Movies Through my Eyes

     Hi there people! This is Chet, a.k.a. Ninja101 and I want to give you all an insight on my mind set when it comes to movies. I love movies. I go to the theater EVERY weekend. Even when I am on vacation away from home, I make the time to catch a movie or two. I feel a stranger sense of accomplishment when I go to a theater and I am able to say that I have seen everything on the board at the box office. But watching so many movies comes with a cost. I’m not talking about currency, which it is an expensive hobby especially in NYC, I am talking about what happens to you mentally. Your judgement on a movie changes. I feel that I am now a harsher critic than I was before. Also I have become kind of pessimistic when it comes to watching movies. Most of the time I go in to see a film, I am already thinking that I am about to see a load of garbage, which sadly is the case for many movies this year(2014). I still enjoy watching them. Its almost therapeutic for me. I get to sit down, relax and engage my mind into something else other than my life for a couple of hours(or a few….or 5….or 6).
    Watching so many movies have also changed how I rate movies. Most important characteristic for movies, to me, is the pacing. Pacing dictates how a movie feels in my opinion. A two hour movie can feel like an hour if it has great pacing. On the other hand, a 90 minute movie can feel like 3 hours if it has poor pacing. For example, the recent Maze Runner film has a running time of 113 minutes. I can tell you while that it almost didn’t feel long enough! The pacing never let you relax your mind and realize you are watching a movie. I only check my watch at one point in the film because I was worried that the movie might end.
     Another characteristic that I find helps movies is of course the story. Honestly, I have seen too many movies to care too much about the story anymore. That’s why I put pacing over story. You can have a mediocre story but have great pacing which would make the film quite good. But when you have an amazing story, it affects you. You leave the theater with emotion. The story has impacted you to the point that it as a lingering feeling on you. A great example of this was the film Gone Girl. The story of that movie sent me and my fellow audience on a roller coaster ride of emotion, so much to the point that when the credits started rolling, many audience members remained seated just from the share emotion of what the film put us through.
      I honestly feel that if you have these two characteristics down pact in a movie, you should be fine. I don’t care much for graphics or acting. Only if the acting is complete trash kind of like Birdemic, then I would care about the acting. Also I would only be interested in the graphics if it is a noted feature of the film. Something along the lines of Avatar and the recent Hobbit films with its high frame rate showings. These are a luxury to me though, the icinig on the cake. You can have a cake that was made with salt instead of sugar and cover it in the best icing you have but you will not be able to hide the garbage underneath.
     You may have noticed that I use the words film and movie at the same time. I just happened to use the word film because I was speaking about “films” that I liked. I have this weird thing where I unconsciously refer to a movie as a film if I really like it. For example, Inception is a film. But The Dark Knight Rises is a movie. “Movies” to me are just that. Something that is shown to you with a plot. It has a beginning, middle and end. “Movies” can be good or bad. Some “movies” can also earn the subcategory of popcorn movies. Popcorn movies are also commonly know as the “check your brain at the door” movies. Lots of action movies are like this. Again this doesn’t make it a bad thing though. I love Commando from 1985. Heck its probably one of my top Arnold Shwarzenegger movies out there. But it is pretty much mindless entertainment with a beginning, middle and end that just gives a reason for violence.
     Well now you know a little more about myself and my grading process. This should help you understand why I talk about films in a certain way. I hope you all will also get a feel for my tastes and style from my posts later on. Take care now, bye bye then.