Happy Monday everyone, hope you had a great weekend. Mine was alright, with some movie watching (Rush Hour, Festen and two Werner Herzog documentaries: Into The Abyss and Death for Five Voices). I was thinking about what makes a movie stand out to me and came to the conclusion that if a movie is unpredictable and steers away from clichés that I tend to give it a higher score. I like when a movie manages to surprise. With years of movie watching under my belt you get this extra sense of predicting what will happen next. I recently saw The Grey and knowing that Liam Neeson is the only well-known actor it wasn’t difficult to guess what would eventually happen. This week’s Monday Question is about that:
While you are watching a movie are you trying to predict what is going to happen next and do you share your prediction?
I have to say that I do it a lot and when I’m watching it at home I tend to want to tell my girlfriend what I think will happen next. Through the years I know she doesn’t appreciate it (takes her out of the movie), so I’ve learned to keep it to myself. You know that in most movies every little detail has significance and it will come back later. I always take mental notes of it and use that to make my predictions.
One of my friends has the same tendency as me to do this, so when we are watching movies together we tend to discuss what will happen. It’s a process I can quite enjoy, but part of me always hopes I am wrong. So what about you?
While you are watching a movie are you trying to predict what is going to happen next and do you share your prediction?
FYI, it seems that WordPress.com has changed the commenting system (which I personally don’t like as you have to be logged in with WordPress if you are using an email adress which is linked to a WordPress account). Just to let you know I’m as annoyed with it as some of you might be.
I think you’re brain is constantly making mental leaps ahead in the story whether you like it or not. I keep my predictions to myself and I’m far too often wrong. I guess that’s a big reason I love movies because I’m constantly surprised by them!
What I love doing is ever since I read Syd Field’s book on Screenwriting is spotting the 2 major plot points. Field reckoned they would happen at about p.27-30 of the script and then another big plot point at around the 90min mark. Also he said there was always this ‘inciting incident’ in the first 10 mins. I find it fun spotting these. A lot of scripts are very predictable in their sticking to Field’s formula and these are the ones that it’s easier to predict where they are going!
You can set a clock to the timing of early Steven Spielberg films. Take a watch to “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and something happens every ten minutes.
Interesting to read these and it’s something I have noticed, only not as clearly. This will probably help me recognise them better 🙂
Yes and yes.
I don’t mind predictable movies, so long as they do it well I’m fine with that.
Hi, Nostra and company:
Intriguing question for Monday!
I got into the habit of picking out the bad guy(s) on hour long TV cop/lawyer/rescue dramas years ago. Due to the amount of time devoted to each character. I became quite good at it over the years and found the template applies in many films.
‘Alien’ kind of threw me for a loop. Which I defer to superior writing and greatly appreciate, because I prefer entertainment that doesn’t insult my intelligence,
So that’s years of experience then helping you figure it all out 🙂
Yes, if there’s a movie plot you find often familiar (meaning you’ve seen it a lot) I tend to guess it. And when my guess is right, in addition bad acting, I get bored haha. I don’t mind if it’s predictable, as long as they packaged it differently or in some cases they carried me away 🙂
Yeah, it has to have something to keep it interesting!
I don’t like predictable films but I do try to predict what will happen as I watch a film. But it is unusual because you can only do this on first viewing and on subsequent viewings you know exactly what is going to happen. So the film watching experience differs. I do enjoy second viewings a lot more which does throw into question just how enjoyable trying to predict a film is.
That’s a good point, it does make a difference and like you say you can focus on the quality of the movie and see if it holds up.
I hate predictable movie!!!
That’s one of the reason I didn’t want to watch Avatar at first…I simply watched it for the effect as the story bored me terribly.
A predictable movie still watchable if it is really good or the way to that predictable ending is unpredictable or interesting
That movie was very predictable indeed, but with such a big movie they had to play it a bit safe I guess.