A very long time ago (I kid, it was only three freaking days ago) I posted an entry entitled “Opinions are like…” and went on to talk about the fact that director Steven Spielberg, the man who may well be one of the people most responsible for inspiring me to pursuing my writing career thanks to the impact of seeing his first hit movie Duel on TV when it originally aired (read the rest of the post here), had very kind things to say about Guardians of the Galaxy, a film I absolutely hated.

The purpose of my post was to say this: Opinions about things, especially works of art, are individualistic.  What may float my boat may well sink yours and vice versa.  Guardians of the Galaxy was a tremendously successful film that had high positive responses from both audiences and critics and to this day many consider it the very best “Marvel” film ever made.

I do NOT begrudge Mr. Spielberg’s, or anyone else’s for that matter, opinion regarding the film.  Indeed, if you liked it, good for you.  My opinion of the film should have no impact on your opinion of it and, frankly, I wish I could have liked it as much as so many did.  The film was certainly in my particular wheelhouse but, again, it just didn’t work.  For me.

Part of the reason I posted that entry was because I’m alarmed by how militant -and insulting- people are regarding their opinions about such things.

You can find the most -and frankly really ugly– example of this in this article by Gina Carbone for moviefone.com:

The War Over Ghostbusters Gets Ugly As New Trailer Drops

The article is about how Angry Video Game Nerd (AVGN) posted a youtube video in which he stated he would absolutely not be seeing the new version of the Ghostbusters  film.  AVGN has great fondness for the original Bill Murray/Dan Ackroyd film (many do) and is certain this new version of Ghostbusters will be terrible.  He goes on at lengths explaining why he feels this film is bad and, again, it is his opinion and he’s certainly entitled to it.

What happened next is what is so alarming.

People start posting pro and con comments regarding AVGN’s video/opinion and things got really ugly when comedian/actor Patton Oswald came on and posted a comment that rather than condemn the film pre-emptively, AVGN should watch the new Ghostbusters and then make his comments.  If the film is terrible, then so be it.  Let the makers have it.

But at least see the film before you knock it.

Mr. Oswald’s comments resulted in a cascade of comments and some of them got really nasty.  How nasty?  Some people -I kid you not- made light of the fact that Mr. Patton’s wife had very recently passed away.

Yes folks, it got that ugly.

Now, I ask: Is Mr. Patton’s above comment, that one should see a film before condemning it, out of bounds?  Does it deserve the ugliness that followed?  Was it in any way controversial?

I’d say what he wrote sounds incredibly…reasonable.

Unless you work for Sony and have already seen the film in some secret pre-screening, you have NO IDEA how good this new version of Ghostbusters is.

You can assume certain things, of course.  Based on the negative reception of the first trailer, you can assume the film may not be very good, but there have been very bad trailers made for very good films and vice versa, so at best you’re reacting to a “bad” trailer.  You can lament the fact that this film doesn’t feature the original cast but, given that original cast-member Harold Ramis passed away, there isn’t going to be an original cast movie anymore.  You can lament the fact that they’re remaking a beloved film (got knows I’ve gone through that plenty of times) and the track record for remakes isn’t the greatest.  Finally, if Melissa McCarthy or director Paul Fieg’s films to this date haven’t floated your boat, its reasonable to assume you may not like this film as well and, that being the case, you certainly are in well within your rights to say you aren’t going to bother seeing this version of Ghostbusters.

AVGN has every right to his opinions.  He has every right to express absolutely no hope and/or interest in seeing this new Ghostbusters.  I don’t even begrudge him the opinion that this new film will be horrible/terrible/the-final-sign-of-the-apocalypse…

…just as it is equally fine for Mr. Oswald to opine that one shouldn’t condemn this new film -or any new film- before, you know, actually seeing it.

Two opinions, both equally fine.

Why the ugliness?