Movie Critics and Insanity

By: Reach for the Sky

This is ridiculous. Granted, Clash of the Titans (2010) was not Oliver Twist, but it certainly wasn't 3 out of 10 material. The effects were stunning, the action was good, and the dialogue was, I'm fairly certain, intentionally funny. The Box Office agrees with me, and while I certainly don't think that is an indicator of quality, it does support the idea that the movie was at least somewhat enjoyable. I have to wonder what scale the critics are going by, as Lightning Thief, the worst movie I've seen this year, got a 50%, which I feel would be appropriate if I was using my "family-movie" scale*. This kind of discrepancy makes me wonder if critics are holding movies to different standards. I feel it is important to point out the "An Education", which is paying for advertising on Rotten Tomatoes, is also the current "Certified Fresh Pick". Now I'm not saying that Rotten Tomatoes is selling review scores, I'm just saying that Rotten Tomatoes is so obviously selling review scores possibly a little biased against movies that aren't intellectually stimulating**.

Other scores that seem incredibly uncalled for
Cop Out: 19%
The Book of Eli: 45%
Drag Me to Hell: 92%

Let me talk a little about that last one. Drag Me to Hell is hands down the worst movie I've ever seen. It's idea of "horror" is screaming "boo!" through a megaphone while wearing a cheap monster mask, then vomiting on you. There was one part of the movie that literally pulled the film equivalent of the "screamer" prank, lulling the audience and then suddenly throwing up a warped face while cranking the volume to insane volumes. It was disgusting, but in a sleazy, tasteless way***. It almost succeeded as a dark comedy, except I don't think the humor that emerged was even remotely intentional. Critics snorted it like crack, though, Rotten Tomatoes is completely objective, after all. I don't think I can go by what critics say any longer, and I strongly suggest to anyone reading this that they do the same.

*As it were I was using my "this cast makes me want to eat children" scale.

**One thing I think got CotT a bad score was how far it tore apart the original mythology surrounding Perseus, which in my opinion just made it more interesting and original.

***Yes, there is a "proper" way to draw revulsion from an audience, it's what made Saw, which was awarded 47% by the way, so successful.