How to Read Movie News

Hot Madness

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May 20, 2009
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Eternal_Lament said:
AC Drawings said:
Hot Madness said:
The problem with Bob is that he consistently pases himself off as an objective critic, while undermining his positions with clear biases that really hurt what credibility he has: See the comparisons already made in this thread about Sucker Punch for an example.
Ahahahhahah, no he doesn't. Especially since critique and reviews, by definitions are subjective. Thanks for the laugh, though.
Not really. On the one hand yes, a critic will have a subjective opinion on a film, and they will have subjective reasons for them, thats just a given, and its for that reason that people keep on coming back to that critic, to hear their opinion. That said however, that doesn't mean reviewers don't have to be objective. While most certainly a predominantly subjective thing, there is an objective part to it, something that Bob has failed at. Now when I say objective, I mean two things:

1) There is being objective in the sense of not liking a movie but understanding that others may. By this I mean recognizing that your fans, your audience, who share a similar taste in movies that you do may also like movies you hate or hate movies you like. Now this is obvious to any critic, but an "objective" critic in this sense will possibly acknowledge this audience and may suggest either a) if the movie would be good for them or b) similar movies that the critic actually liked that the audience may as well that is related to the reviewed movie. Bob used to do this, but recently he has turned from an "objective" critic (subjective opinion, able to recommend to others with differing subjective opinions) to the subjective counterpart, in this case either ignoring this audience all together or only acknowledging them to make fun of them and insult their own tastes. In short, even when reviewing subjectively if you can still treat an audience with differing tastes with respect and offer them some suggestions, then that makes you an objective critic, but if you treat an audience with differing tastes with little respect or even just insult them for no constructive reason, then you are a subjective critic. In this case Bob would try to call himself an objective critic, in the sense that he has stated in a recent interview that with the exception of the few times he has said to definitely see a movie, he feels guilty when someone says they will or wont see a movie based on whether he liked it or not (as he is in this case thinking of his audience and how his words affect them), yet him insulting his own audience for watching a movie or for not watching a movie shows that he is actually going against an objective stance that he himself tries to keep himself to (meaning he is passing himself off as an objective critic yet is in fact purely subjective)

2) There is being objective in how one defines their subjective opinions. In other words, while someones opinion on a movie may be subjective, that subjective opinion should act as their objective look on other movies. If for example then if one were to review two different movies, it would stand to reason that their reason for liking one and hating the other would be based off of a previous understanding of that critics preferences. If there is one thing that Bob has done poorly at while reviewing it is this part. Bob frequently will praise one movie and scorn another, with the reasons he liked the first movie being the exact same reasons he hated the second. As in both movies featured particular aspects that Bob talked about, in one case acting as the reaon he liked a film and in the other the reason why he hated it. This would be fine if he explained why it works in one film and not in the other, but most often he doesn't, rather he just simply says what he likes and doesn't like (and more recently who he holds grudges against). This too is where Bob would fail at being an objective critic, as he is no longer even following his own standard of what makes a good movie, he instead alters his standards when it best suits his needs, with no explanation to the audience as to how he got to that train of thought.
Thanks for elaborating Eternal, your post is what I meant to say and failed to.
 

serata

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Nov 20, 2009
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Gildan Bladeborn said:
I think everyone would probably be better off forgetting that movie, but I was simply being selective, for much the same reason I didn't bother mentioning that he co-wrote the screenplay for the film Waterworld (though he went uncredited for that one, heh).
He did? Wow, you learn something new about your heroes all the time ^_^ (I may have just lost a bit more respect for him though :p )
 

CrazyCapnMorgan

Is not insane, just crazy >:)
Jan 5, 2011
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When I read the "urban" part, it reminded me of this...


And the bit he does after that one.
 

Gamer_152

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Mar 3, 2011
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The tone in this comments section is a bit of a downer, but I thought the article was very funny.