Cynical people ruin cinema enjoyment

Let’s use movie magic to create friendships, not enemies

More stories from Ryan Huling

In this beautiful year of movies, it seems like the only thing stopping people from getting really excited are those who seem unable to enjoy life.

Let’s break it down. “Avengers: Endgame” came out last weekend, “Detective Pikachu” is coming out in two weeks and “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” is set to release around Christmas. Combine these with “Frozen 2”, “Shazam”, “Captain Marvel” and all the live-action Disney movies coming out, this year is looking like a great year for movies.

However, this also gives bullies a platform.

This really started when the “Star Wars” trailer was dropped. If I’m being honest, I’m extremely excited. I’ve been a “Star Wars” fan for a good amount of my life.

Many other people are more devout fans than I am. People have grown up with these movies and must love to see how far the series has come.

On the day the trailer was released, many reaction videos were released on YouTube, including one by TheEricButts. Eric got quite emotional in his video and it is phenomenal to watch.

I don’t think many of us are as passionate about the important things in our lives as Eric is about “Star Wars” and I am ashamed.

It didn’t take long for Twitter users to start tormenting his reaction, most notably Ashley StClair. Her tweet read:

Star Wars and super hero movie obsession culture has revealed a whole new population of undateable men. Might be worse than men who wear cargo shorts.”

In the clip she shared of Eric’s video, which was about two minutes, he never asks the audience if he is dateable or if his obsession made him a bad person. He gave his genuine reaction to something he has been very excited for.

A quick look at StClair’s twitter will give a pretty good hint at the type of person she is.

Her pinned tweet tells us she is a “hot Trump supporter” and her tweets are often as many insults to the Left as she can manage in 280 characters. She even said Google was “gaslighting its users” for not having an Easter-themed homepage.

Now, let’s turn to Eric’s social media. His YouTube channel, which has a little more than 30 thousand subscribers, is full of movie trailer reactions and video game/toy unboxings. Pretty wholesome content. It gets better.

Part of his “About” tab reads:

“I’m hoping with this channel, I can create a community where we can all feel completely free and safe to be the unabashed nerds we all truly are! Even if it’s not a topic that makes me geek out, I’ll support your geek out over it!!”

I mean, come on. This is an incredible way of thinking. If everyone thought with this kind of attitude, think about how much less conflict there would be in the world.

Now, Eric was able to bounce back from this seemingly unprecedented attack. He went on news shows while wearing cargo shorts, he changed his Twitter bio to say “I’m the guy who cries to Star Wars trailers” and he even did an interview with StClair to show his strength. He even got support from Luke Skywalker himself, Mark Hamill, who tweeted:

“Hi Eric- Thanks for sharing your amazing reaction to the trailer. It was inspiring to see you transported with joy in anticipation of IX. Makes what we do seem all the more worthwhile.

All the best, Mar(Camel emoji)

PS: I salute you, sir:”

Followed by a gif of Hamill saluting from on the set of “Star Wars: Episode VI.”

If there’s one thing I can always get behind, it is Mark Hamill telling people they are inspiring.

There was even more “Star Wars” slander that came from the new trailer. Twitter user @OfWudan, whose Twitter account is currently suspended, tweeted about how he’s never seen “Star Wars” and that’s why he is a multimillionaire.

I mean, if someone lucky enough to be a multimillionaire and they’re putting millions of dollars down on “Star Wars” memorabilia, then I can see why “Star Wars” would hinder their richness. On the flip side, it seems they made good use of their money and put it into circulation instead of buying the incredibly expensive car pictured in @OfWudan’s tweet.

If a person is looking for attention, whether good or bad, it seems the best thing to do is insult something a lot of people enjoy. It has become the best way to make enemies.

But, as Eric proves, there is no reason to make enemies. The best “good” we can get is by supporting each other, no matter what others enjoy. I saw “Avengers: Endgame” this weekend and, even if others don’t enjoy superheroes, be happy I did. I’ll be happy about the next movie someone else sees as long as they enjoyed it.

We’re all human and we all like different things. And, contrary to Ashley StClair’s belief, we’re all dateable.

But that’s just my two cents.

Huling can be reached at [email protected].