Any film that is met with general acclaim and enthusiasm is also bound to be met with something else: a backlash. It’s usually a combination of people who genuinely just didn’t like the movie, and people who bristle at its popularity and go out of their way not to like it. You can tell the latter group because the more awards the film wins, the more they hate the movie — as if being lauded somehow makes the film worse.
I’ve never understood this reasoning. “I watched it a few months ago and it was terrible, but then it won a Golden Globe, so I watched it again and magically it became even more terrible!” Is that how it goes? What kind of sense does that make? Likewise, when people complain about a movie being “overrated” or “overhyped” — well, that’s not the movie’s fault, is it? Don’t go into a film with a chip on your shoulder just because its promotions department went overboard, or because your friends won’t shut up about it.
Slumdog Millionaire’s backlash is starting to crescendo, with some of the film’s detractors becoming even more incensed now that it won all those Golden Globes on Sunday. (The fact that some people consider the Golden Globe a legitimate award, instead of a meaningless gesture by swag-influenced, celebrity-interviewing junketeers, is a topic for another day.) Our colleagues at SpoutBlog are proud of the fact that they disliked Slumdog before it was cool to do so, and Karina Longworth notes today that while their anti-Slumdog sentiments were once met with fury and outrage, lately they’ve been getting more comments from people who agree with them. Apparently it’s safe now to come out as a Slumdog non-fan.
Filed under: Fandom, Fan Rant
Continue reading Fan Rant: ‘Slumdog’ and Other Backlashes
