My History With 'Bad' Books/Movies

I love reading books & watching movies. Love! And yet, I’m one of those few people who really hasn’t read much that he’s hated, or seen many movies that he’s disliked (relative to how many I’ve liked). Sure, there are some, but very few. I’m very picky in the sense that if I don’t think I’m going to like it, I’ll avoid it. And if I’ve started it and hate it… I’ll quit (most of the time). But still, there are things I’ve regretted reading/watching in the past.

I’m not quite sure when it started. I didn’t really watching many movies (Hollywood or Bollywood) until way late (and even then, it was normally Bollywood). In 2001, we went to the theater (me, my brother, 2 friends) to watch the new Harry Potter movie (the first one). It was sold out, so we ended up getting tickets for the next show that started… Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. That was my first introduction to a really bad film… I hated it. But we were at a theater, so I sat through the whole thing.

Not that the other option would’ve been much better. My love affair with the Harry Potter movies lasted for all of about half the first movie. I’ve only seen the 1st two movies as it… never got into it. The books are a different story. I loved the series. I picked up the last 4 books from the library the day they came out, and had them read in a day each. It was sometime early into the 7th book that I realized I didn’t even really like it. After about the 3rd book, the awesomeness had worn off. The 7th book completely ruined it, with the 300 pages spent wasting time in the forest, and the completely unnecessary epilogue. Whatever. I read the series, I enjoyed it at the time… but I’ll probably never read it again.

That’s not the only series I’ve had issues with though. Ender’s Game was a blast… but the rest of the series (I got about 3 books in) wasn’t that good. Animorphs was very enjoyable… and then the last book happened (especially the ending). Redwall was great was like the first 10 books… and then I realized that it was pretty much the same thing every time. Away from the series thing… Mistress of the Art of Death really wasn’t that bad. Until they went to the supernatural thing near the end. Same with Pirate Latitudes with the kraken.

Books are different though (maybe). It’s not really the actors drawing you in or anything… it goes based on the plot you read on the back of the book, or a recommendation from someone, or something like that. So you never really know how much you’ll get drawn in. Movies are a completely different thing. Sometimes, you just give the benefit of the doubt to the actor/director/someone. I do occasionally do this with authors, but only if I really love their stuff, in which case I probably have enough to go on to note hate anything they’ve written. I actually can’t think of the last book I’ve had to quit before the end because it sucked. The same can’t be said of movies.

Of course, there are the movies I’ve sat through. (This list could go on for a while… normally I’m watching with other people because they wanted to.) Final Fantasy, as mentioned above. Neal ‘N’ Nikki, because I assumed a famed producing house like Yash Raj Film wouldn’t attempt to make a skin flick so soon after Naach (which I’ve never seen). Jaani Dushman, because if you had told me beforehand that that a movie starring Akshay Kumar, Arshad Warsi, Aftab, Sunil Shetty & Sunny Deol (whom I hate) amongst others would blow so bad, I’d have laughed at you. Non-stop. Zaalim, because Akshay Kumar in 1994 had some great movies… of which this wasn’t one as I now know. Kisse Pyaar Karoon? because Arshad Warsi & Aashish Chaudhary are great. Or were. And on and on. (And that’s just some that I do see… think of all the ones I skip over.)

And then there are ones like Humko Tumse Pyaar Hain, where it takes 5 minutes for me to decide that I’ll hate it and I get up and leave. The Foundation series by Asimov was a huge turn-off because of the lack of a constant main character throughout. Titanic which I sat through… though I was sleeping for most of it. Because it sucked. There was some book I picked up the same time I picked up a Jasper Fforde novel. Loved the Fforde novel, but I’ve even forgotten the name of the other book. I only got like 10 pages in before giving up.

Speaking of Foundation & Ender’s Game… science fiction. I love Douglas Adams. I love Michael Crichton. But aside from that, the genre just goes right over my head. Snow Crash (recommended to me). Jumper (because the movie seemed to have something interesting going for it). Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. War of the Worlds. … Science fiction & me obviously don’t mesh. I read quite a few of the “top rated” sci-fi books because I really wanted to get into it… I just couldn’t. It didn’t work.

In general though, the number of books I’ve read/movies I’ve seen and actually enjoyed to the number of books/movies I’ve hated is very high… I’ve become fairly good at avoiding things I don’t think I’ll like. And I’ve come to know (for the most part) who I can trust and who I can’t with recommendations. (For example… I rarely agree with movie critics, who seem to have forgotten how to laugh.) The other things I’ve learned to do… if I’m not liking something, I just start laughing at it. Makes things so much better.

(This was my post to try and avoid having to start looking back at all the books I’ve read recently… though I should start at some point soon.)

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