To the average moviegoer, the critic is never right.
The “mean” men and women who contribute to such high profile movie reviews provide content for websites such as Rotten Tomatoes or Metacritic, which seem distant from the demands of the audience.
It is no secret that audiences prefer fast pace, action driven films, like the many popular superhero movies released every summer. These movies make hundreds of millions of dollars, yet rarely win any sort of big-name awards except for those given for technical brilliance.
This problem is the extremely popular Batman film,“The Dark Knight,” which audiences adored and flocked to, but failed to be nominated for Best Picture award.
“The Dark Knight” was not an isolated incident. This is a common problem with high grossing movies. Blockbuster films are often ignored by critics, who decide to praise and award more obscure “art-house” movies. These films are often marked by a slower pace, greater character development and a uniqueness general audience might find strange.
So why are these values supported by critics?
One explanation is the shear amount of content each critic must watch in a short amount of time. The average filmgoer may only see a movie once a week, while a critic must view several. It stands to reason that someone who watches so many films would get sick of the familiar storylines and long action sequences seen in many blockbuster films today.
No matter how great Marvel can be, every single one of its movies follows a similar storyline and plot. After awhile they simply become boring.
It also becomes apparent after watching so many blockbuster films that Hollywood makes a great deal of money by stealing common ideas.
Many films produced in “modern” Hollywood follow the same basic layout, as documented in the famous screenwriting book “Save The Cat,” by Blake Snyder. In the book, Snyder explains how many of Hollywood’s most famous movies, from “Dances With Wolves” to “Independence Day” share moments in the film.
When a film slows down and focuses on character development, it must be pretty exciting for critics that have gone numb from the constant explosions and action found in many of todays movies.
Humans become more intelligent when exposed to new ideas and concepts, similarly, the average film critic can be said to have a more refined “movie-intelligence” than the average person. This is why many film schools spend entire semesters showing new students obscure, art-house movies and explaining what makes them revered.
Although the films of great French filmmakers as, Jean-Luc Goddard, François Truffaut or Agnès Varda, initially seem strange and inaccessible, repeated viewing helps to open the eyes of the viewer to what makes them great.
Many critics see these films as superior when compared to many of the films released from Hollywood today. If one wishes to truly understand where the modern film critic comes from, they must research many of the same films the modern film critic researches.
After acquiring a more extensive film palette is it easy to see that some film critics might actually have a point.
Sam Balas can be reached at [email protected]