This week, thanks to ‘Zach On Film’, I was provided with my fourth opportunity to take in Francis Ford Coppola’s magnum opus, ‘Apocalypse Now’, a movie that I’ve never watched of my own accord, for one good reason (for which you can hear the justification during ‘ZoF’.) As well-crafted a film as it is, it stands among the things I cannot fault for their quality, but still have no interest in experiencing again, alongside Frank Miller’s ‘300’ comic (but decidedly NOT the film adaptation thereof), the Lord of The Rings saga and Cinnamon Toast Crunch. I’ve spoken of this before, especially as regards Tolkien, and find it a little bit fascinating to examine those moments when I can’t say that a work is *BAD*, but still don’t enjoy it, which leads to today’s query…
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) would have numbered Avatar Comics ‘Crossed on that list, but I’m not sure it counts as something I admire as art, asking: What pop culture experiences do you appreciate for their strengths, but nonetheless find yourself disliking?
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For me, this has to be Breaking Bad. Perhaps it’s the fact that I work with recovering meth addicts, but I just could not get into it. That people rooted for Jesse and Walt just rubs me the wrong way. One of those instances where you hope for everyone to die or get busted. Same deal with Sons of Anarchy. Not a sympathetic character to be had. Still, my friends love that show so I found myself watching it, and I can appreciate the craftsmanship that went into creating that series. It’s damn entertaining, but wow, I hate the premise.
Literary: has to be Heller’s “Catch-22”. The first time through it starts out as satire, but the things that start funny become sad by the end. Every time I’ve tried to reread it, it just starts out sad.
Movies: I can’t handle movies with a lot of in your face, slow and painful brutality. I can appreciate people who use the techniques well (Tarantino comes to mind) but I don’t want to see it. Don’t so much mind the quick action kind of gore (e.g., Kill Bill), but I don’t want to linger on it.
Comics: I’m having a hard time getting into The Walking Dead. I recognize the accomplishment and see the good in it, just not sure if it’s my cup of tea.
Food: Bananas. I mean really, what’s the big deal??
For me, it’s definitely Watchmen. The book is brilliant in just about every way, it’s historically important, and it is massively influential. That being said, it presents an ugly world that I don’t enjoy exploring, and it is not a story I re-read for pleasure.
Seconded, can’t really say anything else to add to what you’ve already written.
Kick-Ass, which I know is weird. I understand that it’s a really good piece of work and why it’s a really good piece of work, but I just don’t care for it. This goes for both the book and the movie.
Love and Rockets used to be like this for me, I found the old school dialogue and plotting frustrating, but I think after reading a few volumes I’ve finally developed a taste for it.
Preacher is the opposite; as a 21 year old I loved it, but as I grow older I appreciate the boundaries it pushed but find the series itself mostly crude and juvenile.
In comic books it would be The Savage Dragon and Ceberus for similar reasons. Both were marvelous works of art with unique story lines and humor, but both failed to do it for me. In the case of Ceberus, the author stopped publishing the book for several years and then resumed on an uneven schedule that made it impossible to keep up with the series, and also took the story in a direction I didn’t care to follow. Plus the author’s whacka-ding-hoy politics and personal opinions flooded off the editorial page and into the comic itself, which finally killed it for me. Savage Dragon, similar situation, only in this case the author reduced the story page count to the point where there was often less than twelve pages of comic and the rest of it was whacka-ding-hoy editorial rants and screwy personal opinions and that killed it for me.
For movies, that would be both Apocalypse Now, Nixon, and the Green Berets, mostly because I lived through the Viet Nam era and the protests and crackdowns and very nearly got drafted myself, and saw what taking part in the war did to older friends and cousins. So I don’t enjoy any of those excellent movies because they bring back memories I’d rather not dwell upon. AN especially went whacky at the end, and stopped making sense. But the one I loathe the most was The Green Berets. A well crafted movie, with excellent acting, but John Wayne’s attempt to portray the war as a “Good War” like WWII, and his political stance at the time, where he declared if you didn’t support the war, you were NOT an American, was just too unpalatable to stomach. In fact, I hated it so much I quit watching anything John Wayne did for almost twenty years before I got over it.
In novels and literature, that would be those writers who find it necessary to “reinvent” a classic motif because they aren’t able to come up with any ideas on their own. Sparkling vampires? Need I say more? There are exceptions to the rule, however. Though the movie blew chunks, the novel Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter was unique enough to interest me, but then again, it was Lincoln himself who was reinvented, and not the nature of vampires. The jury is still out on David Weber’s excellent “Into the Dark” because I really can’t figure out if he was poking fun at the recent phenomenon of “monster” fads, or was making a serious attempt at a story, or simply took the easy way out.