that couldn't be categorized about layered dreams within dreams within dreams until you didn't know you were still dreaming. Roger Ebert even claimed that the movie was 'immune to spoilers'. I enjoyed this movie a lot but I couldn't help feeling cheated somehow. While the visual effects may be called astounding with a straight face, in the end the elements used to visualize the mental conflict inside of a dream were the same old staples of regular action movies; gun fights and vehicle chases. Wow. Movies like eXistenZ and The Cell did a better job of illustrating the contrast between reality and dreams, and they did it with a budget much smaller, both in terms of money and time. Way to turn a screen play ten years in the making into a somewhat above average action flick rife with pseudo-intellectual babble, Mr. Nolan. I recommend checking out Paprika instead, an anime cited by Nolan to be one of his inspirations for his magnum opus, and infinitely more interesting.
My most underwhelming video game classic has got to be the first Halo (or, alternatively, the entire franchise). The X-Box needed a good launch title at the time and they ended up choosing a game about as colorful. It was a good marketing maneuver though; look at all the sequels it's got now. I never played it on the X-Box, but I finished a run through on the PC. I kept waiting for the immersion factor to set in, for some switch to flip in game to suddenly make me interested in what happened and what was going to happen, to make me feel like I was into it. But it never came, and it's not just the overuse of gunmetal gray in the game. The original 1997 (or was it '98) Half-Life had plenty simplistic areas in the game and yet it managed to suck me in easily, and kept me glued to my monitor until the very end. Anyway, Finished Halo once, and never touched it or wanted to touch it again. A true classic should always leave you wanting more, but this didn't.
My runner-up most underwhelming video game classic is the single player campaign of the first Neverwinter Nights. I love Dungeons and Dragons and I love video games, but this classic game's horrible, horrible pacing was like a dagger in its back. It's got quite a vibrant multiplayer community, though...
What saved NWN's single player from this list for me were the add-on campaigns; Shadows of Undrentide and Hordes of the Underdark which were infinitely more engrossing.
Music GCSE does horrible things to your opinions of all music pre-WWII. Hate it, hate it, hate it.
The last 3 Foo Fighters albums are middle-of-the-road uninspired tripe, especially compared to how awesome the old albums are. Bring back Weenie Beenie!
Not that I don't like Rage Against The Machine, but Audioslave>RAtM. Bit less repetitive, Chris Cornell is an amazing singer.
Also, Megadeth. They're ok, but they don't really excite me the same way Metallica or Anthrax can.
The Wheel Of Time series drags on too long. Cut at least half of the crap out and have about four books, please.
With the exception of Portal (haven't played 2), I haven't really liked any Valve games.
EDIT: Almost forgot, Scott Pilgrim. ok/good, not really great. It was a little different, but I don't really think the gaming references and all that make it particularly special. It's nowhere near as good as say, Zombieland.
The last 3 Foo Fighters albums are middle-of-the-road uninspired tripe, especially compared to how awesome the old albums are. Bring back Weenie Beenie!
Not that I don't like Rage Against The Machine, but Audioslave>RAtM. Bit less repetitive, Chris Cornell is an amazing singer.
Also, Megadeth. They're ok, but they don't really excite me the same way Metallica or Anthrax can.
The Wheel Of Time series drags on too long. Cut at least half of the crap out and have about four books, please.
With the exception of Portal (haven't played 2), I haven't really liked any Valve games.
EDIT: Almost forgot, Scott Pilgrim. ok/good, not really great. It was a little different, but I don't really think the gaming references and all that make it particularly special. It's nowhere near as good as say, Zombieland.