OK, here's a simple one. Name one thing (book, film, album, painting, etc.) you think is over-rated and another that is under-rated and explain why.
I'll start:
Over-rated: "Princess Mononoke"
Finally saw this supposedly 'seminal' anime the other day and didn't see anything in it other than a poorly plotted and shallowly characterised, heavy-handed pseudo-ecological fable. Errr...and was I supposed to have sympathy with the characters? ???
Under-rated: "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen"
How on earth did a film this good manage to make a loss at the box-office? It's fantastic! The effects are great. The story is as near to Don Quixote as we're ever likely to see. The dialogue was smarter and the action more fun than most of the 80s fantasy stuff that people rave about when in the throes of nostalgia.
Terry Gilliam: a genius unacknowledged in his own country in favour of some self-indulgent Japanese cartoon 'auteur'
I really really want to see that second one!
Also, what is it with the Japanese (or at least anime-makers) and big, white, drippy humanoid thingies?
Can't really think of anything over- or under-rated... the band Cake, maybe, but I can see why people might not like it.
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Over-rated: "Harry Potter"
I'm a big fan of the books, I think they're enjoyable, and a good read.
If you're under 16.
Sorry, they're are kids book, the writing is aimed at kids. Sure, her fans and characters have grown up, so she's been treating different issues,
But they are still KID'S BOOKS!
They are no brilliant work of art. They are no amazing piece of writing. They are children's book that have become too damn popular. I'll stay reading them, because I enjoy them, but for the love of God, I wish people would realise they're aimed at kids like me.
Under-rated: "X-Men 3: The Last Stand"
I thought it was good! I admit there were some flaws, such as Storm suddenly becoming hostile about mutants giving up powers, but it was still a good movie.
And the introduction of Kitty Pryde and Dr. McCoy as proper characters was a smart choice. They both added a lot to the film.
Though, I think my only real problem with it was that Angel was a bit overhyped by the media. He didn't do much. Which is a shame, because I like Angel.
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Also, are you even human any more, or did you just transcend into some sort of in-joke singularity?
Over-rated: Moby ****. Then again, what do I know? I stopped halfway through. It was boring me out of my skull.
Under-rated: Daredevil. Okay, so it wasn't as good as the Spiderman movies, but still better than most people say.
A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's Court. How can something this good - by a well-known author - not be more ubiquitous?
Webcomics.
Over rated: The Mona Lisa. Really, it's a tiny little painting. It's not even that great a peice. Sure it's Davinci, but he has other works that are by far better all round works of Art.
Under rated: Andrew Wyeth. He used to be snubbed for being an illustrater. The art community needs to remove the stick from their a$$ and recognize great art in all mediums. Not nearly enough people know Wyeths name.
Over-rated:
Gundam Wing; the animation was never particularly great, even in its day, and the voice acting is pretty bad (the Japanese is just as bad as the English dub). I always found it rather ridiculous as well - the mecha were way overpowered and there were far too many silly super-power, special attack, superhero type things going on. The redeeming qualities (the wonderful poltical manuevering and war between Earth and the colonies) is a feature that's constant between all the Gundam series, so I don't feel the need to sit through the rest just for that.
Under-rated:
Old school Green Day. To many listen to the new stuff and either do not know or have forgotten where they started from. Also, some of the new stuff fits the old style, but you have to pick and choose carefully.
I personally really like Princess Mononoke. The characters - save perhaps A****aka - are all supposed to be very grey. No one is clearly a bad guy or a good guy, so it's hard to be sympathetic with any of them all the time, or to dislike them all the way through (also, I found the dub rather flat, which definitely takes away from many things).
Certain choices in Mononoke do make more sense, IMHO, if you look at it as sort of a remake of Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind, the first film Miyazaki was really in charge of, and which he never seemed fully satisfied with. Nausicaä is somewhat underrated; the animation stands up remarkably well despite being 22 years old, and the world is just amazing (the manga is even better and much more epic in scope). The credits are a who's-who of the movers and shakers in the industry over the next two decades, before they were big.
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Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please. - Mark Twain
Over-rated:
The Simpsons. Really fell off after season 944 to the 612th power.
Under-rated:
Futurama. Fantastic show from the same creator. More interesting characters, better plot (the fact that there is a plot) and pop culture references.
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Overrated:
Star Trek 4: The Voyage Home.
It was really fun to see them in "modern at the time" San Fransisco. Over acted, as usual. The whole "Save the whales" was cheese to the max, but we got the point.
Under-rated:
Star Trek: Nemesis.
This was much better than all other "Evil Twin" shows, movies, book, blurbs, pamphlets and etc. out there. Patrick Stewart was fantastic, and the death of Data? *(in classic Episode 3 homage) NNNOOOOOOO!!
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Over-rated:
Cowboy Bebop. Sat down, grabbed a few beers, and watched the first several episodes. Fell asleep. I could not get into it.
Under-rated:
This Ugly Yet Beautiful World. From the same creators of Evangelion and FLCL, this short yet wonderful series took an emotional toll; much like FMA.
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I also really enjoyed Princess Mononoke. The story itself was a little overly "Save the Earth" (which I can whole hartedly agree with). Naussicca (sp?) was also fantastic. So was "Howl's Moving Castle"; even though not everyone that I talked to liked it.
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Funny, I always figured I'd be killed by a paladin.
So, what you're saying is we rolled a 1 on our credit check?
Overrated: the iPod. Whats so cool about it? Sure, it has headphones, and its tiny, and holds up to 1000 songs, but what makes it cool? I mean, who has a thousand songs to listen to, anyway? Underrated: Starcraft. Awsome game, fun gameplay, some unoriginal content (Zerg = Tyranids, Terran Marines = Space Marines, etc.), but not many people like it. Sure its not as classy, or advanced as Warcraft III, but it has heart.
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Overrated: the iPod. Whats so cool about it? Sure, it has headphones, and its tiny, and holds up to 1000 songs, but what makes it cool? I mean, who has a thousand songs to listen to, anyway?
3k plus here, and growing. And I know people who have collections best expressed in scientific notation. The other advantage is that you can take the thing anywhere, it doesn't skip, and you can still pick out the one song you just need to here right now.
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Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please. - Mark Twain
Over-rated: Stan Lee. Sure, he's a creative genius, and yes, he is responsible for some great superheroes, but he's not the only one, and he hasn't controlled any of those characters in years. I'm just saying he isn't God.
Under-rated: Star Trek: Voyager. It was a great show! Why does everyone seem to hate it?
Over-rated: The Princess Bride. *My friend kept telling me how awsome and great this movie was and how much I was going to love it before she showed it to me. . . I was very unimpressed, *and I still don't get why people like it so much.
Under-rated: lots of things. I suppose one of my favorite under-rated things is almost all of the obscure books I read. To many to list, and most of them are old and not of new york times best seller quality.
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The Princess Bride. My friend kept telling me how awsome and great this movie was and how much I was going to love it before she showed it to me. . . I was very unimpressed, and I still don't get why people like it so much.
11 words: I am Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.
Oooooooh, I'd actually put Princess Bride in the UNDER-Rated category. *I agree with Princess Mononoke being way less cool than hyped. *
I also agree with early Green Day being way cooler than anyone knows. * 8)
Over-rated: *Keira Knightley! *EAT A BISCUIT, GIRL!! * No one buys you kicking butt and taking names. *It's a JOKE! All the male eye candy, and they couldn't get a decent girl for Pirates, sigh. *I mean really, she's just, meh. *And that stupid King Arthur movie she was in too, especially. *What a waste of time, energy, money. *And I borrowed it from the library. *:P *
Underrated: Hmmmmmm.... bluegrass music. *The fiddle is WAY underrated. My Peepaw played fiddle, he used to play "Devil Went to Georgia" and I'd dance to it, and *sigh* That's gonna be in the jukebox in heaven.
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Depending on which avvy I'm using:
Erin Avatar (aiming gun in chainmail) by Annex.
Veronica Avatar (goth chick psion) by Gorbash Kazdar.
Overrated: Gone With The Wind(movie) - I wanted to throw things at the TV the one time I watched it. If I was Rhett, I would have shot Scarlett instead of dealing with her crap.
Over-rated: iTunes. If I wanted to pay a lot more for worse quality music that is not guaranteed (i.e. if my computer dies, which isn't exactly unlikely, then I'd be out stacks of cash, right?), well... I may as well just throw my wallet at the nearest hobo.
Under-rated: Not exactly under-rated, but most probably under-appreciated (judging from the fact that most people I talk to seem to have not even heard of it): Terry Gilliam's Brazil. Genius film. Sheer brilliance. 1984+1/2 indeed! And the title track is always superb.
Ooh, have to track that Brazil down!
Mostly "hear, hear!"s from me, with some exceptions. Re. iPod, the really unfortunate thing is there's plenty of cheaper, better MP3-players that can hold several dozen times more songs out there that you can put on random AND recharge/replace the battery!
Thought of an underrated: High Spirits. Noone seems to have even heard of it :(
Agree with the overratedness of Harry Potter. They are enjoyable, at least the first 3 or 4 were, and the characters are generally interesting, but it is NOT art, nor are they particularly original (which isn't really a bad thing but it can be hard to convice a die-hard fan of this), they seriously need a good editor (for the last one, I wanted to go through it with a red marker, doing crosses here, corrections there, "no no no, re-do, cut this, expand on that, what the hell is that about?", give it a D+, and send it back for resubmission), and in... book 4, I think it was, and/or book 5, I just wanted to get in the book and slap that bloody emo Harry across the face. I'm actually looking forward to the movie of the 6th book, because they'll have no choice but to cull all the crap. [/rant]
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Over-rated: Stan Lee. *Sure, he's a creative genius, and yes, he is responsible for some great superheroes, but he's not the only one, and he hasn't controlled any of those characters in years. *I'm just saying he isn't God.
Under-rated: Star Trek: Voyager. *It was a great show! *Why does everyone seem to hate it?
Voyager went down hill after they brought on Jeri Ryan as 7/9. Would have been cool to have both her and Kes; they could have played off each other very well. There were a few great episodes afterwards (Year of Hell arc, anyone?) but a lot of it was just tripe. That's also when the character development stopped.
Now, if you would have said ST DS9, then I would be agreeing with you until the end of time. That was the BEST startrek show.
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Funny, I always figured I'd be killed by a paladin.
So, what you're saying is we rolled a 1 on our credit check?
Now, if you would have said ST DS9, then I would be agreeing with you until the end of time. That was the BEST startrek show.
Until the Dominion war anyway. Then it just blew.
I couldn't stand Voyager at first. Mostly 'cause Janeway was just so whiney. At least her voice made her seem so. Didn't actually start enjoying it at all till 7 of 9 showed up, and, even then, I thought it was substandard for Star Trek. It was much more watchable than Enterprise, though. Just couldn't get around the fact that the tech seems to have decreased between Enterprise and Kirk. And how everybody forgot that it's possible to time travel till Kirk rediscovered it. It's like the writers had never even watched the original or just said, "Screw it! Who's gonna care about continuity anyway?"
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Overrated: Gone With The Wind(movie) - I wanted to throw things at the TV the one time I watched it. If I was Rhett, I would have shot Scarlett instead of dealing with her crap.
Totally agreed. How this...thing became a classic (in any sense other than "Plan 9 from Outer Space") is beyond me. The dialogue's more wooden than the love scenes from Episode II.
Another over-rated: The Godfather. I've heard a lot about what a great movie it is. I just don't see why. I didn't enjoy it much.
I found Princess Mononoke to be Miyazaki's worse movie. Howl's Moving Castle makes no sense and forgets the book's plot until the last 2 minutes but is more enjoyable. Nothing what so ever happens in Kikki's Delivery Service and that's more enjoyable. I far prefer My Neighbour Tototo. Best Miyazaki film for me is Castle of Cagliostro, and he directed that before he and his friends got their own studio.
Okay, time to get myself really dis-liked.
Over rated: Star Wars. All of them. None of them are really great movies. Everybody says they prefer the first trillogy, but they're forgetting that when the sequels to the first film (Episode 4) came out everybody said how much they sucked compared to the original.
They're good kids movies, the first trillogy was enjoyable, it even have a few good performances. None of them were actually great movies.
Comrade Gorby: What part of "NO RELIGIOUS DISCUSSION" is unclear to you?
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When a man decides another's future behind his back, it is a conspiracy. When a god does it, it's destiny.
Snakes on a Plane. The bloody thing hasn't come out yet, and there's been so much hype for months. Over the concept of there being snakes on a plane? (Although I do laugh every time I hear someone quote "There's m*****-f***ing snakes on the m*****-f***ing plane!")
Under:
Timothy Dalton. Why does he only rate just above George Lazenby on most people's best Bond lists? He was the only half-way decent actor among the lot of them, and he was Bond as Bond was originally written: a stone-cold killing bastard. Not the wisecracking Moore or the emotional, easy-to-get-the-drop-on Brosnan. Liscense to Kill is definitely my favourite Bond movie of all of them.
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Funny, I always figured I'd be killed by a paladin.
So, what you're saying is we rolled a 1 on our credit check?
