When is a Film Too Smart For Its Own Good?

Recently, I read an article in Entertainment Weekly wherein it asked if James Cameron's Titanic was the "most hated beloved movie." I felt the writer made a pretty good argument that it was...at least of the last 20 years (I'm sure there are more from the pre-war and WWII era). What is it about a film that provokes such an opposite reaction than what mainstream critics and audiences seem to feel? I really don't have answers to any of these questions, but I really must say that I did not care for the recent beloved film The Cabin in the Woods. It did not have anything to do with the aesthetic choices, acting, special effects, or story. I just felt it was too smart for its own good. 

So...what does that mean exactly?

For a film like Cabin, it means that it seems to be taking a genre that is kind of beneath any real kind of criticism, namely the slasher genre, and making it out to be the be-all-end-all definitive statement on why-exactly- they exist and why they are the way that they are (yes, Kubrick's Shining kind of missed the boat on 80s slashers while simultaneously inspiring most of them when it thought it was the final word as well...one can only dream of what lame brain clones this will inspire in the years to come) I feel it kind of made the entire genre feel more important than it is...put too much thought into something where the only real thoughts going on are usually in make-up and effects while profiting off of youthful hormones. They are deconstructing a style and a genre that really needed no explanation in the first place and making a profit off it themselves by going through the motions and pretending that what they are presenting is any more intelligent than what has been on the screen before. Of course, I am not saying it needed to be more "original" or anything pretentious like that. I just felt like it was missing some serious sincerity...which is what many real slasher films have in spades. I am not saying it had to be the start of a new franchise like Buffy, but a little more humanity and less emphasis on combining the fantastic with the mundane in crowd-pleasing ways would have seemed a lot more intelligent than the cold, calculating geeky wet dream that I saw on screen. I did not even agree with its obvious thesis of why horror film cliches need to exist, but something says that this film just really is not for me. It really just wants to hear itself talk.

Don't worry, I won't try to spoil the story so you will not want to see the film. I say see it and decide for yourselves.