By this point you couldn’t have avoided it: something terrible happened in a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado. A masked gunman burst into a midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises and fired into the crowd, killing twelve and wounding scores more. As this is the internet and the modern era of thinking (that is, think less, say more), the webisphere was immediately abuzz with a flourish of articles, tweets, and Facebook posts running the gamut from respectable (condolences to families) to unnecessary (political rhetoric) to stupid (generally, again, politics) and, worst of all, to fear mongering. It is not enough to report on anything these days, whether it’s box office or a tragic event. No, these things must be milked and trussed up and trotted out, clad in hyperbolic statements and paraded around to get hits. Everything must first be related to the self and then shown to the world. If people still aren’t reading, then scare them. Go too far. Don’t think, react. Well, that’s bullshit.

In doing a quick bit of research for this article, I came across an article from none other than our own publisher, Neil Miller. Now, I didn’t bother to read the entire article, because I got what I needed and wouldn’t want to be swayed by facts or reason or anything, but his opening felt perfect for this topic, so I’m going to use it here: “Expectations are a funny thing. For a critic, they are the worst thing to have. Going into a film with any kind of expectations, good or bad, can color one’s ultimate perception of a film and sway a review one way or another.” I hope that now Neil feels good knowing that I think he has a really good point there, because in a minute, I’m going to use him as an example of what the fuck is wrong with this world. His point is relevant though, because expectations definitely influence how we view movies. If you go into a movie with super high expectations, you may feel let down. If you go in with low expectations, you can be pleasantly surprised. The best thing to do would be to go in with no expectations and just feel the movie slip inside you, deep and raw. But the modern world doesn’t allow this. Everyone is vying for the top spot when it comes to the final word on a film. To be noticed, we shout out the following words: amazing, funniest, greatest, best, of