A friend and I went to see the A-Team movie with very low expectations. Both of us are under 30, and therefore obviously didn’t watch the TV series when it aired. In fact, I didn’t really experience the A-Team until only a few years ago, and my friend just started watching the series. After the movie ended, we both agreed that it was far better than we expected it would be — I’d rate it ‘good’ to ‘very good’.
However, as we were leaving (after watching the ‘after-the-credits’ parts), another patron commented to us that he hated the movie — “fucking terrible” was pretty close to what he called it. He then proceeded to explain that he watched the original series when it aired, and this didn’t stand up to it. What this guy was experiencing was classic ‘Star Wars Syndrome’.
Star Wars Syndrome is a different way of saying that someone is looking at something through rose coloured glasses. When the ‘new trilogy’ of Star Wars movies came out, fans of the original series were quick to say that the new episodes were complete crap and didn’t hold up against the originals. But really, the original movies weren’t that great. The effects were overdone, the acting wasn’t anything to write home about, and there were plot holes and cock-ups all around in the writing. But when the series was just out in theaters, it was excellent, and that’s how people who experienced it in theaters remember it.
However, for ‘kids’ who only saw the original trilogy a few years before the new movies (like myself), they didn’t have that gap in time between them to tint their views. As such, the new movies look just like the old ones, only with modern effects and updated writing styles to reflect current world states and views. A good summary of this theory is represented in this PVP Online comic.
But enough about Star Wars.
The guy who told us that the A-Team movie was terrible was simply going through the same thing. He watched and admired the A-Team when he was younger, around my age, but the years since have changed his own personal views. He remembers the A-Team as being good, but now due to these changes in his mindset, it just isn’t the same. So, when he watches the new movie, even though it holds true to the original, he sees it as being inferior.
I have to admit, I suffer from Star Wars Syndrome when it comes to ‘Transformers’. I grew up watching the Transformers and loved it. Then I watched the ‘Beast Wars/Machines’ series, and loved that. But, when I try to watch the original Transformers now, I can’t stand it. I remember loving it, but times have changed, and I look at it from another point of view.
So was the A-Team movie really any good? I say yes, and others say no. Will you like it? Probably the best way to answer that is, were you a fan of the original series, and if so, when was the last time you watched it?
