# What's most important to you in a movie?



## aurindrix (Apr 24, 2008)

While writing some stories.. This question came to mind..

What aspects are of most important to you when you go to a movie? Be it in general or in certain genres? Elaborate on some points and provide examples if nessicary.

For me, when it comes to violent or action movies, I like something.. Genuine. Rambos 1( first blood ) and 4 (Rambo) Were examples of this. First blood was a good movie, it had a lot you could ask for in a movie. Suspenseful use of traps, blood, anger, character development, and at the end, Stallone, as John Rambo, Delivers this incredible dramatic speech at the end. It was one of those movies, that while bearing plenty of explosions, and only one death, didn't rely on booms and death to be a fantastic war action movie. The plot was also very nice as well. One of the bests I've seen, in his career, and in general action movies. 

Rambo 4 was also genuine in a way, but completely different from First Blood. At this point, most of us know Rambo VERY well. The plot was very unpolished, it was just plain dark, brutal, bloody, much like private ryan with a weaker storyline, as there wasn't a lot of focus on it. It didn't focus so much on plot, but 2 and 3 seemed so polished and refined compared to it. Everything in 2 and 3 was incredibly refined, and the way people die/blow up is also different. The dramatic change in the blood effects showed, and really changed my expectations around when I first saw death in it. So that lack of story actually went pretty well if someone's looking for a balls to the wall bloodfest.

That's just me in war/action movies. What do you look for in movies, in general, or by genre?


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## Calamity (May 26, 2008)

well it depends wut im watching...

*Horror:* heavy amounts of gore, the jumpy scenes not expected (like in species when the bum jumped out near the dumpster...that was probably the scariest scene, lol), and the endings where the villains/antagonists win.

*Comedy:* has to be one of a kind and funny(obvious)

i hate romance movies and anything drama

*Western:* gotta have lots of action/gunfights...story usually doesnt matter to me

*Action:* i like action movies that are fast and never really slow down (Crank was awesome!)


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## Entlassen (May 26, 2008)

Horror - I don't give two fucks about gore or blood (they're more of a bonus). To me, it's suspense and atmosphere that's important in these sort of movies.

Action - Lots of those "oh how's he gonna get out of this one?" moments, where the means to an end come out of nowhere. Like in Iron Man, when the terrorists are holding all the hostages as human shields, and Iron Man just whips out those shoulder-sniper things and wastes them all in one volley.

War - Aside from combat, all war movies need to me is just The Horror, and lots of it.

Comedy - uh, humor. Preferably of the dark or random (actually random, not like CHEESE MONKEY DISHWATER random that isn't really random but just stupid) variety. Because those are my favorite kinds.


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## Calamity (May 26, 2008)

i definitely agree with the atmosphere for horror...


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## Ty Vulpine (May 26, 2008)

Horror- The suspense, definitely. The more I have to cover my eyes, and the more scared I am, the better the movie.

Action- The plot, mostly. And the special effects.

Sci-fi- The special effects first, plot second.

Comedy- The gags. And not "flavor-of-the-month" type of gags. More like "Airplane!"-type gags, that last through the years, instead of movies like "Epic Movie".


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## RedVein (May 27, 2008)

*Horror*
In this genre I like to see something that will scare the living daylights out of me. An example of this will have to be *The Shining*. That movie was freaking awesomely scary that every time my boyfriend makes a reference to that movie, especially that part where the dad says:


Spoiler



"YOU THINK MAYBE WE SHOULD TAKE DANNY TO THE DOCTOR?!"


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## CombatRaccoon (May 28, 2008)

I think in all movies, the direction needs to be good. I mean, theres exceptional, then theres watchable, and theres unbearable.


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## Hybrid Project Alpha (May 29, 2008)

I want to be entertained.


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## Data_stalker (May 29, 2008)

Good plot, good character development. Cloverfield was good until the last 10 minutes. Then, I wanted to throw the DVD out the window


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## An Sionnach Rua (May 29, 2008)

Not having been done before in pretty much every movie of that genre.


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## fao (May 29, 2008)

A fun time.


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## Wovstah (May 29, 2008)

Acting:  It's the most important to me because without good acting, you don't have a good story.  You could have the best story of all time, but if the acting is bad, nobody will want to listen.

You could have a horrible story line, but good actors and actresses can make it memorable. ^_^"


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## LizardKing (May 29, 2008)

I don't think I could highlight I single part. Any part that's lacking can be made up by something else.

There's not really any 'action' in One Flew Over the Cuckoos nest. Neo in The Matrix was a wooden plank but the fights were fun. Jurassic Park 3 had a crap story but the raptors were awesome. And so on. Just so long is it's fun to watch an not an utter failure like the Dungeons and Dragons film. Even the dragons couldn't save it.


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## NerdyMunk (May 29, 2008)

well depends on how it is presented. If it is sci-fi flick, then I expect the unbelievable. If it is a documentary, I expect to learn something, and so on.


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## Dyluck (May 29, 2008)

Plot's the only thing that I care about.


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## Year_of_the_Fox (May 30, 2008)

(list taken from the Wikipedia entry on film genres)

Action - it has to have action, of course. nothing too over the top in terms of violence or foul language, because i'm just one of those guys that thinks that cursing every other word is unnecessary, and doesn't make a scene more action-packed. same thing with shooting something with an arrow and it explodes. no. also, an action movie has to have a good villain, like Dennis Hopper. Super Mario Bros., Speed.. all with him, all were good in my opinion

Adventure - adventures for me, have to have an engaging world and storyline. there has to be a clear point, a clear goal, and maybe a twist at the end. so long as it doesn't go on for hours and hours and hours with overacting and blah blah blah, it's pretty much good for me

Animation - I love animated movies. Interstella 5555, Cowboy Bebop, The Cat Returns.. .. the animation generally has to be good, but it's not an absolute requirement. realism isn't a big factor for me. I love fantasy animation and future animation, and I have little tolerance for something animated based on something written, that doesn't hold a candle to what has first been written/put into comic book form (Akira is the prime example of this. the original manga, an epic, textbook-like masterpiece. the movie, I could take it or leave it)

Animation (computer-animated) - see: animation (since most animated things are now done by computers anyway)

Animation (stop-motion) - so long as it's not comprised entirely of stop-motion animation, it's cool. the stop-motion special effects are generally pretty strange (Beetlejuice, and also that movie about that hole to Hell in the backyard. I dont remember.. The Gate or something?), but if well-executed, can make for a pretty.. unusual effect, that I cant help but like sometimes

Biography - Do mockumentaries count? I love those

Comedy - I'm not really a fan of movies that revolve around physical stuff as a source of comedy. groaner jokes are a major movie turn-off, too. I love movies like Airplane!, and Clue, and the Scary Movie series, Epic Movie, Date Movie.. stuff like that. I also like movies that dont mean to be funny, but are, like Flight of the Living Dead

Crime - has to have comedy in it somewhere. if it's like Oceans 11, Oceans 13, The Pink Panther, Mad Money, stuff like that, I'm fine with it. serious movies about crime can be alright, as long as the movie is about a major crime, and the process and showing of which the crime is committed. if crime is a minor plot point, and the rest of the movie revolves around the resulting actions of that, i dunno.. not my thing

Disaster - yes! disaster! one of my favorite genres. I generally like anything where something gets earthquaked, volcano-ed, tornado-ed.. even if it's stupid like Disaster Zone: Volcano in New Yorkk, I'll like it, because then you add disaster to unintentional comedy

Drama - no thank you. why would i want to see drama in a movie, when I see it enough around me?

Family - what, like pokemon and disney? sure, why not. I'll take it. nothing is too important, I just have to enjoy it

Fantasy - I generally like fantasy movies. not a fan of Lord of the Rings or Dragon Wars, though

Film-Noir - never seen a film-noir, so I cant really say

Horror - I like zombie movies. and vampire movies. and werewolf movies. those are major winners for me in the horror genre. stupid horror movies are the best. that is, the ones that try to be good but aren't. movies that spoof horror movies (Shawn of the Dead, Scary Movie series) are major winners for me

Musical - music has to be good (duh). actors have to be well-cast for their rolls, and should sing, otherwise they really shouldn't be in a musical if they cant sing. fun ones like Chicago are better than serious ones like Les Miserables, but I'll accept any so long as the music is catching of my interest, and they have comedy in it somewhere (on-stage Phantom of the Opera, for sure. same with on-stage Sweeney Todd)

Sci-Fi - no set guidelines, really. I like sci-fi movies that aren't just about alien attacks or something.. like The Time Traveler, or Galaxy Quest, or Men in Black. I mean, with Men in Black sure, there are alien attacks, but it's not like the alien invasion kind

Short - not a fan of short movies. I like movies to be an hour minimum

Sport - no

Thriller - standards vary depending on the other genre it goes with

War - modern-day, not really. fantasy, sometimes. sci-fi, you bet. I love war movies where strategy is clearly displayed on both sides, not just people shooting and shooting until someone eventually dies. also, I'm a big fan of dogfights (air/spacecraft fighting against each other)

Western - my grandpa was a big western fan, but I'm not. so I have no standards

Overall - what's important overall has to be the plot, the quality, the actors cast, and the music. plot for obvious reasons, quality for obvious reasons, actors because you need people who can act yet fill the role of their character as well as possible, and music because music is a major part of the setting


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## Jelly (May 30, 2008)

The characters.

I guess the story/setting matters second, but is substantially less important.
I love to just see well-thought-out characters reacting to all manner of phenomena. The weirder the better, but sometimes less is more.

I don't mind the archetypes - if they're well-complimented by being paired with other characters that work well and they're still believable or identifiable.


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## An Sionnach Rua (May 30, 2008)

Not being full of CGI crap.


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## Year_of_the_Fox (May 30, 2008)

oh! I forgot to mention. I like it when the bad guys win once and a while. I mean, you always expect the good guys to win, but it's not often that a bad guy wins


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## NerdyMunk (May 30, 2008)

An Sionnach Rua said:


> Not being full of CGI crap.



Oh, you might not want to watch movies nowadays. The only films that do not contain CGI these days are probably some indie flicks, or chick flicks. Other than that, there has been a lot of CGI-included flicks coming out this year, so I do not think you will have anything to entertain you now. But I might be mistaken, we still have half a year left.


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