I am sorely disappointed with my fellow geeks this week. Sorely. Disappointed. I’ve seen my fair share of whining, screaming and teeth gnashing in my day, but what I’ve seen over the last week or so has really gotten to me. This week, New Line Cinema finally put out the theatrical editions of The Lord of the Rings trilogy on Blu-ray – no doubt part of a two-step plan to get the series on Blu-ray, with the gargantuan, geek-preferred Extended Editions to follow. But rather than rejoicing and doing backflips in the streets, people are pissed. They’re angry. They’ve flooded the Amazon review page with over 2500 reviews before the product even hit streets – over 2000 of which are 1 star reviews.
2000 worthless reviews from whiny, pedantic fans who haven’t even seen the product to properly comment on it. They’re angry because they have to wait longer. Because their preferred version of the film has been delayed. Because rather than bundle multiple versions in the same box, they chose to release them separately. And it has brought to light a very real and very ugly side of geekdom, that being the geek as an over-empowered uber-consumer.
Whether dealing with the notions of digital piracy or talking about the purchase of legitimate goods, there has been a growing consensus amongst many of us standing at the digital pulpits that we are somehow “owed” our entertainment and art; that once someone has created something and we have been allowed to see it, that it now belongs to us. Sure, there are a number of theses and philosophies arguing about the audience’s participation in art – but this is something else entirely. It is some form of deranged consumerist syllogism: Blu-ray exists. The Lord of the Rings Extended Editions exist. Thus Lord of the Rings Extended Editions on Blu-ray must exist and we MUST buy it.
Someone told me this week that I had gotten so used to getting product for free that I’d lost my “perspective” on the matter and that they understood the “rage.” Rage. They said “rage”. And that’s not the first time I’ve heard the word this week. And it set me to thinking. New Line never said they wouldn’t release the Extended Editions; they didn’t deceptively market these as the extended editions in some sort of bait and switch; they didn’t market a substandard product and then refuse return of product; they didn’t promote this as the last time you’ll ever be able to buy Lord of the Rings; they aren’t releasing the Extended Editions for sale only to people who produce a copy of the original sales receipt from a purchase of the Theatrical versions on Blu-ray; and they certainly didn’t bundle the Extended Editions together with their Theatrical siblings only to charge $60 a blue ray, with all three films sold individually. In fact, there isn’t a single unseemly, unethical or despicable business practice to be found in the entire endeavor.
And people are using the word, “rage”. People feel justified in screaming and crying like children demanding the version THEY want, rather than, well, you know, the versions that made a Billion dollars a pop theatrically and outsold the Extended Editions by a large margin. I love that the Extended Cuts exist. I love that New Line has embraced that level of niche marketing. I especially love that there is a passionate, vocal fanbase still supporting what I believe to be one of the greatest films ever made (I consider the three as a whole; one single, perfect film.) What I don’t love is how that fanbase has acted over the release of a single product. Shrug it off; complain that it’s just theatrical and contains no new, special content other than a higher resolution image; hell, refuse to buy it. But the widespread negative reviews that spend more time talking about what’s NOT there rather than what is? The Amazon bombing before release? It’s all been quite undignified and more than just a little bit silly.
The initial 1 star review that tipped off the wave of 2000? It has 13,000 endorsements of support finding it “helpful.” How spoiled are we that we not only look this infantile over the release of a single product, but willingly endorse the behavior in others? We look ridiculous this week. And it is entirely our fault. We are not owed our entertainment; we are not owed anything. And acting like spoiled children won’t get us the versions we want any faster; it just makes us look like spoiled children.
