Is there such a thing as a objectively bad movie?

What have you been watching?

Is there such a thing as a objectively bad movie?

Postby DanteHoratio » Mon Dec 25, 2017 9:19 pm

What do you think? I don't believe in objectively bad movies. It's all opinion based. It's all subjectivity.
  • 0

"Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress; but I repeat myself." -Mark Twain

"I couldn't live a week without a private library - indeed, I'd part with all my furniture and squat and sleep on the floor before I'd let go of the 1500 or so books I possess." -HP Lovecraft
User avatar
DanteHoratio
TCS Sithlord
TCS Sithlord
 
Posts: 547
Joined: Thu May 28, 2015 9:17 pm
Location: Somewhere over the rainbow
Show rep
Title: Let's get dangerous

Re: Is there such a thing as a objectively bad movie?

Postby SandTea » Mon Dec 25, 2017 10:27 pm

I would need a clear definition of "movie" to answer more precisely. Here is the IMDB page for 10 hours of paint drying. It has a rating of 9.3.

It was submitted knowing the BBFC, the UK version of Americas MPAA, had to watch all 600 minutes to give it a grade. As a piece of protest art using visual medium, I applaud it but as a piece of entertainment to be enjoyed more intimately like at a cinema or at home, I would call it objectively bad. On the other hand I have probably enjoyed a good ~90 minutes of live stream from the ISS just watching the Earth spin by. Neither I would call "A movie" though.

"Bad" is also too vague a metric for me to really work with. I do think it would be acceptable to say that individual aspects can be done poorly. Take early photography. If a photo I paid for came out blurry or obscured, I would think it fair to call the outcome a "bad picture".

Going with those two examples, I would say, yes. A movie can be objectively bad.
  • 8

"Draw me not without reason; sheath me not without honor."
User avatar
SandTea
Time Waster
Time Waster
 
Posts: 1257
Joined: Sun Mar 15, 2015 5:01 pm
Show rep
Title: 3rdAeolus

Re: Is there such a thing as a objectively bad movie?

Postby Marcuse » Tue Dec 26, 2017 12:07 am

I think it depends entirely on the reason the movie is being made and the aim it's intended to fulfil. If I make what I think is a serious drama and people are laughing at it, then it's a bad movie because I wanted to say "serious" but people are hearing "hilarious".

Take The Room as an example. It's obvious that Tommy Wiseau wanted that to be taken seriously as a real drama, but people know it and like it only as an unintentionally funny joke movie that's fit only to be ridiculed. In that sense, The Room is a bad movie. In less edge case scenarios, if movies intend to deliver a subtle message, but it doesn't get through, I think it's fair to say that that movie could be better. If you see movies as a medium intended to convey a message, and judge them based on whether that message is conveyed or not, you can say that it's approaching objective when you base it on general opinion on the movie.
  • 7

User avatar
Marcuse
TCS Sithlord
TCS Sithlord
 
Posts: 6592
Joined: Tue Apr 16, 2013 8:00 pm
Show rep

Re: Is there such a thing as a objectively bad movie?

Postby BROWNRECLUSE » Tue Dec 26, 2017 12:27 am

And thus, the first real task set out for a fully functional AI is to determine what is, objectively, the worst movie ever.
  • 6

Tesseracts wrote:In this age of falsehoods and lies, it's comforting to know some people are genuinely idiots.
User avatar
BROWNRECLUSE
Jedi Knight
Jedi Knight
 
Posts: 4142
Joined: Sat Mar 07, 2015 8:55 pm
Location: Inside your ear canal
Show rep

Re: Is there such a thing as a objectively bad movie?

Postby Grimstone » Wed Dec 27, 2017 11:52 am

Yes.
  • 3

"The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man's heart."
User avatar
Grimstone
TCS Guerilla
 
Posts: 2160
Joined: Wed Feb 17, 2016 11:52 am
Show rep
Title: Creature of the Night

Re: Is there such a thing as a objectively bad movie?

Postby Aquila89 » Wed Dec 27, 2017 2:33 pm

Marcuse wrote:I think it depends entirely on the reason the movie is being made and the aim it's intended to fulfil. If I make what I think is a serious drama and people are laughing at it, then it's a bad movie because I wanted to say "serious" but people are hearing "hilarious".

Take The Room as an example.


That's the example I thought too when I read the question. Plan 9 from Outer Space could be another example; it was supposed to be a horror film, but it never scared anyone. Or Reefer Madness, which was supposed to be anti-marijuana propaganda, but ended up being so bad that stoners watch it for ironic entertainment.
  • 4

As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.
--Carl Jung
User avatar
Aquila89
TCS Junkie
TCS Junkie
 
Posts: 3442
Joined: Tue Apr 16, 2013 1:45 pm
Location: Hungary
Show rep


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 7 guests

cron