I used to be really annoyed by the problem that "the movie wasn't what i expected therefore it's not as good" but the one thing you need to do is simply go into every movie with 0 expectations and you will find it in its purist form with no biases.
I try to do it, but I think it's fair to say this is just impossible to achieve it every time. I don't want to waste my time which one reason I read a fair amount of critics to avoid the real trainwrecks. Other than that I take a fair chance of risk which I think you have to take if you are interested in a great variety of films. I don't even dislike the movie very much and I did enjoy many parts, but I also found myself wanting more than what I got. And that's also a reason why I couldn't understand the hype around this movie. I thought I missed something big, but thanks for your time anyway. I didn't even read that much about WHIPLASH, the only expectations I had was that the performances were great and this movie was great which isn't really that much of an expectation. I don't want to ruin this movie for anyone, I just want to understand what others are seeing in it. I think my criticsm is mostly fair, although not presented in the most fair or comprehensible fashion, but this is the YMS subreddit and although Adam often times has very good reasons to critique something, sometimes the claims stay on their own and I don't think it's that wrong either. For many people nowadays '0 expectations' seems to much of an excuse to me. If you really stand behind this statement wouldn't there be any bad movies? All you had to do would be not having any expectations whatsoever? Whenever you see a movie and feel like with only slight changes it would have made a greater experience, more interesting more thoughtful, more reflective, why would that be a mistake? When I saw Gravity and was let down by because I thought it was dealing with themes of hopelessness and despair of certain death which are more interesting to me to think about than to think about nothing and try to enjoy a rather dull action movie with stunning visuals. It's obviously objective, but this 0 expectation approach shouldn't be saving movies from your own critique.
Also, how does JK Simmons playing J Jonah Julliard seem dull to you? Or perhaps you meant as a character he is not well made. A musical instructor/conductor who pushes his students so hard that they kill themselves because he wants to make one of the greats, yet fails in doing so because of his methods is certainly not dull.
Well I didn't believe this character to be a real person. He's seem so much of an archetype that I couldn't really immerse into the movie. Concerning the performances. They're pretty good, but I feel these characters lack the depth that really makes an astounding performance. Both characters are very extreme and one-way streets in a way. I don't think being demeaning and cursing really gets the best out of people. For every one of thousands people you motivate to become a great musician you demotivate many others to give up right away. If you don't buy into this concept at all, this movie makes it really hard for you, because possible disadvantages in success concerning music alone weren't shown at all. The real disadvantages only lie outside of the realm of music which makes a very uninteresting theme of "you have to sacrifice anything other than music to suceed in music". I don't believe this to be true for one second which is most likely one reason I wasn't able to enjoy the movie that much.
And Andrew? A boy who aspires to be one of the great Jazz musicians so much that his hands bleed, he risks his life and his education along with his career, and goes from an innocent young boy into a heartless son of a bitch is definitely not dull.
Like JK Simmons' character I really didn't feel a real connection there. Andrew's character could be described pretty spot on in a few sentences without missing too much. You did a fine job yourself by doing so. There isn't much of a transformation. He's a maniac almost right from the start. We don't get a whole lot of development. The bit we get appears gradually, which I like, but it just wasn't enough for my taste.