What does it mean to say something is boring? What does it mean to say a movie is boring? When is a movie boring?
Is something being boring a description of the work itself or merely a label that reflects more on the person who perceives the boring thing? Today I want to talk a bit about what it means to call a film boring.
I have a friend who recently re-watched The Lord of the Rings (Lotr). He told me they were boring and were made at a time when movies could afford to be boring. He did not say that HE as an individual found them boring. He stated it as a fact as if boredom is an element of the film itself. Is this true though? I am not arguing that he did not find it boring, of course he did. I’m merely expressing doubt in terms of the objective statement. If you were to say:
“Lotr is about a ring and it’s boring”
Is that a true statement?
These two statements are not equal or even comparable. Lotr is indeed about a ring that much is certain, but the “boring” part seems to be outside of the film. It is not a feature of the film, in the same way the plot or the costumes are.
A couple of days ago I found myself in the mood for Lotr, as a bonus I could try and verify if I found it boring. After all, I did see it when I was a child and I hold it in very high regard, but maybe nostalgia has blinded me. I pressed play and the results were overwhelming.
See, it is not that I am not capable of identifying what makes something good, bad, and boring for some people. It was more that I could not for the life of me conceive of it as boring. I was totally engrossed and even though my plan was only to watch the first half I was glued to the screen for three hours.
It opens with a great exciting battle. When there are no action scenes you learn something new about the world. Everything is paced very well and the music enhances every single scene. Everything is just great from the cinematography to the costumes. The idea that it was a boring film is inconceivable to me, I can not see it. Or, I should say I can see it from the perspective of someone who doesn’t like fantasy. I think those people could easily find it boring. My friend is not that person though. I did give him push back and he did say it was still good, just boring.
You can, of course, have something that is “good” and “boring” just like you can have something that is “bad” and “boring”. Consider a beautiful painting, you can admire the craft and the techniques and if you are interested in art then surely you would consider it exciting. However, the act of looking at a painting is not as stimulating as watching a movie, let’s say. You can admire the craft of something while being bored by it.
You can admire the painting, but the act of looking at it is not necessarily fun. The same goes for a slow but well-crafted film.
What does it mean to say a movie is boring?
At this point, it is clear that too much short-formed content like TikTok and shorts are affecting our attention span. The evidence is clear on this. Suppose your attention span can be tampered with. If you can strengthen it in some ways and weaken it in other ways wouldn’t a film being boring would be a reflection on you as the audience rather than of the work itself? If me and my friend both watch the same film and are both convinced of our assertion of it being boring and not boring wouldn’t that be clear evidence that the “boredom” lies with the viewer?
What people find to be boring is also subjective. People have different preferences for what they like and dislike. There can be many reasons why someone would dislike Lotr, maybe they don’t get fantasy, or maybe they only gravitate toward more realistic stories. Maybe their attention span is bad and they simply can’t focus for three hours. You see how the last part can be linked back to the perception of boredom.
Can a film be objectively boring?
I do not think so.
I find long action scenes boring, clearly not everyone does and action and excitement are the opposite of boring right? To me, overly large/long action sequences are flavorless and uninteresting.
See, the perception of what constitutes something as boring also varies from person to person. Some people just don’t like some genres (like fantasy) it would thus make sense that some people find some genres more “boring” simply because they don’t have a starting interest in that thing.
When people say “it’s boring” what they mean is “I found it boring”. I do this too of course and I’m not saying we should do something different or start saying it another way. I am simply attacking what I found to be a very shallow point of movie criticism. Dismissing something out of hand is one of my pet peeves when it comes to movie criticism. It is not clear to me at all that I would find a movie boring, just because someone else did.
The stereotype of something being boring is a slow-moving film where not a lot of stuff is happening. I am a big Stanley Kubrick fan, but I do find his film “Eyes Wide Shut” to be kind of boring. It is simply too long and too slow for me. It drags some scenes like the last talk with Tom Cruise and his friend out for way too long. Sure I can admire the craft which in Kubrick’s case is always impeccable, but I just find it too much of a test of patience. However, I fully agree that someone other than me, with different preferences and different tastes, would like the film more and not find it boring.
The fact that people’s attention span is linked to how much they find things boring, plus the idea that two people can watch the same film and one think it incredibly exciting and, the other would find it boring clearly indicates to me that a “boring” film has more to do with the viewer than the film itself. So next time you rant about a movie being boring just remember it’s not the movie being boring it’s you.