As somebody who watches a lot of movies, I know that
opinions can change over time.
Expectations going into a movie can make a difference on how a person
feels while watching it. The excitement
that based upon watching a movie for the first time can cause them to forgive
problems in the movie. It could also go
in the opposite direction and make them more critical of what is playing out
before them. Then there is the rewatch,
an action that can drastically alter an opinion since many of the illusions of a
first time watch are gone.
In order to fully dissect what makes the rewatch such an
important part of movie watching culture, we must first examine the different
ways in which a first time viewing can be affected. The mindset of a person as they go into a
movie for the first time can be greatly manipulated through many factors. Some of the factors have a much larger
influence than others. The smaller
factors might seem very minor; however, they still have an effect on a person
prior to seeing a movie. Thus, to
understand how a rewatch can remove a lot of these factors, the factors must be
known.
Major Factors
Media/Hype
Modern culture has become a barrage of advertisements
pushing the capitalist ideals upon society.
That may sound obnoxious, but let me ask a question. Do you know that Guardians of the Galaxy is
coming out? Sure you do. The marketing team of Marvel studios has made
it so that you know. Through the
announcement of the movie, the hiring of a director and cast, the trailers, and
the name of Marvel, you have gained knowledge of the movie. Many of you are excited for it. All of these bits of information being
released have built up the hype and rabid fervor for it. Seeing a commercial for the movie while
watching Big Brother or driving past a billboard on your way to work have also
added into the cultural buzz for the movie.
The whole point of the media purchases, social media
coverage, and news updates by studios about things that aren’t really news is
to create hype around their movies. They
use the hype to create awareness and get people excited about their
output. They are heightening the
expectations of their audience and hoping that the excitement will result in an
influx of people going to the theater to watch their movie, and more people
liking what they see. How many people
have already declared their love for Guardians of the Galaxy? This proclamation was already being stated
following the teaser trailer’s original release. The sound of the “ooga-chaka” in Hooked on a
Feeling managed to hook people in like a fish on a rod. The first viewing for anyone within the first
year of the film’s release will be drastically altered by this media assault.
Word of Mouth
You can pick your friends and you can pick your nose but you
can’t always pick a good movie based on the recommendations of your
friends. Hearing about a movie from a
friend is a way to discover a movie you may not have known about. Depending on their outlook on the movie, your
expectations could get higher or lower than they would have been
otherwise. These expectations are a
large part of what affects a first time viewing. If the movie does not meet the expectations,
it is a disappointment. If it surpasses
the expectations, the viewing goes well.
Either way, a person is greatly influenced by their friends’ opinions.
Word of mouth is an exceptionally large factor in creating
the schedule for the Sunday “Bad” Movies.
Many of the choices made in the scheduling of films has to do with what
the general consensus is. If a movie has
a bad reputation, I will watch it to see whether or not I agree. People suggest movies, saying they are
bad. If I have not seen a movie, there
are very few factors upon which I can base my choices. Word of mouth seems like one of the better
ways to choose because other people say it is bad. And the reputation that the movies garner
affects my first time viewing. I go in
expecting the worst of a movie. I hope
for the best though. But my expectations
of a movie are lowered simply by being told that the movie is bad. Sometimes I end up agreeing that the movie is
bad. Other times, my expectations are
lowered so much that I end up enjoying the movie and thinking it really isn’t
bad at all. Word of mouth in this day
and age tends to be much more extreme than it was in prior times. Movies are either great or terrible. Many of the bad movie suggestions end up
being alright and perfectly watchable.
The only reason they get suggested is the hyperbole. The hyperbole affected my scheduling and
affected my first watch.
Reviews
Much in the same way as word of mouth, reviews of movies
that come out prior to a film’s release can leave impressions on the potential
audience that could drastically change how the film is received. Yet, the impressions that reviewers leave
upon their own audience is greater than hearing about a movie from a
friend. A reviewer watches movies
professionally, whether for print, websites, or audio formats. The general population will take their
opinion on a film much more seriously than they will Bob from three houses down
who says that the new Uwe Boll movie kicks butt.
Spoilers
I am a big fan of knowing as little as possible when
watching a film for the first time. I
like to let a film play out the way it is intended to, allowing the twists and
turns to come to me unknown. I like to
discover the end of the movie at the end of the movie, and not before I’ve even
sat down to watch the movie. The
reasoning behind this is that if I know the ending, I spend the whole movie
trying to piece together how the movie gets from Point A to Point B. It takes me out of the movie. A movie is meant to be watched as a story,
not dissected before the story has had a chance to play out. Suspense and tension are ruined by knowing
the results beforehand. Twists and turns
are no longer surprising. If a main
character dies, you don’t pull for them in the same way that you would not
knowing about the death.
A first viewing is supposed to be about seeing something
fresh. Having a movie spoiled for you
can greatly affect your mindset while watching a movie. It kills anything that the movie is trying to
build in terms of a tone or feelings.
Because you know the ending, you don’t get as invested in what is going
on. It makes that first time watch have
less of an impact than if there was no foreknowledge. Since you don’t know the entire story, you
cannot re-experience what you already know.
You can only wonder when the bit that has been spoiled will happen. It ruins the experience.
Known Property
Is a movie a remake, reboot, prequel, or sequel? Is it based on a tv show, book, toy, game, or
reality? All of these things can affect
how a person perceives a movie going into it.
Some of the issues of movies being a known property are that the story
is already known and nostalgia may take over the viewers’ senses while watching
the movie. The nostalgia is the bigger
factor in changing a viewer’s impressions of a film. They remember something from their past and
feel the desire to relive that moment in time.
Sometimes it makes them more forgiving because they get to feel like they
did upon first experiencing the property.
Other times, if the property is changed too much from what they loved,
they claim that someone is trying to insult their memories. This outlook is because it brings back the feelings
of those memories prior to seeing the movie, and thus a viewer will go into the
movie with unrealistic expectations about what it will be.
There are also the opposite instances in which the audience
goes into a movie expecting the worst because what the property is based on is
not something that they liked in the first place. That does not mean that they hated the
source. It only means that they expect
the worst out of the new addition to the property. Sometimes the movies end up being exactly
what was expected. Other times, they far
surpass the expectations and end up being beloved movies.
Minor Factors
There are a few smaller factors when it comes to a first
time watch. Many of these minor factors
are things that would still exist in a second watch and not be changed at all
after watching a movie for the first time.
I’ll quickly list some of them and give a brief description of how they
affect a first time watch, second time watch, or any watch thereafter.
- Time of Year – For theatrical releases, people have different expectations at different times of the year. They expect the good, meaty, dramatic stuff and the large scope adventures to be near the end of the year. They expect mindless, fun, action-based stuff to be during the summer. And they expect bad movies to be in the winter. Having a movie not fitting that loose framework can drastically change how a theatrical audience perceives a film.
- Mood – How a person feels when they watch a movie is important to what their outlook on a movie will be. If you are sick, it will have an impact on your joy in watching something. If you are depressed, you might not feel up for a raunchy comedy. Your emotional state at the time of going into a movie can have a deep impact on how the movie affects you.
- Alertness – Much like with mood, how tired you are can change your feelings on a movie. If you are wide awake, you can focus more on the movie and get a better understanding of the material. If you are tired, important plot points and subtlety may fly right over your head and go unnoticed.
- Similar Movies – Having seen similar movies around the same time as the movie you are watching can make you feel burnt out on that kind of material. You can only watch so many action movies where Bruce Willis saves the world before feeling like you don’t want to watch A Good Day to Die Hard.
- Title – You can’t judge a book by its cover, as much as you may want to. In a similar vein, you can’t judge a movie by its title, but you do. Hansel and Gretel Get Baked sounds like a ridiculous name. The movie is still good. You might think it won’t be because of the title.
- How You See It – The size of the screen, the people you are watching it with, the temperature of the room you are in, how comfortable the seating is… All of these things involved in how you watch a movie have an impact on the viewing itself. They are things that can both distract and enhance the viewing of the movie.
Now that I have highlighted a lot of the factors that can
have an effect upon a first viewing of a film, we can begin to look at how a
second viewing can be much more effective in discovering whether or not you
truly like something. Most of it has to
do with those major factors. Why does a
lot of it have to do with those things?
It’s simple. Those major factors
that I outlined in some detail all have an impact on the expectations of a
viewer going into a movie. Upon a second
viewing, these expectations have been removed from the equation.
Going into a second viewing takes away the expectations that
are put upon a viewer as a result of the factors I listed above. Many of the minor factors remain. Your mood will always affect how you view
something. The movies you watched around
that time will always influence how much you appreciate the movie, especially
if you’ve seen a bunch of similar movies.
How alert you are will always matter when it comes to your focus on the
movie in front of you. These factors can
never be removed from the equation.
However, the media hype, the word of mouth, reviews, and
spoilers no longer matter when you are rewatching a movie. You know what the movie is from experience
and can better appreciate the good or bad aspects of it. No longer are you a victim of outside
influence upon how much you should or should not like a movie. The only influence remaining is your own
influence based upon your first viewing.
With this in mind, a second viewing is an easier way to discover how
much you actually like a movie.
It is easier to change your own opinion on something than to
make up your mind based upon the outside sources telling you what you should or
should not believe about a piece of art.
You are more willing to tell yourself that you were wrong about liking
or disliking something than you are to toss aside the opinions of the masses.
I have learned this lesson a few times throughout the
history of the Sunday “Bad” Movies. Most
recently, Jason Goes to Hell is a movie that I have grown to appreciate a
little bit more upon a second viewing. During
the first viewing, I found it to be a strange bastardization of the slasher subgenre,
melding science fiction into the horror in a way that didn’t seem right for the
Friday the 13th franchise.
The idea of Jason Voorhees switching bodies after being brutally
murdered, only to find a way to come back into his own body seemed like a dumb
idea. I absolutely detested the
movie. On a rewatch, I still found most
of the story dumb. But I found that I
could appreciate the fun of the craziness in the movie and I had a good time
watching it. The movie goes out of its
way to become unrealistic ludicrousness.
It was a viewing that changed my outlook into liking the film.
The magic of rewatching something is discovering that your
opinion on it can drastically change without having the influences of other
people tickling at your brain. It’s
similar to when you stop caring what other people think about you. You can begin enjoying what you enjoy without
taking into consideration what everyone else thinks about it. You can find those things that you missed the
first time and love the movie for those bits and pieces. Or you could discover that it doesn’t work on
a second viewing because you know the twist ending. Who knows?
In the end, the second viewing is the viewing where you can
truly find your feelings about the movie.
Yet, with the amount of new movies being released every year, and the
desire to watch these movies, it is sometimes difficult to find time to rewatch
movies that you don’t immediately love.
The most significant viewing of a movie has seemingly been eliminated
for the most part because of an oversaturation in the film market. That’s another discussion for another day,
though.
Yes, this was long. I
still have some notes:
- I mentioned the movie Hansel and Gretel Get Baked in the post, so I thought I should link to its post.
- I also mentioned Uwe Boll who directed House of the Dead, which was covered in the Sunday “Bad” Movies a while back.
- Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday is the second Friday the 13th film to be covered in the Sunday “Bad” Movies. The first was Friday the 13th: A New Beginning.
- An actor named Richard Gant was in Jason Goes to Hell. He was also in a movie called Ed.
- What are your thoughts on second viewings? Do you only give movies you like a second watch? Does your opinion of a movie ever change during a second viewing? Comment below with your thoughts.
- Jason Goes to Hell was suggested by @ThatStevenC.
- If you have a movie you would like to see me cover for the Sunday “Bad” Movies, leave the title in the comments, or tell me about it on Twitter.
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