I've noticed over the years that with a lot of movies I only really enjoy the first 20-30 minutes (or 1/3) of many movies. It's not that I'm critical of the rest, its just that once I get to a certain point in most movies, I'm ready to move on. But that opening 20-30 I never tire of watching. Not every movie, but quite a few

Anyone else?

Pretty much I don't watch new releases anymore, they all suck, political messages and such. John WIck flicks are an exception, and Transporters. The rest-well, I get all the liberal crap I need without paying for it. And Netflix is really cheap.

Maybe your attention span has been affected by watching half-hour long TV shows.

quote:

Originally posted by arfmel:
Maybe your attention span has been affected by watching half-hour long TV shows.

It's not really an attention span issue, it is more that I think the best part of the movie is the beginning. For instance, Full Metal Jacket, I can watch the entire boot camp opening from haircuts to the MOS reading after graduation back to back, the rest of the movie is ok but that is far and above my favorite. It seems like in a lot of movies the beginning is my favorite part.

Not all movies, just some

Maybe you're detecting a lack of writing and directing talent. They work real hard to get you interested, then stop, look around, and say, "What do we do now?"

Without a real plot and purpose, the "hook" of the movie is the only good part to watch... and you've just watched it.

OP:
same thing happens to me
I either can't stand to stay in enforced seating that long, lose interest, or fall asleep.

Oddly enough, anything that actually requires to actively do some even minor motor skill thing can captivate for hours.

The converse of that is the movie Flight where the first 20-30 minutes are absolute shite, but the rest of it was pretty good.

quote:

Originally posted by Rightwire:
It's not really an attention span issue, it is more that I think the best part of the movie is the beginning. For instance, Full Metal Jacket, I can watch the entire boot camp opening from haircuts to the MOS reading after graduation back to back, the rest of the movie is ok but that is far and above my favorite. It seems like in a lot of movies the beginning is my favorite part.

Not all movies, just some

That part of the movie was the closest depiction of Marine Corps boot camp ever.

My vote is on bad writing as well. Hollywood has been building TV and movies around something that takes a smaller amount of time and fill the space with BS.

Someone can have a really good idea for about 30 minutes of space and they say turn it into an hour and a half movie. If they don't people wont pay the 10 bucks for a 30 minute movie.

Or a TV show that's worth 4 episodes but completed in 10. Think about the walking dead's first season, it was 6 episodes? Now they are how long? Pressure to fill advertising space.

Basically they have built norms around movies/TV shows that just don't exist today and they are afraid to adapt/change so the story suffers, thus your disinterest.

I really like a lot of the Netflix original programming. Thes aren't constrained to the typical movie lengths, or episodic tv pattern.

They exist not constrained by theatre, or tv commercial revenues.