Overrated/Underrated Geek Media

[Ryujin]

Yeah, I know. Though that wouldn't have worked in Hollywood, plus there is the whole titanic egos thing. Myself I prefer smaller, independent films as they have more story vs big stars, special effects extravaganza stuff. Occasionally there is good stuff though.

I back indie films through Kickstarter and Seed&Spark for the same reason.

 

[dragoner]

I worked for a company in LA where we exclusively built these enormous crazy mansions, a lot of them for stars, other Hollywood types. The culture around Hollywood is a thing for sure ...

 

[Clint_L]

I still remember the most disappointing thing about Stallone's Judge Dredd movie being the fact that Demolition Man, which came out at roughly the same time, clearly demonstrated that he could bring the energy to that role that it needed.

Could he, though?

Because, in the underrated pile, I'm going to put Dredd, where Karl Urban embodies the character.

Mind you, Stallone deserves all the accolades you can give for Rocky, the role he was born to play.

 

[dragoner]

Underrated to me is like The Salton Sea with Val Kilmer, not great, though better than it got rated. It is difficult to believe that The Thing was also considered a flop. Now it's legendary. The 13th Warrior I liked also, though considered a flop as well. Probably off the geek tangent at this point.

 

[Bohandas]

Overrated:

Half-Life 2- This game was only superficially related to the first game, it was boring to play, the faces were in the uncanny valley, it had less guns, the revolver looked like a plastic toy, the driving segment was gratituitous and poorly executed, and the opening train sequence was even longer and more boring then the one in the first game. The only good thing about it was the gravity gun.

2001 A Space Odyssey - Not really geek culture per se but an overrated sci-fi movie nonetheless. It's boring. Nothing happens and there's no dialogue. They also padded it out with 20 minutes of pointless kaleidoscopes, and the ending doesn't make any sense at all unless you've read the books. I used to attribute its popularity to the popularity of weed during the 60's but then they decriminalized weed and I tried it and I don't think weed would have helped

Rogue One - This was a decent movie but it did not feel like a Star Wars movie at all. It also introduces plot inconsistencies because episode 4 STRONGLY implies that the Tantive 4 did not personally participate in the recent battle, and because it makes Tarkin significantly less restrained; in episode 4 he was a cold restrained psychopath, in Rogue One he feels more like a maniac obsessed with blowing things up. And speaking of blowing things up, what was up with the destruction of Jedha City? In space we see it destroyed instantly, like a normal explosion, but on the ground it takes like several minutes

Underrated

The old 1993 Mario Bros movie - This has the same issue as Rogue One but got the opposite reception. It was a good enough movie, it's only problem didn't fit well into its franchise

The Star Wars Holiday Special - It's still better than a lot of the Disney movies

 

[Bedrockgames]

2001 A Space Odyssey - Not really geek culture per se but an overrated sci-fi movie nonetheless. It's boring. Nothing happens and there's no dialogue. They also padded it out with 20 minutes of pointless kaleidoscopes, and the ending doesn't make any sense at all unless you've read the books. I used to attribute its popularity to the popularity of weed during the 60's but then they decriminalized weed and I tried it and I don't think weed would have helped

Some people bounce off of 2001 and some people love it. I love this movie (and I love the book too). I do agree though, it is slow. And it isn't a normal movie. But that is what I find enjoyable about it

There is dialogue, but it certainly isn't dialogue driven

 

[Bohandas]

There is dialogue, but it certainly isn't dialogue driven

That's not a problem in and of itself, but it isn't action driven either

(and I love the book too)

The book is great. It has a plot, it's coherent, there's great worldbuilding. I wish that those things had made it into the movie

And it isn't a normal movie.

For it's time it kind of is (except for the kaliedoscope thing). My experience has been that a lot of movies (especially sci-fi and horror movies) made between the late 1960's and early 1980's have the same weird pacing where nobody says anything and nothing happens. Movies made after that era don't do that, and neither do the movies that came before; it's like there was some kind of dark age for films during the 1970's.

I've heard somewhere that even Star Wars almost became this, but thank goodness one of the other people involved in the film convinced George Lucas to cut out 45 extra minutes of Luke doing nothing on Tattooine

 

[Bohandas]

Atlas Shrugged- some people love it as a philosophical novel, but as dystopian SF novel, it's just boring.

Anthem is pretty good though, as long as you don't think too hard about how people that cartoonishly incompetant managed to take over the world in the first place

(or if you think about it way way too hard. My personal headcanon is that it's actually in a similar world and setting to Brave New World, maybe crossed with a Wachowskis movie and/or Clonus Horror, and the world around Prometheus is the way it is because he's part of one of the castes that are basically lobotomized slaves - with the society's apparent being mostly a sham to keep them in line - but something went wrong and he retained most of his intelligence. The ideanthat society's stated values are a transparent sham and its true structure is something akin to a dystopian parody of capitalism also makes it a much better metaphor for communism (which now that I think of it I guess means I'm imagining it as being more like a George Orwell novel, moreso than being like my previous allusions to The Matrix, Clonus Horror, Brave New World, or Jupiter Rising)).

 

[MGibster]

Half-Life 2- This game was only superficially related to the first game, it was boring to play, the faces were in the uncanny valley, it had less guns, the revolver looked like a plastic toy, the driving segment was gratituitous and poorly executed, and the opening train sequence was even longer and more boring then the one in the first game. The only good thing about it was the gravity gun.

For video games, there are certain milestones some games reach that really wow me. Doom, Doom 2, Duke Nuke'em 3-D, and Half-Life were all games that wowed me when they were released. I remember in Half-Life I shot at a soldier and he ducked behind some cover and it absolutely wowed me. From beginning to end it was just a fantastic experience. Half-Life 2 did not wow me. It as fine, but it just wasn't an experience like the original.

 

[Bohandas]

Dune, yeah, esp about the later books, Honored Matres controlling men's minds with sex was bleh.

Just like commercials for Carl's Jr.