If film critics were designed to be mere consumer advisers, then we really screwed up by kicking the lug nuts out of Michael Bay’s screechy, populist piece of pandering pablum “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.”
But we didn’t screw up, because we’re not consumer advisers. Our job is not to say if a movie will be a big box office hit and everyone should go see it because it’s a big box office hit.
Our job is simple and direct: to assess the quality of a motion picture.
Not just the quality of its entertainment value (i.e., the degree to which a movie doesn’t bore people).
But the quality of the writing. The performances. The direction. The art direction. The sound. Everything.
Rob Moore, vice chairman of Paramount Pictures, says that audiences “kind of roll their eyes at the critics and say, ‘You have no idea what you’re talking about.'”
Yes, we do. (Read more…)