How come expectations are such an integral part of how we enjoy movies? Not just good or bad, but also type, genre, tone. We know who’s in the movie, we think we know the genre, maybe we know the story. Maybe we’ve scene trailers and think we’ve got it pretty much down. Eagle Eye looked like it would be dumb. The plot looked stupid, and the characters seemed questionable. Mostly, it was pretty dumb. But because we weren’t expecting anything good, we enjoyed it. It stayed very close to expectations, often by stealing from other, better movies.

Meanwhile movies that really are good got trashed by some critics because they weren’t what critics expected. Hancock fell to this critical inflexibility earlier this summer, while Burn After Reading took a lot of flack for it more recently. You could blame to publicity people who put together the trailers. In both cases, the trailer weavers went for pure, light-hearted slapstick. Neither movie falls into that role. Both hit a turning point where the movie is no longer the thing you were promised. Something better, perhaps, but your expectations are already fixed.

Some people have little tolerance for the unexpected. Personally, I usually like it. If it’s good. But movies that don’t deliver what they seemed to promise, but then don’t give you anything else, are at the bottom of my FAIL list. (Epic Movie fits into this slot).