Roger Ebert is probably the biggest and the most influential movie critic on the internet. He has been around since Charlie Chaplin it seems! And when Transformers 2 was released, he was one of many the critics to give it a negative review, and his review is actually quite funny. However, when a critic writes a negative review against a film such as Transformers the fan boys come louder than all the explosions in the film, and its almost double when its Ebert...So he wrote a blog fighting back. I am going to talk about a few points that I thought were very interesting in the actual blog, if you would like to read the whole thing click here.
"What disturbs me is when I'm specifically told that I know too much about movies, have "studied" them, go into them "too deep," am always looking for things the average person doesn't care about, am always mentioning things like editing or cinematography, and am forever comparing films to other films."
I disagree with this wholeheartedly, I find Ebert's reviews to be pretty straight forward, and it seems that most of the time he becomes one with the "average person". Sure there are a few exceptions because it seems that everyone and their mom loves Transformers 2, and he did go against the majority of the critics on Star Trek, but 3/4 the time he is dead on.
I have actually seen Transformers 2 and personally it was not that enjoyable for me. Was it the worst movie I ahve ever seen? No nowhere near that. Was it the worst blockbuster I have seen? I cannot think of one worse in recent memory. It lacks the charm of the first one, the humor has been degraded to that of a 12 year old, the plot if you can call it that is pretty dumb and the action really did nothing for me except for a few scenes...But hey maybe I am looking into the movie "too deep" and "over analyzing it".
"So let's focus on those who seriously believe "Transformers" is one of the year's best films. Are these people wrong? Yes. They are wrong. I am fond of the story I tell about Gene Siskel. When a so-called film critic defended a questionable review by saying, "after all, it's opinion," Gene told him: "There is a point when a personal opinion shades off into an error of fact. When you say 'The Valachi Papers' is a better film than 'The Godfather,' you are wrong." Quite true"
This is actually something I have been saying for YEARS, there is a difference between opinion and fact. For someone to say "I like Transformers 2 more than Star Trek" is their opinion and there is no need to question that or belittle them. But when someone says "Transformers 2 is a better film than Star Trek", that's when a line has been crossed and a fiery debate can be started. But you try to tell this to your average fan boy and they really have nothing else to say other than "it's all opinions its all opinions" yeah ok whatever.
"But if I despised the film and it goes on to break box office records, will I care? No. I'll hope however that everyone who paid for a ticket thought they had a good time, because it was their time and their money. The opening grosses are a tribute to a marketing campaign, not to a movie no one had seen. If two studios spend a ton of money on a film, scare away the competition, and open in 4,234 theaters before the Fourth of July, of course they do blockbuster business. The test is: Does the film have legs?"
This lady I work with is claiming that Transformers 2 is the best movie of the year because "money talks". Sure it had a great opening weekend, there is no denying that but like Ebert says "does the film have legs?". The answer is no, yeah there are people raving about it but there are also a lot of people trashing it. Let's put it this way, Transformers 2 is no Dark Knight, it will not get near grossing that much *knock on wood* at least I do not think it will. Because no one is praising Transformers 2 like they did the Dark Knight, no one is calling all their friends and demanding they see it...I know I told all my friends to wait for the dvd release.
All in all, I thought Ebert's blog was a very fun read, nothing out of the ordinary and one may say predictable if you know his work.
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