The Rabid Fans

I was meaning to make this post last week, but I was too busy. Anyway, he is my second column, which, in some ways, is a continuation of the first column.

The internet has forever changed the way people get there information. You are no longer limited to newspapers, magazines, radio and TV. With the internet, you have access to, literally, millions of pages of information, just by pressing a few buttons.

In terms of movies, this information can include information on a movie months, even years before it finally gets released.

It’s sites like The Internet Movie Database that really got me interested in every aspect of the movie industry. If it wasn’t for me running into IMDB a few years ago, I probably wouldn’t even be writing this Blog right now.

What I’m here to talk about today is what IMDB (and most other movie sites) offers to the fans: A forum to speak their opinions.

In the case of IMDB, this includes posting comments on movies, as well as a message board for each movie listed on the database.

Now internet fans are an interesting bread. I would say that the vast majority of people who bother to post comments on movie forums tend to be between the ages of 10 and 25. As a result, you would have a bunch of young people speaking their minds on the Internet for everyone to see. And boy can it get messy.

I prefer to split the internet fans into the following categories:
The Lover
This internet fan would make posts expressing nothing but praise for the movie being talked about. These people tend to love the movie so much, that they tend to be hard to believe.

The Hater
The opposite of The Lover, The Hater posts nothing, but negative comments about the movie.

The Reviewer
The middle ground between the Lover and the Hater. These internet fans tend to post full reviews of the movie, complete with their own 1-5 star rating.

The Poser
These are people are generally wannabe filmmakers. They think they know the ins and outs of the movie industry and they tend to post on how they can make a better film.

and finally

The Average Joe
These are the rest of the people (me included), who just tend to discuss the movie optimistically.

Of course, there are probably more categories of internet fans out there. The point is, the internet has allowed all these colourful characters to have a voice on the movies we love.

While they may not always be positive, it is definitely good for fans to voice their opinions on the internet. It is also pretty likely that somewhere out there, there is some filmmaker reading what the fans think of his/her movie. There is also a good chance that he/she would incorporate that feedback in his/her next film.

But then again, who is going to listen to a bunch of 10-25 year olds?