silverwolfcc (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
silverwolfcc) wrote2016-09-07 10:49 pm
silverwolfcc) wrote2016-09-07 10:49 pm
Entry tags:
Movie Reviewers
It's time we had a talk about the dying art of critique, and how NOT to advertise entertainment in 2016 (and hopefully a lesson for beyond)...
And while I expected I'd like it....
I didn't expect it to be completely opposite of everything ever critic I read said. I didn't expect a solid A+ plot that I couldn't drive a truck through the holes of, I didn't expect such nuanced layered character interactions, or even that I wouldn't be able to predict the plot from the first five minutes. I didn't expect a soundtrack that I would know in the first five minutes I was going to buy. I DID expect stellar performances from Margot Robbie and Will Smith, but NOT because of anything written by critics, but simply because as a director I look for different things going in. I DID expect amazing cinematography (see above) but only because I saw behind the scenes footage that already blew me away, and I did NOT expect that critics would somehow be unable to grasp this.
To my UTMOST surprise, I REALLY REALLY enjoyed the political messages, the grey morality, and the character interactions, and so did my brother and Mum who are much more into characterization than I am.
And yet, if you read the reviews, any of the top five reviews from any major newspaper, website, or those linked simply by google; you would NEVER EVER know the good points of the movie, nor realize that it was best to probably take the critic's advice.... and expect 100% opposite of everything they suggested.
It's time we examined this.
It's been suggested that critics have been out of touch with the main populace since critics ever started EXISTING. But usually I think that's wrong. Usually I just happen to like popular things, because as it turns out, I don't need things 100% tailored to me exclusively. USUALLY a smart critic is able to still look at things OBJECTIVELY enough to ascertain what is good or bad about a movie, what is its selling points, and how to market it to the *right* kind of person. So long as you know what you like and don't like, USUALLY I found critics useful for this.
I joined GamerGate with the understanding that a wave was coming. Critics had turned on their audiences, and I knew it was only a matter of time before movies were under the same swamp.
I guess we're already there.
At best, you could say the critics are more than just out of touch with the rest of the world who sees movies, the general movie-going audience. At best you could say they are incompetent. At best you could say they are inept at their job of shilling of movies. At best you could say they are just lying to themselves and their public because controversial reviews that go *against* the grain are what... "more likely to get attention," perhaps?
And yet...
This is a short-sighted idiocy that writes themselves into obsolesce.
Many times in the course of GG people would either completely misinterpret, or try to strawman my position to argue that I was saying that critics can never be wrong, can never go against the popular opinion. No, heaven forbid.
However, if your opinion is actually *less* valuable than saying nothing at all, if indeed, your writing, your explanation, your attempt to explain a point of view ONLY detracts from my time, adds no substance, and indeed, I gain NOTHING from this input that I WOULD HOPE to garner SOMETHING from, some INSIGHT, SOME KNOWLEDGE, then I want my time back. I want the waste of my brainspace back. And since you can not give me that, I am certainly resentful.
We have reached a point now where critics aren't just DAMAGING in how far off they are, but where I can ONLY hope that the audiences push BACK against this abuse of their time.
I will defend the right to create with my dying breath. However, if you go into a performance art piece that throws shit on its audience and do not tell others, because you think it is funny, you are a complicit shit-thrower. And more tragically, the truly great art pieces, that need attention, that need fans, that could bring joy and wonder and motivation to people go unheard of because as shit-throwing becomes an art piece, more people go to it just to understand why.
We have reached a point in our society where creating is taken for granted. Where putting your heart and soul into production aren't seen by the very people whose job it is to help others see that.
How tragic. Truly, I can think of little sadder.
Art, creation, is all about uplifting the human spirit. Of bringing something MORE to the muck and glum of a daily existence.
I could wax infinitely about the poetic metaphors of the scenery from the prisons to the political pews and church rooftop of the climax of Suicide Squad. I could fangirl with delight over every single frame of that movie to be quite honest.
But I am so very curious as to why those so-called critics, those whose VERY JOB it is to find all this; cannot.
Is it money? Is it purely that they were not paid to do so??? Have they no love for their own integrity, their own craft then? What a shallow miserable existence if so.
I do not wish to think they are so weak. I do not really think they are so blind. But then I can only WONDER what the case actually is.
And it saddens me.
For the money alone shows that they've written themselves into obsolesce. Fans don't use them anymore, and at this point I would have to say, *CAN'T* use them. They are the tourist guides who know nothing about what audiences wish to see, what landmarks are ahead, and who would best be ignored lest they lead directly to pitfalls and traps.
Perhaps that's the nature of subjectivity. And yet... Even then, I should expect at least one objective realist to take place. To say "I have no idea what you want or like, but these are the things that are available to you."
If nothing else, I would expect more amateurs to step forward and give their best.
And I suppose that is where we're at.
But even amateurs are held to standards and regulations that can hold them back from reaching a wide audience.
And so we come to reviewer inception, wherein we need reviewers to tell us which reviewers are worth anything.
I would do this task... but so far I can find none.
- CC
And while I expected I'd like it....
I didn't expect it to be completely opposite of everything ever critic I read said. I didn't expect a solid A+ plot that I couldn't drive a truck through the holes of, I didn't expect such nuanced layered character interactions, or even that I wouldn't be able to predict the plot from the first five minutes. I didn't expect a soundtrack that I would know in the first five minutes I was going to buy. I DID expect stellar performances from Margot Robbie and Will Smith, but NOT because of anything written by critics, but simply because as a director I look for different things going in. I DID expect amazing cinematography (see above) but only because I saw behind the scenes footage that already blew me away, and I did NOT expect that critics would somehow be unable to grasp this.
To my UTMOST surprise, I REALLY REALLY enjoyed the political messages, the grey morality, and the character interactions, and so did my brother and Mum who are much more into characterization than I am.
And yet, if you read the reviews, any of the top five reviews from any major newspaper, website, or those linked simply by google; you would NEVER EVER know the good points of the movie, nor realize that it was best to probably take the critic's advice.... and expect 100% opposite of everything they suggested.
It's time we examined this.
It's been suggested that critics have been out of touch with the main populace since critics ever started EXISTING. But usually I think that's wrong. Usually I just happen to like popular things, because as it turns out, I don't need things 100% tailored to me exclusively. USUALLY a smart critic is able to still look at things OBJECTIVELY enough to ascertain what is good or bad about a movie, what is its selling points, and how to market it to the *right* kind of person. So long as you know what you like and don't like, USUALLY I found critics useful for this.
I joined GamerGate with the understanding that a wave was coming. Critics had turned on their audiences, and I knew it was only a matter of time before movies were under the same swamp.
I guess we're already there.
At best, you could say the critics are more than just out of touch with the rest of the world who sees movies, the general movie-going audience. At best you could say they are incompetent. At best you could say they are inept at their job of shilling of movies. At best you could say they are just lying to themselves and their public because controversial reviews that go *against* the grain are what... "more likely to get attention," perhaps?
And yet...
This is a short-sighted idiocy that writes themselves into obsolesce.
Many times in the course of GG people would either completely misinterpret, or try to strawman my position to argue that I was saying that critics can never be wrong, can never go against the popular opinion. No, heaven forbid.
However, if your opinion is actually *less* valuable than saying nothing at all, if indeed, your writing, your explanation, your attempt to explain a point of view ONLY detracts from my time, adds no substance, and indeed, I gain NOTHING from this input that I WOULD HOPE to garner SOMETHING from, some INSIGHT, SOME KNOWLEDGE, then I want my time back. I want the waste of my brainspace back. And since you can not give me that, I am certainly resentful.
We have reached a point now where critics aren't just DAMAGING in how far off they are, but where I can ONLY hope that the audiences push BACK against this abuse of their time.
I will defend the right to create with my dying breath. However, if you go into a performance art piece that throws shit on its audience and do not tell others, because you think it is funny, you are a complicit shit-thrower. And more tragically, the truly great art pieces, that need attention, that need fans, that could bring joy and wonder and motivation to people go unheard of because as shit-throwing becomes an art piece, more people go to it just to understand why.
We have reached a point in our society where creating is taken for granted. Where putting your heart and soul into production aren't seen by the very people whose job it is to help others see that.
How tragic. Truly, I can think of little sadder.
Art, creation, is all about uplifting the human spirit. Of bringing something MORE to the muck and glum of a daily existence.
I could wax infinitely about the poetic metaphors of the scenery from the prisons to the political pews and church rooftop of the climax of Suicide Squad. I could fangirl with delight over every single frame of that movie to be quite honest.
But I am so very curious as to why those so-called critics, those whose VERY JOB it is to find all this; cannot.
Is it money? Is it purely that they were not paid to do so??? Have they no love for their own integrity, their own craft then? What a shallow miserable existence if so.
I do not wish to think they are so weak. I do not really think they are so blind. But then I can only WONDER what the case actually is.
And it saddens me.
For the money alone shows that they've written themselves into obsolesce. Fans don't use them anymore, and at this point I would have to say, *CAN'T* use them. They are the tourist guides who know nothing about what audiences wish to see, what landmarks are ahead, and who would best be ignored lest they lead directly to pitfalls and traps.
Perhaps that's the nature of subjectivity. And yet... Even then, I should expect at least one objective realist to take place. To say "I have no idea what you want or like, but these are the things that are available to you."
If nothing else, I would expect more amateurs to step forward and give their best.
And I suppose that is where we're at.
But even amateurs are held to standards and regulations that can hold them back from reaching a wide audience.
And so we come to reviewer inception, wherein we need reviewers to tell us which reviewers are worth anything.
I would do this task... but so far I can find none.
- CC