The Worst? Really?

[OldKingClancy]

There's been more than few threads on this site about 'The worst game you ever played' or 'The worst movie you ever seen' and some of the choices are well deserved to be hated. However in one of the recent movie threads - and this is something I've noticed in a lot of these threads - people are picking decent films and games and claiming them to be the worst ever. Now everyone's entitles to their opinion but really; just as an example in the most recent thread someone said the Lord Of The Rings Trilogy was the worst they ever seen, now sure you may not have liked it but was it really the worst you've ever seen?

My question to you Escapists is 'Are choices like these done by trolls, are they the only thing the commentor can think of at that moment or am I just making too big a deal out of this and people genuially hate these films and games?'

 

[Marter]

Probably a bit of all three of those options. Some people will do it just to get a response, some people don't want to think too hard so they'll just pick something off the top of their head, and some people genuinely dislike their picks.

For instance, the worst movie I can remember seeing is <url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.305312-2-50-Reviews-The-Hangover-2009>The Hangover. I know that a ton of people like it, but I can't stand it. This is not done from laziness or to get a response.

Plus, you have to keep in mind that the amount of exposure has something to do with it. If I've ever only played two games (Final Fantasy X and, um, Assassin's Creed), then the worst game I've played would be Assassin's Creed. Doesn't make it a bad game, but if I haven't played anything worse, then that's what I have to pick.That example was completely hypothetical.

 

[EmperorSubcutaneous]

Sometimes it's trolls. Usually it's the fact that people are fans of hyperbole, and "ever" actually means "in recent memory."

I always think it's hilarious when people say that Avatar is the worst movie ever made.

 

[Lucyfer86]

I suppose those are people with severe brain damage or they just like to hate everything that is popular. I don't know, but anyone saying LotR is the WORST movie they've seen, i quess they haven't really seen that many movies, ever.

 

[Laser Priest]

Usually it's people who refuse to factor logic into their argument and choose something popular to either get attention or piss people off.

Sure some people legitimately mean it, but I can assure you that those are the minority.

 

[shrekfan246]

There's been more than few threads on this site about 'The worst game you ever played' or 'The worst movie you ever seen' and some of the choices are well deserved to be hated. However in one of the recent movie threads - and this is something I've noticed in a lot of these threads - people are picking decent films and games and claiming them to be the worst ever. Now everyone's entitles to their opinion but really; just as an example in the most recent thread someone said the Lord Of The Rings Trilogy was the worst they ever seen, now sure you may not have liked it but was it really the worst you've ever seen?

My question to you Escapists is 'Are choices like these done by trolls, are they the only thing the commentor can think of at that moment or am I just making too big a deal out of this and people genuially hate these films and games?'

The issue is that people cannot for the life of themselves be objective about how good or bad something is. Yes, people genuinely dislike films such as The Lord of the Rings and I don't begrudge them that. They're long films with a rather excessive amount of slow, quiet scenes that are a huge contrast to whenever the fight scenes break out. It's also set in the "typical" fantasy setting which is something many people are not fans of.

I'd wager that your second question is a bit valid. Objectively speaking, The Lord of the Rings is a fantastic bit of cinematography. It's hardly worse than something you'd see on a "SyFy Original Movie" night or a list of Uwe Boll movies. But it's a big-name title that people will find bored them, and it's a lot easier to remember than In The Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale (case in point, I had to Google that to remember its actual name) so there will be people who say it out of ease and laziness.

There are people who genuinely like bad B-Movies and whatnot, but I'd say that most people haven't actually taken the time to get perspective and actually watch objectively "bad" movies, so their opinions are colored by whatever last huge budget title they watched that they felt was lacking. Also, a lot of things get blown pretty far out of proportion when it comes to . . . well, anything involving subjectivity, really. I've seen people say that the CGI in the Transformers films was terrible. Really? I mean, okay, it was a bit of an aesthetic nightmare, but for all of the hammy acting, dolled up token love interests, and terrible writing in those films the CGI was probably the best part. Again, far better than anything you'd see on a late-night "SyFy" movie. I think what hammers it home for most people is when there are parts that are good (good acting/music/directing/CGI/writing) which are then combined with things that are terrible (bad acting/music/directing/CGI/writing) and it becomes more of a disappointment than anything else.

It hits me the same way the hate for Call of Duty does. Okay, you may not personally like The Dark Knight, but do you really think it's objectively worse than House of the Dead, Bloodrayne, Birdemic, or god-forbid The Room?

 

[Phlakes]

There was this one study where they took 50 or 100 people (can't remember exactly, but it's the principle that counts) and gave them surveys rating their beliefs from 1-5 (strongly disagree-strongly agree). Then they put them into small groups and gave them the same survey.

The individual results were what you would expect, mostly 2-4 with some 1s and 5s occasionally. But the group results? All 1s and 5s. Nothing between,

That's what groups do. Now what's the largest easily-accessed group of people in the entire world? That's right, the internet.

*cough CoD hate cough*

 

[repeating integers]

Sometimes it's trolls. Usually it's the fact that people are fans of hyperbole, and "ever" actually means "in recent memory."

I always think it's hilarious when people say that Avatar is the worst movie ever made.

This. I'd also like to add that I get confused whenever people say "Nickelback is the worst band of all time" - yeah, sure, I get that they keep on releasing the same album over and over again, but surely there are worse crimes in the music world. Like being Brokencyde. I get even more confused when people say Coldplay are the worst band ever - not just because I like them (I really do) but because I find it impossible to understand how anybody could find their music offensive. And if anyone comes in and says "That's exactly why I don't like them!", then fine, I get you, but how could that be justification for hating them more than any other band? Isn't it a contradiction of terms to hate something for being boring?

 

[Dango]

Because it's implied that these are their opinions.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I've seen people say that the CGI in the Transformers films was terrible. Really? I mean, okay, it was a bit of an aesthetic nightmare, but for all of the hammy acting, dolled up token love interests, and terrible writing in those films the CGI was probably the best part.

It depends on what you're looking for in CGI.

It's easy to make CGI, but it takes a lot of painstaking work to make it look and feel right. In the Transformers movies it looks like they simply threw it on the screen regardless of camera angles, lighting and close-ups. I'm sure the technology behind it was superb, but the implementation of it was pants.

OT: Ofcourse people are going to mention either the latest movie they saw or a popular movie they didn't like since it's those movies that lie freshest it their memory. The worst movie I saw was a short film about gay luchadors playing with dolls... See, not too much discussion value, is there?

 

[Blow_Pop]

Some are trolls, some are just not very experienced in various forms of the media being discussed, and some just genuinely don't like em. And some might be like my initial problem with star trek. My grandma loved it. My mum and dad hate it. I was barely subjected to it as a child. As such I use to not like it. Then I sat down and watched the movie and decided I should watch the show(still haven't yet but that's because I'm hunting down the number of one of my mates who has all of Star Trek on dvd so I can borrow it and trying to find a job at the same time). Sometimes you just get raised with certain prejudices. Oh and I'm one of those people that likes movies that are really bad. The comedic value in them is priceless for me.

I get even more confused when people say Coldplay are the worst band ever - not just because I like them (I really do) but because I find it impossible to understand how anybody could find their music offensive. And if anyone comes in and says "That's exactly why I don't like them!", then fine, I get you, but how could that be justification for hating them more than any other band? Isn't it a contradiction of terms to hate something for being boring?

What if I don't particularly like them(mind you I don't hate them I'll listen to very few songs here and there when I am in the mood but in general just don't like them much)because their music just isn't my cup of tea?

 

[repeating integers]

Some are trolls, some are just not very experienced in various forms of the media being discussed, and some just genuinely don't like em. And some might be like my initial problem with star trek. My grandma loved it. My mum and dad hate it. I was barely subjected to it as a child. As such I use to not like it. Then I sat down and watched the movie and decided I should watch the show(still haven't yet but that's because I'm hunting down the number of one of my mates who has all of Star Trek on dvd so I can borrow it and trying to find a job at the same time). Sometimes you just get raised with certain prejudices. Oh and I'm one of those people that likes movies that are really bad. The comedic value in them is priceless for me.

I get even more confused when people say Coldplay are the worst band ever - not just because I like them (I really do) but because I find it impossible to understand how anybody could find their music offensive. And if anyone comes in and says "That's exactly why I don't like them!", then fine, I get you, but how could that be justification for hating them more than any other band? Isn't it a contradiction of terms to hate something for being boring?

What if I don't particularly like them(mind you I don't hate them I'll listen to very few songs here and there when I am in the mood but in general just don't like them much)because their music just isn't my cup of tea?

'Tis what I'm trying to say - I don't mind, at all, if you don't like them, but I've seen people call them "the worst band ever" and it confuses me, for reasons I described.

 

[Ulquiorra4sama]

I think we can all pretty much agree that "The Room" is one of the worst films in existance.

Like has been said there's probably a decent amount of trolls floating around those. I tend not to post in such threads though 'cause usually i can't really think of a game or whatever where everything was done bad... except for "The Room" of course >_>

 

[Blow_Pop]

Some are trolls, some are just not very experienced in various forms of the media being discussed, and some just genuinely don't like em. And some might be like my initial problem with star trek. My grandma loved it. My mum and dad hate it. I was barely subjected to it as a child. As such I use to not like it. Then I sat down and watched the movie and decided I should watch the show(still haven't yet but that's because I'm hunting down the number of one of my mates who has all of Star Trek on dvd so I can borrow it and trying to find a job at the same time). Sometimes you just get raised with certain prejudices. Oh and I'm one of those people that likes movies that are really bad. The comedic value in them is priceless for me.

I get even more confused when people say Coldplay are the worst band ever - not just because I like them (I really do) but because I find it impossible to understand how anybody could find their music offensive. And if anyone comes in and says "That's exactly why I don't like them!", then fine, I get you, but how could that be justification for hating them more than any other band? Isn't it a contradiction of terms to hate something for being boring?

What if I don't particularly like them(mind you I don't hate them I'll listen to very few songs here and there when I am in the mood but in general just don't like them much)because their music just isn't my cup of tea?

'Tis what I'm trying to say - I don't mind, at all, if you don't like them, but I've seen people call them "the worst band ever" and it confuses me, for reasons I described.

I've heard worse bands. In fact some of them are currently considered great by a good portion of the world....or at least the US......My dislike is more because I have friends who are uber fans of them and every time we get on the topic of music its all "coldplay this" and "coldplay that" and if you try to get them to listen to anything else you get a rant about how coldplay is the best band in existence and nothing compares and blah blah blah and their music gets shoved down your throat. There is a reason I have a tape player in my car and not a cd player. And why I tell people you change my music without asking you get kicked out of my car.

 

[shrekfan246]

It depends on what you're looking for in CGI.

It's easy to make CGI, but it takes a lot of painstaking work to make it look and feel right. In the Transformers movies it looks like they simply threw it on the screen regardless of camera angles, lighting and close-ups. I'm sure the technology behind it was superb, but the implementation of it was pants.

Well, that's why I said "it was a bit of an aesthetic nightmare". I agree with you, I just try to not let my personal opinions get in the way when I'm discussing something I don't like. (And I actually don't remember practically anything about the Transformers films, so there's that. . .)

But honestly compare this:
to

I realize that budget constraints played a huge role in the differences (CGI doesn't really come cheap when you do stuff like Transformers) but that doesn't really change the fact that the CGI in the first is much better than the CGI in the second.

Overall, it's impossible for humans to be objective about these types of things. It really is. It's all about the lack of variety. When all you really watch is big-budget Hollywood action films, it has the same effect as only playing big-budget AAA first-person shooters: Eventually you're going to be bored because it will seem like everything has been done before, and probably done better. Or, if you find that those specific things are what fills your niche best, whenever you try something outside of the box there's a good chance it won't endear itself to you.

 

[repeating integers]

Sometimes it's trolls. Usually it's the fact that people are fans of hyperbole, and "ever" actually means "in recent memory."

I always think it's hilarious when people say that Avatar is the worst movie ever made.

This. I'd also like to add that I get confused whenever people say "Nickelback is the worst band of all time" - yeah, sure, I get that they keep on releasing the same album over and over again, but surely there are worse crimes in the music world. Like being Brokencyde. I get even more confused when people say Coldplay are the worst band ever - not just because I like them (I really do) but because I find it impossible to understand how anybody could find their music offensive. And if anyone comes in and says "That's exactly why I don't like them!", then fine, I get you, but how could that be justification for hating them more than any other band? Isn't it a contradiction of terms to hate something for being boring?

I quite like Coldplays music, but the videos for it are the worst I've ever seen; I don't get them. To me, they just dont make any sense, Viva La Vida being the most guilty.

Haha yeah, Viva la Vida's music video is hilarious. On the other hand, Violet Hill's is awesome. I want that magic reality-bending hammer!

 

[Scarim Coral]

To be fair the person who said LOTR is the worse is most likely to be the one who had adore the books. In another word another elite hard core fan who whine about the changes made from the book to the live action film.

OT- Unlikely, I guessing they do got legit reasons for disliking that film but I just view those who dislike a very popular film are the ones who hit the dislike button on a popular video who are outnumber but those who like it (well except for cases in popular films like Transformers and Twilights).

 

[Methe]

It's just a lack of perspective. Very, very common online - something someone doesn't like which they think is overrated becomes the worst ever. Less commonly it goes the other way and something that's just quite good becomes the best ever.