The “Diminished Expectations” Phenomenon
(or: If You’ve Already This When I Posted This Rant On Facebook, I Apologise (But The Likelihood That Anyone Read That Is Ridiculously Low, So Whatever))
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In a depressing turn of events, it appears that for most of my life I have watched all the movies I’ve ever watched (and if you know me well enough, you’ll know that I’ve watched a lot of movies) through the filter of a phenomenon known as ”diminished expectations”.
This means that I - as a member of “the audience” - have become so used to so many movies turning out to be utter rubbish, that whenever a particular film has at least one element of it that is in some way positive, I take it as a sign that the film is better than it actually is, and trick myself into liking it, when in reality it’s really a load of balls.
Incidentally, this (metaphorical) red pill realisation is all Mark Kermode’s fault. In his book The Good, The Bad and the Multiplex (which I got for Christmas), he gave a more elaborate, detailed and horribly prevalent argument about “diminished expectations,” which made jaw-droppingly terrible sense and has now made me feel the need (not for speed) to re-assess all my past filmic experiences and determine whether or not I actually liked them because they were properly brilliant, or because my expectations were so low that the film lived only slightly above them.
(NOTE: this phenomenon does not apply to Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, almost every Christopher Nolan film, The Truman Show, The Conversation, Serenity, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Children of Men, All The President’s Men, and a whole host of other films that are actually perfect. Just so we’re clear…)
About me
Hi and hello.The name's Jack.
No, I am NOT a Ripper, nor am I climbing any sort of beanstalk, nor any sort of hill with a girl named Jill; I am definitely not a 10 year old in Robin Williams' body, I never invented Twitter, and - most importantly - my surname isn't "Black" or "White" (if you see what I mean).
I'm currently 18 years old, but don't hold that against me.
You may either find me somewhat amusing, or extremely annoying.
I'm obsessed with the number 23 (for reasons you'll discover sooner or later).
I have a tendency to write things in a somewhat long-winded fashion.
And there's some other non-interesting things about me that aren't worth writing about in a blog biography, but that you will eventually discover those "other things" for yourself.
You have been warned.
MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
(P.S. I do that evil genius laugh a lot. And I use this emoticon (=P) a lot. And I repeat myself...a lot. And I often write (bracketed sentences) within other (bracketed sentences). Just thought I should throw that in there, too...)
