Okay, the temperature of the thread is rising , and while Subotan's criticism is correct, there is the other side of it as well...

As for myself, I do not watch he telly, and rarely a film. Mostly the oldies - generally pre-1980s. CGI and other special effects pay well, but too little focus is spent on the story, as Subo said. Before these times, special effects were special and rare. Making a film based on them was an absurdity. Sure, Industrial Light and Magic changed a great deal, along with earlier Hitchcock, but for the most part, films had to be moulded from other things. Such as a great story-play.

All that said, just as heinous as the 'story? what story - we have special [sic] effects!' side, you also have the small segment of wannabe-sophisticados - or whatever you call them (not you Subo, but such people do exist). I personally think Gladiator was rather shoddy too, but its emotional and most importantly, historical (Rome, Rome!), drama made it quite appealing to me, even if in reality it was a mediocre film. As for Troy, well - what Subotan said. Right. But let's not bash films simply because they fail to live up to our standards. This 'I am so sophisticated' stuff makes me queasy, even if it is mostly true (most films are crap - and only time can truly filter the best from the not-so).


Prussian Iron has his interest, and you and me, Subo, have ours. It is not always about how smart or sophisticated a person is - what sort of films we prefer does not have to correspond with our personality. Like anything in life, it is complicated. All people have different expectations about films. Some, such as me (and from what I understand, Subotan) want the film to have an underlying message (Cool Hand Luke, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest to name my favourites), a solid story, un-cliched and clipped dialogue. Perhaps a sort of a satire as well (Dr. Strangelove).

Yet there are others, such as my mother, who would rather have an emotional drama, or romance (how incidentally stereotypical). Or my father, whose choice would be a comedy to lighten up the mood. Or an action film, like PI said. My mother, well, she is a woman, what can I say. My father is a lawyer, and while he likes what he does, the stress is high, and he simply wants to have a laugh. He is not a shallow, superficial, and frivolous - but from some of his movie picks, one may deduce that.

Prussian Iron is a teenager who is interested in military history, TW, CoD - he prefers to see something with historical or military action.

We all have our expectations which we seek in television. Books satisfy most of my so-called 'intellectual' needs, and so I play games such as TW, EB, AoE, EE, Anno series, RoN, etc on the computer. Am I a mindless video-game addict? I hope not, but in comparison to my uncle, who plays only those indecipherable, abstract puzzle games, I am. Is PI what you are implying simply because he watches those films? No. Television is simply not his medium for that so-called sophistication. Just as computer games are not my medium for that same substance.