Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Thoughts on Going to the Movies

If you're anything like me, you have no problem with self-identifying yourself as a geek and/or nerd.  It isn't an insult, it's just who we are.  I earnestly enjoy my programming classes, and I not only know the name of Chewbacca's home planet, but I know how to spell it off the top of my head.  In the grand scheme of things, I would probably be considered a light weight by "real" nerds who I'm sure know all about the (fictional) soil composition of Alderaan (probably).  Compared to the average human though, I could be considered quite nerdy just based on the fact that I find it more relaxing to navigate Linux through a terminal than use Windows or Mac's GUI.

My point is that while others may find it useful to categorize nerds through tangible identifiers such as big glasses, weak arms, white skin, no social skills (not to be confused with hipsters), we self-identify by what we know/what we like to do.  Because our knowledge and skill sets are such a large part of our identity, it's something that we take quite a bit of pride in.  It's important for us to be smarter (or at least as smart) than anyone else in any given situation.  I believe that competition drives innovation and productivity, so this can be a great thing.  On the other hand though, this can also cause a mob mentality of cynicism and condescension.

While there's nothing wrong with being cynical, I believe that it's more beneficial in today's world than being naive, it can be counter productive when people are constantly try to be the "most" cynical.  "Oh, you think the iPhone 6 will be cool? I think it'll suck. You must be stupid to be so optimistic."  "You liked Prometheus?  You must be stupid to not realize how bad it is.  Let me send you links to all the websites that told me what to think about it."

See?  This post really is about movies after all.  A good or bad movies is completely subjective, and depends on so many variables that we shouldn't pretend to have the final word.  I loved The Marine with John Cena.  Was it an awful movie? Kind of.  I've seen it countless times, and I still have no idea why Cena killed everybody - because the plot is awful.  I like it because it's fun to watch Cena throw people through walls.  Some people love indy movies, and there's nothing wrong with that.  Apparently it's a thing for men to like My Little Pony (this is actually too far, now you're just begging for attention).  My point is that we should be going to movies to enjoy them - not because we're looking for everything wrong in the movie so we can impress our friends with how cynical we are.  If you want a movie without plot holes, then why the heck are you watching a Die Hard movie?

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