Changing your opinion on something

[Beorning]

Inspired by MissRoziel's interesting thread, I decided to make a similar one, posing another question. The question is:

Have you ever changed your opinion on a movie / book / something else?

I can give you two personal examples: one with my opinion changing from negative to positive and another going the opposite.

The negative-to-positive example would be R.E. Howard's Conan. When I was younger (meaning, 15 to 25), my ideal approach to fantasy was Tolkien. I loved his world of multiple races, as well as characters like Gandalf. In turn, my perception of Conan was that he was just a musclebound, not-too-intelligent warrior - and that his world (inhabited mostly by humans) was boring. Overall, I was writing Conan stories off as a sort of masculine power fantasy.

In the recent years, though... my opinions started to reverse. I grew tired of Tolkien's races, of his fairy-talish world, of tales of brave kings in shiny armour etc. In turn, I started to appreciate the idea of a more realistic world with multiple human civilizations, somber mood and gritty stories. I discovered Howard's connection to Lovecraft - and I noticed that he actually was a talented, imagination-stimulating writer. I even learned that there was more to Conan than just a "strong guy with a sword" (although he's still not my favourite character by any means).

These days, when I come up with fantasy ideas for games or potential stories (which I end up not writing...), I think in two modes. One is a more realistic approach, inspired by the Middle Ages, with magical stuff subdued and hidden in the background... which is quite close to what G.R.R. Martin is doing in Song Of Ice And Fire. The second one is what I call "peplos fantasy" and is Howardian stuff filtered through Frank Frazetta's art and my interest in ancient civilizations like Rome or Egypt. No freaking elves or dwarves in either of these approaches!

When it comes to positive-to-negative examples, I'll name Tim Burton's Batman movies. I used to be seriously impressed by them - the gothic mood, the costumes, the dark characters etc. But, in the last few years, I grew much more knowledgeable of DC Universe... and I realized how little these movies have in common with the comic book (meaning, the true) version of Batman and his world. I mean, Batman killing people? Batman trying to *gun down* the Joker from the plane? Nonsense. Burton's Catwoman and Penguin had little in common with their original version, too...

It's not just about the dissimilarities to comics, either. I grew weary of Burton's filmmaking in general... These days, I hate how one-note he tends to be. I realized that his Batman movies weren't gothic by a conscious choice... no, Burton makes *everything* gothic, whether it makes sense or not (ever heard what he planned for his Superman movie?). His second Batman movie is especially a bad example of his filmmaking: he forced a circus theme on Penguin, just because he likes such stuff (even though it was a repeat of the previous movie's clown theme). The movie's Gotham is so gothic and stylized that it doesn't feel like a real place anymore... and the plot makes no sense. I really can't stand the praise this movie is getting.

Overall, I'm disillusioned with Burton as a creator in general. He's repetitive, he re-uses his muse Depp and his wife Helena in every movie... None of his movies appeal to me anymore.

So, these are my examples. Any of yours?

[Beguile's Mistress]

There is a comment in my signature: Nothing is more conducive to peace of mind than not having any opinion at all.

One problem with opinions is that they are personal and people often feel the need to defend them when someone else has a different one.  We can become very attached to our opinions; sometimes too attached.  However, our knowledge base and experiences can give us the chance to see things from different points of view and that can throw new light on our opinions.  This is a good thing.

Change your mind about your preferences and opinions all you want as long as you can understand the reasoning behind it.  As you grow intellectually so do your opinions.

[Beorning]

Oh, I'm not saying that changing opinions is strange or something  :-) I just wanted to share some examples of surprising changes that happened to me. And I'm curious as to other people's examples...

[Caehlim]

Yeah, I do this all the time.

Sometimes it's just a matter of growing a bit older and getting more experience. For example first time I watched Starship Troopers I was much younger and more naive, so I didn't recognize the parody of military totalitarianism and really didn't enjoy the movie. When I was older and understood these issues a bit better I loved the film because I started to appreciate the jokes a lot more. Also I've found myself increasingly siding with the adults rather than the teenagers in movies/TV. Back in the day I used to see a scene of a parent laying down the law and think "Wow, parents are so unreasonable." and now when I see the same scenes find myself shouting at the screen, "Listen to your parents young man/lady, they just want what's best for you."

Sometimes it's because something else has come along which changed my opinion on it. For example I watched the original Buffy the vampire slayer movie and thought it was really quite fun, I liked it so much that when I saw there was a TV show coming out I watched it. After watching the TV show I just couldn't watch the movie anymore, the (slightly) more serious tone of the TV show made the movie just seem too campy and ridiculous.

Other times it's just changing taste with no real reason I can put my finger on. I try to watch a show that I used to like and just can't get into it the way I used to. Battlestar Galactica hit me a bit this way, I really enjoyed it before but now I just can't get the same enjoyment out of it. Don't really know why either.

[xerohour]

I've had big oppinion shifts with a lot of movies lately myself.

The Transformers movies are a big one. For a long while I got all caught up in the common opinion that they were bad movies in general (though I do still agree that overall the second was pretty bad). But really, if the took out Shia Labouf's character, the rest of the, are great movies for what they are. It has become evident to me that the reason that most people seem to dislike them is because they aren't masterpieces of writing and story telling and all that, a big complaint is that they have basic stories with a bunch of explosions and cgi and special effects. And while I agree with that at first, I one day while rewatching them all (as a marathon before I saw the new one) it dawned on me. It's a story about giant robots fighting for some make believe resource that just so happens to be on our planet. It's supposed to be a basic story with tons of cgi and special effects and explosions, and it nails that perfectly. Though Sam Whitwicky is still one of the most annoying characters ever created...

One going the other way, and this always gets me a lot of hate, is Firefly. When I first watched it I got swept up by the fandom and thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. But having watched it a couple of times since, I am not surprised that it got cancelled after less than a season. It's, in my own opinion anyways, one of Joss Whedon's least interesting and entertaining works. It's sci-fi meets the wild west, which seems cool at a glance. But then you realize, it is that exact theme that has it both lacking all the awesomeness of sci-fi like star wars, star trek, battlestar, lex, andromeda, and so on and so on with it's low tech seeming like what it would be like just after we got interplanetary travel. And, at the same time, with the technology and whatnot that they do have it takes away all the cool things that you got from old, and even newer western type shows like old westerns, dead wood, tombstone, heck even back to the future 3. So yah, while I do still find it enjoyable to a point (though I would much rather watch the Serenity movie and be done in two hours than watch through the whole season of the show) I definitely don't see why it has the giant cult following that it has.

[Zekromnomnom]

I think I'm this way about Game of Thrones. I was really into it when I started the first book, right after seeing the first episode of the first season. But after the most recent season (haven't kept up with the books because if I'm reading something that takes me that long to read, I'll just read Glen Cook, thanks), I'm becoming increasingly disillusioned with it. I try to respect an author's work and intent, but as the death toll keeps going up and up and up, it's starting to get annoying and a part of me is starting to think he might not know where he's going with it. Or if not that, it's that I'm getting annoyed at the constant back and forth of being happy that something good finally happened to one of the three likable characters and then being pissed that one of them got murdered or something. I'm starting to feel like it's doing it way more than it needs to just to draw the plot out longer.