Expectations are a fascinating thing. You believe in an outcome for the future and wait to see whether or not it comes to pass. They can be positive or negative and vary in their strength. Expectations can have benefits, as they show how strongly you care about something. But there is a darker side to having expectations, especially when it comes to pieces of media like movies or TV shows.
Disney has not been doing well with their movies in the past few years. From the decline of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, to the backlashes against the live-action adaptations of previous movies, people have taken issue with many recent films. Not all of these films are great, but they are not completely terrible either, despite what many people have been saying online. The expectations for these films greatly affect how they are perceived.
“Wish” absolutely suffered from this. What was supposed to be a movie celebrating Disney’s 100th anniversary, ended up being a lukewarm attempt at best. The movie was just mediocre, but not according to people online. On YouTube, I have seen dozens of videos ranting about how disappointing “Wish” was, how awful Disney is right now and that they feel let down by the company. But Disney is not completely to blame for how their films are seen. Part of that lies with the audience and what they expect to see from Disney.
Yes, Disney has released multiple incredible movies, and with the company being such a cultural juggernaut, it is no surprise that people will expect Disney movies to be great. After all, since they have made so many, why would they not continue to do so? But now when a new movie comes out, people go see it and then complain about it relentlessly. It is almost sad to see people hype themselves up so much, only to get the rug pulled out from under them.
For all of the great work of Disney and other creative companies, they still have flaws and can still mess up when it comes to making entertainment for audiences. They cannot achieve perfection every time that we want them to. It should be okay for studios to make a piece of media that ends up being mediocre or even bad. Even then, it might wind up being vindicated years later for what it was able to do. That is the case with cult classics. It is a disservice to studios and audiences themselves to create really high expectations for a piece of media.
The higher you set your expectations, the harder the disappointment is going to hit if they are not met in the way that you want. If greatness is not guaranteed, why do we act like it is and then complain when we realize it is not? It almost becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy where audiences create their expectations, demand they be met, and then bemoan studios when they fail to do so in their eyes.
In order to prevent this type of disappointment from happening to us over and over again, we should lower our expectations a lot.
Having expectations for things comes naturally to everyone. I have experienced it too. For example, my experience of seeing “Hadestown.” Although I can say for certain that it did not land with me and it probably would not have in the way I wanted it to, I suspect I was even more disappointed in it than I otherwise would have if I did not expect it to blow me away like other musicals have.
It is natural to have expectations for things, as that is inevitable no matter how hard you try. You will always expect things from stuff, even subconsciously. It is important to moderate your expectations, though. You should not let them become so big that you create a separate version of the story in your head that does not match what the story actually is or will be. Sometimes the story cannot and or will not live up to what you want it to be, and it should not necessarily be faulted for that.
Having little to no expectations for a piece of media can lead to being surprised by the quality of a piece of media. You may realize that it is much better than you anticipated, simply because you did not have much in mind for it. I have seen it happen with DreamWorks’s “Trolls Band Together.”
The “Trolls” franchise has never achieved the level of acclaim as some of the other DreamWorks properties. But when the third installment came out, it took the Internet by storm and received massive praise in my observations. Many people found enjoyment in something that may have previously dismissed or given little thought, only to find it to be something they really liked. This just goes to show that having lower expectations for something can allow you to enjoy something for what it is.
Expect to see what you know for certain will happen and let yourself be surprised by the rest. I have found that the surprise, unexpected elements make the experience all the more fun to enjoy.
It is okay to feel upset when your expectations were not met or were betrayed in some way. A lot of media is disappointing and does not go how we the audience wants it to. That does not mean that your expectations not being met reflects on the overall quality of that piece of media. Just accept that things are not always going to go your way and criticize constructively.
