Completely missing the point

Sat in the pub with the boyfriend on Saturday night, we got onto the discussion of 'shit films' after one of his housemates was watching a particularly cheesy piece of cinematic shite, Beastly - a remake of Beauty & The Beast. Have you seen it? If you have and you enjoyed it then you are now dead to me, and if you haven't seen it then take it from me that it should be avoided like the plague because it's the biggest load of wank with cliched lines and weak acting. In my opinion.

Anyway, that's how the conversation on films started. It then progressed to my boyfriend telling me he'd read a story in the news that Odeon cinemas had been refunding tickets to people who went to see The Artist, but then demanded a refund because there was no talking in it.

After a moment of spluttering and trying to get my head around what I'd just heard, the only response I could come out with was: "What complete fucktards!"

"Who?" asks the boyfriend, and to be honest I think that's where my confusion really started because I don't know who that was directed at as it appears to me there's a fine line between who's stupider: the members of the audience that went to see a SILENT film and then complained when there was no dialogue, or Odeon for refunding these culturally inept twats. Who was to win the 'fucktard' title?

Seriously though, how can people go to see a film which has received so much acclaim and coverage for the fact that it's in black and white and that the trailer is completely silent except for members of the audience commenting on it, that they completely missed the point and concept of the film? My guess is that they're band waggon hoppers that thought, "oh my god like everyones talking about this really amazing film, that's like so cutting edge and because we're edgy and stuff we should go and see it and totally get it because we're big cinematic fans."

Well, you didn't get it did you? You completely missed the fucking point of the beauty and irony and historical context of the film and because you're so bought in on glitzy Hollywood anything that breaks the conformity you're used to, or that you have to think about, or god forbid you should be asked to be slightly more active in watching the film by reading rather than a completely passive member of the audience where your eyes look lazily at the screen expecting to see all the whizz-bangs and CGI effects that are usually so lovingly put together in your blockbusters, you felt the need to ask for a fucking refund because you needed to engage with what was in front of you.

Twats.

The cinema's no better though in my opinion. I don't think they should have refunded the fucktards, thus also making them stupid too. Apparently Odeon have a policy whereby you can get your money back if you leave the film 10 minutes in and you're not enjoying it - wish I'd known that when I went to see Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland. Terrible.

Something just doesn't sit right with me about it though. Even though I didn't like Alice In Wonderland, I knew what I was getting myself into, it's just unfortunate that the story retold in the way it was, wasn't very good. The fact that The Artist doesn't have any dialogue in it shouldn't be justification for people finding the film crap. They're entitled to think that if they wish, but not because of the lack of sound because that's the point of the film. If the plot was rubbish too, then fair enough, walk out, but you can't go to see a silent film and then criticise it for being too silent. That's plain stupid.

What we can learn from this is people need to pay more attention to reviews or at least take half an interest in what they're hoping to see at the cinema rather than jumping on a band waggon and feeling obliged to see it because it's 'critically acclaimed'. If it doesn't sound like (pardon the pun) the sort of film you'd like, then don't see it. I avoided Avatar for that exact same reason.

Here's the article I read up about it. Don't even get me started on the typos in there...

RoseC