Movies: What did You Watch Last Night?

[Hahma]

Originally Posted by akden

If you check Rotten Tomatoes, the critic rating is around 31% positive, but the audience rating is around 89% positive. My tastes usually don’t coincide with those of the critics; apparently I’m more of an audience guy.

It’s not a perfect movie, but it’s a fun action romp in one of the neatest settings I’ve seen in a long time, very similar to Shadowrun, if it existed right now. I recommend giving it a try. One thing to keep in mind if you’re thinking of sharing it with kids: it definitely would fall in the R-rated category, mostly for language and some violence,

Yeah, I tend to not rely on critics either. I just found it unusual how far apart the critic vs viewer opinions were and how some critics were basically calling out Netflix as failing at their movie attempt. I wondered if there was something else going on behind the scenes.

My twin daughters will be 15 in February and are really mature as far as movies and television goes. They've seen Logan, all the Netflix Marvel series', all the Marvel movies, Into the Badlands series on AMC, The Walking Dead and stuff like that. Non of that bothers them and I'm always there to explain anything they need. So I think we'll for sure try Bright, we just have to watch The Return of the King first

[Yodaking]

Originally Posted by Hahma

Yeah, I tend to not rely on critics either. I just found it unusual how far apart the critic vs viewer opinions were and how some critics were basically calling out Netflix as failing at their movie attempt. I wondered if there was something else going on behind the scenes.

My twin daughters will be 15 in February and are really mature as far as movies and television goes. They've seen Logan, all the Netflix Marvel series', all the Marvel movies, Into the Badlands series on AMC, The Walking Dead and stuff like that. Non of that bothers them and I'm always there to explain anything they need. So I think we'll for sure try Bright, we just have to watch The Return of the King first

I haven't watched Bright yet but was planning on it soon. Was talking to a couple of friends last night who both watched it already (separately) and both enjoyed it. I too have seen the big divide in critic vs. audience response and can't say I'm all too surprised. I feel the critic viewpoint is being clouded by a combination of two different things.

One, I do think that some of them feel threatened by the fact that it was a ~$90 million Netflix movie not released to a theater. They make their living on the established Hollywood film studio to theater system that has been a fixture in American pop culture for the last 70 years or so. Change can be hard to accept, especially when your career, and possibly identity, are so closely tied to the status quo. I can understand their nervousness too. If Netflix can produce and release a steady stream of good big studio films directly to everyone's home where they can immedietly watch it without buying a ticket, what do people need the critic's opinion for?

Two, while the Hollywood elite has slowly grown to accept the idea that the sci-fi setting can be used to tell good and meaningful stories, they still are very resistant to fantasy, dismissing it as a childish medium that is incapable of delivering any real depth. Tolken (and now GoT too) is the only fantasy they can really accept, everything else is looked down at. As such I tend to ignore the critic buzz about a fantasy related film and instead follow my own instincts, glad I did too on Warcraft which I really enjoyed.

[Hahma]

Well said YK. I totally agree!

[Dad_Scaper]

Originally Posted by Yodaking

One, I do think that some of them feel threatened by the fact that it was a ~$90 million Netflix movie not released to a theater. They make their living on the established Hollywood film studio to theater system that has been a fixture in American pop culture for the last 70 years or so. Change can be hard to accept, especially when your career, and possibly identity, are so closely tied to the status quo. I can understand their nervousness too. If Netflix can produce and release a steady stream of good big studio films directly to everyone's home where they can immedietly watch it without buying a ticket, what do people need the critic's opinion for?

This makes no sense. Zero. Just the opposite, in fact: the more content is out there, the more valuable a critic can be. You'd have to be an idiot not to see this, as a critic, and I don't think they (for the most part) are idiots. More content = more stuff to write about, and a thicker jungle of material through which I might guide those who are interested in my opinion. More Netflix movies, more tv shows, the better for me as a guy who gets to write about all that stuff.

Remember Baywatch? Or The Emoji Movie? Both got panned by the critics; both were successful at the box office. That's ok. Sometimes audiences are looking for one thing, and critics are looking at another.

You don't have to agree with "critics" for every film, or even for any film. But if I'm a critic, I *love* that there's more content out there. If I'm a critic, I likely wrote unkind reviews about several movies that went on to be successful, and I don't care. I'm not the enemy of the movie or the enemy of the audience; I'm just a guy (or woman) writing what I thought about a piece of art, to share my experience of viewing it.

Pretty much every person is just trying to do his or her job, as you are trying to do yours. No need to attach sinister motivations to something, just because it doesn't match the way you imagine it might have been done differently.

[Hahma]

Critics loved The Force Awakens and it was medicore at best. Was it original? Was the acting great? Was there anything that really made it special?

If critics review every single movie they see by the exact same criteria every time, that's one thing, but I don't believe they do.

Anymore, I think critics are less useful. I honestly don't think most people care what some person from "Film Guru" ( I made that up), says about a movie. It's kind of like someone trying to tell you what painting or sculpture is good or crap.

I'll watch Bright with my daughters and if we think it's total crap, then I will reassess my opinion on critics. But if we enjoy it, then I'll keep my opinion on them.