There's something I'm trying to figure out about why I have a harder time connecting to recent movies that seemingly everyone else has strong emotional reactions to.
Does anyone have any insight on this phenomenon?
I feel like certain modern movies just don't resonate with me the way they are trying to. I just saw The Odyssey on the weekend, which was a great example, but I've had the same experience before. Other notable examples would be Project Hail Mary and Wild Robot. I enjoyed all these movies just fine, especially The Odyssey, which was amazing. I just didn't react emotionally to them.
For each of these, I can think of another similar movie that hit me hard and made me cry a lot. In general, I'm a pretty emotional person, and think of myself as someone who cries easily, especially with movies and books, so I just don't get what I'm missing.
Comparing Gladiator (2000) to Odyssey for example. I find Gladiator very emotional, even though the characters aren't necessarily acting in an overly emotional way. In the Odyssey, I just...couldn't feel the emotion that the characters were feeling and that I was very clearly supposed to be feeling?
I would compare Project Hail Mary similarly to movies like Contact (1997) and Apollo 13 (1995). Couldn't connect at all with the big emotional climax of PHM.
And then also comparing Wild Robot to The Iron Giant. I absolutely sob in the Iron Giant, which isn't even trying to be heart-wrenching. I cried while reading The Wild Robot to my child, but watching the movie on screen just felt kinda...meh?
I think it's something about it feeling like the emotion is being forced instead of earned? But I don't know why I feel that way if others do feel like the emotion is fully earned.
Does anyone else feel the same? Or do you have insight on what it could be about the movies or about me that is causing this? Is it just me being 37 and liking movies that I grew up with, and not changing as culture changes?