I watched a movie the other night with my wife–Underworld. A B-rated vampire/werewolf action flick that I saw when it first came out. Why I suggested we watch it, I can’t rationalize. She and I somehow got through the whole thing, but I could tell she wasn’t enjoying it, and I squirmed at every dull line of dialogue and overblown fight scene.
Afterwards, I was asked–Why did I enjoy this kind of movie? It wasn’t witty or clever. Most of the action scenes were Matrix ripoffs. There was no redeeming message in the entire thing. Why watch it?
Good question. I could use the excuse that I just enjoy the fantasy tropes of vampires and werewolves, and therefore am drawn to any book or video that involves them. Untrue, however. I avoid a lot of the recent spawn of vampire/werewolf paranormal romance that is sweeping the genre and making many a soul swoon over true love and the perils of immortality.
I could also use the excuse that enough time had passed that I had forgotten how much of a clunker this movie really was. A good thing, too, that I never saw the sequel.
So what drew me to it? I’ll admit that part of it is my sometimes morbid humor, though I hope that never gets to a disturbing level. Part of it is the appeal of powerful creatures from the imagination brought to life. Special effects. Nifty storylines and a gothic ambiance.
But should these things appeal to me? What does that say about myself? Would I want to live in the kind of world that is shown on that movie screen? Violent, bloodthirsty, ruthless, and with a total lack of humanity? I’d be crazy to, no matter what power came with type of life. Yes, it was a bad movie in the first place, but the underlying values it shows are disturbing when you actually peel back the layers and expose them. Needless to say, we won’t be pulling this out for another movie night.
The question keeps tumbling around my head. How often have I let myself be seduced by the “coolness” factor of an otherwise bad, dumpy story? Sure, a movie can be mindless fun, and sometimes that’s fine. But when we’re being entertained, so many of our mental defenses are down and a lot of crap can slip through.
Have you ever experienced this? When you watch or read something by yourself, and then later experience it with someone else, and their presence acts as a foil to how awful the piece really is and what it says about your tastes?
I see that smile.
It’s a thought, isn’t it? I think in my own relationship I tend to occupy the position of your lady wife more than the position you were in: I seldom feel embarrassed (partly because I trust my boyfriend not to mock me even if we don’t agree on something or I do want an evening curled up with Little Women), but he sometimes finds himself watching something with me that he thought was good when he was younger, then finds it actually wasn’t, and then feels awkward at me seeing it. So I feel your pain, at least at second-hand.
I think in many ways, things that you half-like are discomfiting. But in those cases, the way I see it is that the only embarrassing thing would be to feel that you have to pretend a movie is something it isn’t in order to justify your liking it. I love The Emperor’s New Groove, for example, because it’s good silly fun – but I’d be making a bit of a fool of myself if I tried to pretend that it was a sophisticated dissertation on the nature of kingship. I find if you can just shrug and say, ‘Well, I just thought it was fun,’ – or even ‘I know the lyrics sucked, but the melody was nice’ or something similar – then you don’t have to feel responsible for it being sub-standard. And I think that’s one of the big causes of stress: if you’re the one who suggested watching something and it turns out not to be any good, then you can end up feeling it’s your fault the movie isn’t better than it is.
I think it’s only excessive defensiveness about mixed-quality work that impugns your taste. Otherwise, you can just shrug it off – or indeed, say ‘I’ve changed my mind, I don’t think I like this after all.’
As far as movies go, I have found what I find perfectly acceptable and funny may be terribly unacceptable and not funny to someone else. So I am very careful at making any recommendations to friends and family.
And can’t our views change about what we read or watch? I think one of the good things about being in relationship with someone else, such as your precious wife, is that we are challenged to rethink what we think. We may come up with the same answer–or we may change our mind.
As far as the whole paranormal romance genre goes…I just don’t get it. A vampire hero?!? Just doesn’t work for me.