It's a bad excuse. Stop it.

[Egon Spengler]

It was years ago when you saw the films you like, which is why you like them so much! You were younger then and it's the "nostalgia". That's why you don't like the new films, etc etc.

People use this excuse time and time again as the reason other people may not enjoy a film/TV show/video game, etc.

It's a bad one, top using it.

It doesn't really work.

Some examples:

A kid is 8 years old watches a film. The kid loves it. Absolutely loves it. 20 years later the kid is an adult now and watches the film and sees all the screwed up flaws in it. Bad writing, acting, whatever. He now thinks the movie sucks.


Kid is 8 years old and watches a film. Hates it and doesn't watch it for years. When the kid is an adult he watches the same film again and loves it!

An adult who has never seen a kids a film made in the 80's when he was a kid watches the film and hates it.

An adult who has never seen a kids film made in the 80's watches the film and loves it.


People like what they like and people don't have to agree. I'm not saying people can't debate why they like a film or not, but it isn't always about nostalgia reasoning.

Some people just don't like certain things.


It still stands though that some movies are just plain bad. They have big old flaws in them and they just don't sit right with people. But even so, there are a lot of people that still enjoy the films and that's okay too.

I'm not referencing any specific film/TV show/game/cartoon, etc in this post because it applies for all of those types of things, not just certain ones.


But please, really. Drop this horrible excuse for why someone doesn't like something you might enjoy. It's silly.

 

[Larry Young]

When I first saw Planet of the Apes I literally pooped my pants. My parents couldn't remember if it was the screaming-metal screech/dead lady or the monkey-on-a-horse-shooting-people-with-guns that did it but my mother laughs hysterically when she thinks back to that as she knows it's one of my favorite movies now.

DAMN MOM I WAS ONLY FIVE.

 

[Westies14]

Completely agreed. It's a bit insulting, really. I know which movies I loved as a kid weren't good movies, watching them now. The ones I still think are great films I've grown to appreciate on another level, as an adult. I can look at their structure, performances, cinematography, editing, scoring, etc from a critical standpoint and realize what makes them great on a technical level while still enjoying them the way I did as a child. Indiana Jones 4 and the Star Wars prequels are very poorly made in many ways (I'll go ahead and name them, even if you took the high road! :lol) and it's not because I'm not ten years old anymore. It's okay for other people to enjoy them, and I won't go trying to figure out why they do - it'd be nice if they could abstain from trying to name the reasons why I don't.

 

[Treadwell]

I dunno, I once had a discussion with a guy who insisted nostalgia was a perfectly legitimate standard for measuring quality. Not as a basis of a particular individual's enjoyment, mind you, (which is fine), but as an objective standard. Naturally, I told him he was insane.

 

[Mola Rob]

Biggest BS excuse there is.

 

[JD]

It's not as simple as that. As we age our tastes change... YES, we'll always have the movies we had as kids and for the most part, those movies will always have that special place for us.

However, new(er) movies aren't same for one simple reason - we aren't that 6 year old anymore. We've changed... movies have changed. A 6 year old shouldn't like Pulp Fiction, just as a 30 year old might not be as into The Phantom Menace.

It's not nostalgia. It's different tastes, it's maturation. It's the whole 'you can't go home again' thing. Star Wars came out over 30 years ago, we were different, the times were different - nothing can recreate that. The expectations were high for the prequels and nothing could compare to the original experience.

You don't like them? That's fine. But, I think way too many people have forgotten that these films are meant for. Cause there are lots of 6 year old's who love them... and lots of whiners crying about how it's not the same or how bad it is... or how terrible this or that is (cgi, etc)... frankly. people need to get over themselves a bit, way too much holier than thou in judging pre/sequels.

 

[Michael Bergeron]

A lot of my favourite stuff is because it's nostalgic to me. I can fully admit it's crap but I still love it now because it reminds me of my youth. Nothing wrong with that!

But yes, as an objective standard it's not applicable.

 

[Wolfie]

Its my excuse for liking certain movies, but I don't force that on everyone else as a reasoning for them.

Its all opinions anyway which are different from person to person.

I know for a fact I don't judge something I loved as a kid with so fine toothed a comb as I do something I didn't really care that much about when younger. *shrug*

Return of the Jedi being a big one for me.

It may not stand up for everyone, and people shouldnt tell others thats THEIR reason for not liking new versions etc, but its certainly a reason for myself personally. I think its probably the case for many others they just arent able to look at themselves objectively. lol

 

[Qui-Gonzalez]

A lot of my favourite stuff is because it's nostalgic to me. I can fully admit it's crap but I still love it now because it reminds me of my youth. Nothing wrong with that!

But yes, as an objective standard it's not applicable.

True, but opinions ARE subjective, so they are prone to a nostalgia based bias, especially when it comes to entertainment. I used to love watching "The Banana Splits" on Saturday mornings. Nostalgia prompted me to watch a re-run of it and I wondered why I liked that...show.

I will use Star Wars as an example. Lucas was the writer he is today back when Star Wars first hit the theater. He did not change a whit. He lucked into making a fanciful universe a majority of us hold in high regards, but he stopped there. He stopped when his contemporaries, like Spielberg, continued to mature as an artist. The hype about the prequels was all from us, the fans. We set the bar impossibly high.

So...nostalgia as a counter for a subjective argument is valid. Using it to prove an objective standard is not. We can, and do, argue opinions until our fingers are sore from typing.

 

[Larry Young]

I love that some form of the word **** was used three times in seven messages.

 

[Qui-Gonzalez]

Are you talking about the word "****", Larry?

 

[Egon Spengler]

So...nostalgia as a counter for a subjective argument is valid. Using it to prove an objective standard is not. We can, and do, argue opinions until our fingers are sore from typing.

This makes sense. Nostalgia is subjective, some might like a film due to the nostalgia, but it doesn't mean that just because someone enjoys an original film and not the sequel, that it's ONLY or even mostly because of the nostalgia.

That's what I don't agree with. Too often though it is used on this forum as a "This is a fact about you that don't agree" argument, but the truth is only the person that likes or dislikes a movie knows the real reasons behind why they do not like it. To say "You don't like the film because you aren't a kid anymore.", is only ones opinion, not a fact. I'm just saying people need to stop using it that way.

 

[teecrooz]

Perfectly valid excuse in some instances. There are many times where one of the posters says that the new movie destroyed their childhood. Only reason it would do that is due to nostalgia.

 

[Egon Spengler]

I'll never get the "It destroyed my childhood" thing.

 

[Mola Rob]

If someone actually says it ruined their childhood then it may be valid. I have found it's usually someone defending a particular movie (or series) that uses the excuse.

 

[dualedge]

Some people just don't like certain things.

It's not a great argument but there's certainly an element of truth to it.

The nostalgia argument is really just another way of saying "you had to be there." And like it or not, you can neither prove nor disprove it whether you like the argument or not.

It doesn't make it some hard and fast law... "if you were there, you'd agree with me!" It just means if you saw something in context, you might feel differently about it... maybe you'd love it or maybe you'd hate it.

Ultimately though I personally think that understanding the context of something is often (but not always) key to appreciating it.

Not to mention, a person's formative years is what the word "nostalgia" is all about because those are your first experiences.

It's an interesting discussion though your rant is humorous. It's like saying "everybody has their own tastes and that's cool so don't make excuses but, by the way, you're opinion sucks!" :lol

 

[Egon Spengler]

Nah, I'm not saying that at all. I'm just saying it shouldn't be used as a blanket statement or a statement toward an individual just because they like something someone else doesn't. It shouldn't be put forward as if it's a fact.

 

[dualedge]

I'll never get the "It destroyed my childhood" thing.

That I would agree with. I think that argument usually does come from a very defensive and superficial viewpoint.

I mean, I didn't like the Star Wars prequels (or the SEs) and I haven't liked an Indiana Jones film since Raiders but to say they actually went back into my childhood and ruined my memories of the first films... I dunno... that strikes me as odd.

I think a better argument along those lines would be something like "the prequels/SEs/whatever ruined my love of this franchise and made it more difficult for me to continue appreciating the originals." That argument at least makes some logical sense to me...

 

[dualedge]

Nah, I'm not saying that at all. I'm just saying it shouldn't be used as a blanket statement or a statement toward an individual just because they like something someone else doesn't. It shouldn't be put forward as if it's a fact.

I gotcha. Yeah, I liken it to the classic scenario of telling someone a joke second-hand... "you had to be there." In some cases it may be true but there's not really much value to try to convince someone of it after the fact

 

[Qui-Gonzalez]

If someone actually says it ruined their childhood then it may be valid.

So, one movie or TV show has taken all of the years of your childhood and rendered them horrible beyond measure? There is no circumstance that that is even possibly true, unless you are insane.