5 Simple Ways We Can Improve Our Moviegoing Experiences

3. Go Into The Theater With An Open Mind

Frequenting IMDb has its merits, as we've discussed. However, becoming an film-forum fixture has its pitfalls, as well. One of said pitfalls is giving a film a stigma before it's released. Let me explain. Let's say you look up an upcoming release online and you see a director's name that you don't recognize. You go visit his IMDb page. The first thing you do is scroll down their list of credits and see if you've seen anything of his (or hers). Chances are that you have, and the chances also are that you have strong feelings about those films. Those feelings are starting to build a preconception about the upcoming film in your mind. And, as if that wasn't bad enough, you make the preconception stronger by going to visit the message boards! There, you're open to influence by film buffs who have strong opinions about that director. As a result of your research, you're going into that film with either expectations of greatness or "knowing" that the film will be bad. Either way, you're being unfair. Essentially, you're letting your personal attitudes color the film, inhibiting the film from entertaining you in the way it intended. The ideal situation is to go to the theater with an open mind. Going into a film with no attitude but wanting to be entertained will help us to get the best experience from a film.