What’s wrong with these people?

Posted by Maximum Fun on 21st July 2006

I am sick and tired of people telling me they don’t ever pay attention to the critics, and then turning around and telling me they’re going to watch some movie the first day because they liked the TRAILER.

These people trust their ability to interpret a two-minute advertisement over their ability to interpret a relatively in-depth consideration of the film by a professional. It’s thinking like this that is WHAT IS WRONG WITH AMERICA.

Here are some BS excuses for this dumbass behavior:

“What am I going to trust, my own eyes or some writer?”

They saw the movie, you saw a commercial for the movie.

“Critics are biased against XXXX.”

So take that bias into account. Or find a critic whose perspective you agree with. Or just discard the notion that you have to agree with the critic — the critic’s job isn’t just to grade a film. A good critic gives you the information you need to make your own judgement. And the information you want to think more deeply about the film afterwards.

“But Critic X said XXX movie was good and I hated it!”

Well, the trailer for Kangaroo Jack made it look like a madcap romp starring a talking Kangaroo, and it was actually just Anthony Anderson in a desert.

Don’t rely on one critic, get a sense of critical consensus and its basis. Find critics you trust, and think of them the way you would a friend — if your friend reccomended a movie, you’d consider the source and their taste, and even if your tastes didn’t match, you’d get a good idea of whether you’d like it.

A trailer is just some s**t that might not even actually be in th movie.

“I am a dumbass.”

Yeah, you are, rhetorical device, yes you are.