Opposing Reactions, Part 2: Movies That I Liked But You Hated

Speaking of opposing: opposite of my last post, here are 2 movies that I liked (contrary to majority of opinions), and a 3rd that I liked parts of:

Partial Like: “Fantastic Four (2015)”

I mentioned my thoughts about this before, but to sum up: I liked the opening act, didn’t like the rest. This is on this list solely for the opening act and special effects. Both of those were wonderful. Once the backstories of the Fantastic 4 are established and the ‘incident’ happens, the movie makes a wrong turn towards ‘bad’… and doesn’t turn around for over an hour.

1)  “Avengers: Age of Ultron”

This was the hyped movie of 2015. It did not disappoint.

I went into this movie without a lot of comic book knowledge of Ultron or that storyline. I really enjoyed the movie: the creepiness of James Spader as Ultron; the introduction of Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver (stupid that they weren’t called ‘mutants’); some of the big fight scenes (Sarkovia, ending fight) were pretty cool.

However, there are quite a few people that picked this movie apart, for whatever silly reason they had. Some of the more noteworthy reasons include:
“Ultron shouldn’t be humorous – he should be ruthless”
“It had holes, compared to the comics”
“It was bad – it was just ‘Avengers’ all over again!”

It, to me, comes down to “knowledgeable comic book fan” vs. “non-comic book fan”. If you are invested in comic books, you probably had a problem with the movie. I, however, am not invested; that is likely why I enjoyed it… and will watch it again, when possible.

2) “Poltergeist (2015)”

No, the remake of “Poltergeist” was not a cinematic classic. No, it was not quite as good or spooky at the 1982 original. It, however, was not a bad movie overall; it was a good horror movie… and maybe I’m missing why so many people disliked it.

AGAIN, you have to use the first 20 minutes or so “setting the scene”: introducing the main characters, showing some of their personalities, hinting that something might not quite be alright, etc. I could have done without the “ghost hunter” character but it was a nice ‘modern’ twist.

Once things start going bump in the night, the movie was fine. There were plenty of scary moments – nothing groundbreaking, but effective enough (like the people above). There were also some cool odes to the original movie, such as the TV scene (of course) and the “spirits coming down the stairs” scene. I think too many people tried to compare it to that creepy feeling they got when watching the original “Poltergeist” as kids; 23 years is a long time for movie memories to simmer.