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SeekingBlood  1yr ago (text post)   2414 thread views

I feel that people often praise movies that call out or subvert expectations of their genre solely because they do that, even if execution of the subversion itself is not good.

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Subverting an audience's expectations as part of a deeper artistic/philosophical/moral point can be highly effective. To cite two of my favourite narrative video games, Metal Gear Solid 2 and Spec Ops: The Line would not have been half as effective if they had announced upfront what their themes and intentions were. Pulling the rug out from under the player made the messages of these games more impactful.

Subverting an audience's expectations just for the sake of doing so (or for the sake of surprise/shock value) is shallow and masturbatory.

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