When did everything become so brilliant?
I enquired about the latest Roland Emmerich movie “2012” the other day and was told it was “awesome”. Similarly, when asking what the newest album spewed out by Robbie Williams was like I was told he was a legend. The newest episode of Dr Who is apparently genius.
WRONG!
A cure for cancer would be awesome. Robin Hood was a legend. Einstein was a genius.
You only have to look at the posters in your local cinemas to see how out of control this use of language has become. Everywhere films are lauded as “amazing”, “stunning”, and “incredible.” Even on the sports pages of papers footballers exploits on the field are described as “brilliant”, “fantastic” or “breath-taking.” What happened to “pretty good”, “impressive” and “not bad?”
The use of superlatives in the media and in everyday speech is completely out of control and what’s more, it’s cheapening the meaning of words that are being used too often and unnecessarily. The desire to label everything with a superlative is simply an indication of how far standards have fallen in the entertainment business and also in society as a whole. Mediocre personalities, run of the mill films and simply adequate television shows are now immediately labelled with a completely unwarranted superlative merely to try and create some interest in them.
As far as films are concerned there are a handful of so-called “critics” who specialize in this ridiculous over praising of films merely to get their names on the posters. Anyone who can call ‘2012’ awesome is not only misusing superlatives they’ve also got no knowledge of film. In fact, to label this latest blockbuster from the man who is credited with directing ‘Independence Day’ and ‘The Day after Tomorrow’ as awesome is tantamount to an admission of brain damage. To label ‘Harry Brown’ as “the most important film of the year” is not only misleading it’s also misinformed.
A film like ‘The Godfather’ was awesome. A film like ‘Taxi Driver’ was brilliant. Sam Peckinpah (director of ‘The Wild Bunch’ and ‘Straw Dogs’) was a genius and, by the way, this isn’t a matter of personal opinion, it’s a fact. Those morsels of praise have been well earned, not plastered on posters for the sake of marketing purposes. So
stop with the uber-praise will you? Most things in this life are mediocre, passable, bearable or not bad. At best, things are reasonable.
In fact, I think I’d have to paraphrase Woody Allen when it comes to a view of life. “It varies between the horrible and the dreadful.”
Sounds like we’re back to “2012” again.
