The Passion of Pre-Conceived Hate

Admit it. Go on, admit it. We all know it. We've known it for a while to be honest. It's OK. We've all done it. In fact some of us still do it. There's a few who actually really enjoy it. So no worries. You're among friends here. We accept you. (I would kill to know what all is running through your mind right about now)

It's that film isn't it? You know the one. The one that the second it's mentioned you instantly bring up feelings of hate and disgust. You remember, don't you? It's that movie you've never seen. That movie you never will see. But you somehow know in your heart of hearts that the movie will be crap, and you can't stand its existence. Why? Perhaps because it has an overwhelming fanbase full of people you don't like. Maybe everything from the trailer grates against the very fabric of your morals. Or maybe you're just in a groggy mood and it came along at the wrong time.

Either way, once in a while we need to vent and a certain film comes into our sights and we unleash all our wrath onto it. In my younger days, Passion of the Christ was a film which held this particular attribute. Perhaps it was the youthful heathen in me, but for the most part it was the incessant "watch this and then you'll believe" attitude of those around me (which of course set me up for major confusion when I saw Little Buddha some time later - am I supposed to worship Keanu Reeves?).

However years went by. The immediacy of that agitation went by the wayside, and I eventually watched the movie. And little to my surprise I came away rather indifferent on the whole. And since that time, some years ago, several other films have come and gone from the mantle of societal excommunication. The invisible realm of opinion where we reject the quality of something based solely on its relative fans. You know, the sort of vehement dissidence one reserves for the like of a Twilight film.

And yet, through it all I've come to one absolute in film criticism. You can't critique what you haven't seen. Many can try. Many have tried (myself included). But we all fail. Try as we might, it is not our place to judge one another by something as variable as taste. Because who knows what tomorrow will bring, and what affect that will have upon us. Honestly, we might even end up liking that Justin Bieber movie (*shivers*)...