Friends, fans, literati, and cinemaphiles will want to check out my review of The Great Gatsby over at Gent's Pub.
On the subject of reviews, I've run into a depressing phenomenon this summer. As some of you know, I follow movie reviews, because I would rather waste time reading other people's opinions than waste time watching a movie I won't like. Anyway, since I am one of the doesn't-get-a-paper generation, I read snippets and watch the aggregate score on RottenTomatoes.com. While it's not a perfect system (for example, I absolutely loved The Fall, despite its very mixed reviews*), it's served me fairly well.
I had high hopes for Iron Man 3 (spoiler warning: I still haven't seen it) given the presence of the director of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Sir Ben Kingsley in addition to Professor Robert Downey Jr. I hoped perhaps (fantastically) that Marvel studios had been chastened by the silent rays of contempt I had been sending them over Iron Man 2. And I was heartened to see, a week before the movie's release, a healthy Rotten Tomatoes score of 90%.
The next day, I was a little less heartened to see a score of 89%. And a little less heartened to see each progressively lower aggregate score over the week, until it settled on opening day at its present 78%.
I'm neither surprised nor scandalized that a studio would solicit early reviews from people who will shill their movie. This is the first time I've seen it move the needle so profoundly, though. Is this new? I wonder. Has something changed? If Rotten Tomatoes has been compromised, who will tell me what to think? (Because, the bit of luck that I mention at the top of this post notwithstanding, there may not always be someone willing to pay me to form my own opinion.)
Perhaps someone who already understands exactly what's going on can explain to me why I'm being silly.
* I may appreciate exaggerated visual style more than most reviewers do. Or be more forgiving of uneven stories if they go interesting places. Ip Man is another place these things come together, and I seem to be the outlier in thinking that it is decisively superior to its sequel.
Yay! Some thoughts on the gentspub article:
ReplyDelete1) I'd linkify the thumbnail to a bigger version of that image
2) 'writier's name' can't be right, can it?
3) Why don't they put the byline at the top? That's sorta goofy.
Don't look at me. I just make words happen.
ReplyDeleteTwo foreign films that I have liked recently: "A Separation," about a couple in Iran who separate because the husband wants to stay in Iran and care for his father with Alzheimer's and the wife wants their daughter to have a better life in another country. And, "The Attack," about an Arab physician in Israel whose wife does not share his values.
ReplyDelete(Both descriptions sufficiently vague so as not to be spoilers.)