THE 10 MOST OVERRATED MOVIES OF 2011
“Overrated” is something of a dirty word. But while most dirty words are drifting further and further away from their original meanings (or from having any meaning at all), “overrated” seems to be slowly coming into focus. I mean, when in the history of our species have things been more obsessively rated? The Romans only had two scores: Thumbs up you live, thumbs down you die. There was only one critic, and he was Joaquin Phoenix. That system worked for thousands of years, Siskel and Ebert predicating their influential show on that harsh binary scale. But then the Internet happened, opinions stratified to the heavens, and the gloriously carefree days of the “good / bad” divide seemed at an end.
But, as they so memorably said in that prequel to The Lost World, “Life finds a way.” People, perhaps motivated by an unconscious desire to return to a two-opinion system, began splitting themselves up into tribes of thought. Contentious talkbacks showed us the need, Twitter hashtags showed us the teams, and the holy Tomatometer showed us the score.
Witch hunts formed (“I saw Goody Armond trashing I Saw the Devil!”). And while one’s feeling on whether the consensus on a given movie is too high or too low will always remain a decidedly subjective thing, it seems increasingly easy to decipher where the consensus is. And a lot of times this year, I was looking up at it.
There were a lot of great movies in 2011. It was such a great year for movies that Tim Burton didn’t even release a new one. There was a ton of stuff to love, but sometimes people love things more than they should (see: Pugs, The Tron Guy, cream cheese cupcake frosting, etc…). Even worse, sometimes people love things more than I think they should. What harm is there in enjoying a movie to an extent that exceeds my personal opinion? Well, I’m not really sure, but it’s a menace and I’m here to put a stop to it. So here’s a list of the year’s 10 most overrated films, ranked by how undeservedly over-praised they were to me, with the #1 spot occupied by the movie which I know I thought enjoyed the greatest disparity between its perceived quality and its actual merits. Feel free to expression your rage in the comments below. Oh, and BEWARE SPOILERS.
