Posts Tagged ‘Roger Ebert’

Granted critics have never been the most popular brand of writers, but do they really deserve to become irrelevant?

An article on CNN.com, written by Todd Leopold, has raised the issue of how new social media (particularly Twitter but also blogs and the internet in general) has changed the landscape for film criticism. With word of mouth being able to spread farther and faster than ever and everyone’s opinion being posted somehow, somewhere, hired critics seem to have lost much of their influence and purpose — at least individually.

Movie review aggregation sites like RottenTomatoes.com and Metacritic.com collect reviews from wide-ranging sources (all supposedly professional) and calculate what percentage of them approve of a certain film and which ones don’t. In RT’s case it decided that any rating above 59% is considered “fresh” and anything below is “rotten.” In a way, Leopold suggests, this practice – while convenient for readers – devalues individual critics. Or to put it more accurately, it values all critics equally. Certainly some critics like Roger Ebert, A. O. Scott, and Michael Phillips would contest that their opinion weighs more than, say, anyone who writes for JoBlo.com.

The film industry itself does not seem to be valuing the opinions of critics as much as they used to. From the 1920s to the 1990s, critics were the main buffer between audiences and new releases. Now, people who have been to preview screenings are allowed to post their thoughts to the world via their blogs or twitter accounts. Niche bloggers write to niche readerships, and those readerships that are most interested in the opinions of their community than any critical consensus. So, studios are more interested in what these communities are saying than mainstream newspapers. Anymore, both a critical and fan consensus are discernible before a movie even comes out. Granted any fan consensus is more liable to change once a movie releases, but pre-release buzz is often powerful enough to affect first weekend returns.

What Leopold suggests is a solution for this overabundance of opinions is for film journalists to “adapt and adjust” by being more integrated into the social media world by blogging and interacting more with audiences. He also says that building a name is important, however that tidbit isn’t really new advice. Anyone who is looking to make a living as a writer – any kind of writer – is advised to “build their own brand” and market it the best they can.

Only time will tell if “real” film critics eventually become obsolete.

Quick Opinion: It doesn’t help the issue that many times per year critics prove to neither hurt nor help Hollywood make their financial returns and ticket sales. Films like Transformers: Rise of the Fallen received terrible reviews yet still made hundreds of millions of dollars, and films like Duplicity received very positive reviews but failed to even earn as much as they cost to make. As a website that strives to be a source of quality writing and film commentary, we here at Movie-Thoughts naturally find this issue to be of great concern to us. However, if we are able to blow through the upcoming threshold that will be the worst of this over-saturation of opinions, we believe that the quality and uniqueness of our content and attitudes will allow us to prove our legitimacy and relevance. We would like to say thanks to all of our regular readers for helping us in our cause, as we would just be an ordinary blog without you.

The Ugly Truth

Marisa –

The Ugly Truth starring Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler debuted on July 24, 2009.  Like any other film, the usual slew of reviews appeared; according to RottenTomatoes.com only 15% of critics recommended the film.  While reading many of the reviews yields the impression that the film is a sign of the death of the romantic comedy, there is an even more interesting trend that becomes clear regarding the course language used in the film.  Quite a number of critics complained of the film’s vulgarity not because it was more offensive than the average film, but because it was so unexpected in a romantic comedy aimed mainly at women.
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