Positive Unpopular Opinions

02 Aug 2019 at 21:26 // under Personal

Today’s XKCD comic poses the following challenge

Name a movie that…

1. You genuinely like (not ‘so bad it’s good’)
2. Came out in your adult life post-2000, and
3. Is rated below 50% on rotten tomatoes.

It is easy to think of a film that most folk liked but you did not. It is much harder to think of a film that you liked but everyone else didn’t.

Initially thought that I should be able to find something, I am generally easy to please when it comes to movies and TV shows. But the problem is, I haven’t actually watched that many films.

I was surprised at the number of films that I thought had done badly, were panned by the critics, yet get favorable viewer ratings. Things like Hancock (2008) and Now You See Me (2013) have much higher reviews than I expected. The only films that I could find that did get low ratings were the Tomb Raider films (2001) and (2003) which I did enjoy, though considering I was still in high school, doesn’t really pass rule number 2.

I suppose it comes down to simple probabilities. If a film is generally liked, it will become popular. Lots of people will go and see it. Therefore there are lots of people who have the chance to say they don’t agree and they dislike that film. A disliked film will not generate get as many people to go and see it. Therefore there are fewer people who have watched it and are able to disagree with the consensus and say that they did like it.

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