For many mediums of entertainment, I'm not one to get defensive. Don't like South Park or Arrested Development? There's no accounting for taste. Not fond of the movie scores of John Williams. Well, I can understand that. You found War & Peace to be too long? Yeah, I can see that.
Only when it comes to movies to I tend to get defensive, especially if it is a movie I really like. It isn't that I can't rationally grasp the idea that somebody doesn't see the movie the way I see it, because I certainly can. Its more of a emotional response that is built from a deep sense of insecurity about my personal tastes.
Although movies such as Little Miss Sunshine, Juno, and Stranger than Fiction* elicit this response from me, the three biggest movies that cause me to become overly defensive are Episodes I-III of Star Wars.
Yeah, I'm an apologist for lil' Ani's big Adventure. Big deal, you wanna fight about it? Its so bad I tense up and get snippy when watching any episode of South Park that defames The Phantom Menace, or that episode of The Simpsons where they break into a Lucas-like director's compound to pontificate on the value of a good story. I know its childish, and I get crap for it from my friends and siblings. But the fact remains that I still like the films.
I think its a desire to see these Star Wars films as my Star Wars, considering I wasn't born until a year after The Empire Strikes Back came out. I also think it is because people went overboard in their criticism (much of the problems with Episodes I-III are also present in the earlier films), and were unrealistic in their expectations. Most of all, I think The Phantom Menace, Jar-Jar and camel farts excepted, is a very solid film. **
As I get older, I do think I've mellowed somewhat on this issue. I mostly keep my mouth shut when I hear or see criticisms of the prequels, and I can certainly agree that maybe Lucas could have used some people who weren't afraid to challenge him on some of his decisions***. Besides, I think we all can agree that The Clone Wars movie was a forgettable piece of mediocrity.
* Pixar films can be included here as well, but I am sure that anybody who doesn't like Pixar are either Dreamworks plants or soul-less automatons (or both).
** Most of my defensiveness is about Episode I. I've come down a bit on Episode II (especially Natalie Portman's performance and some of the effects), and Episode III is well liked enough that I don't feel the need to defend it.
*** Like damnit, George, Jar-Jar? Really?
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