Poll: Do you enjoy Moviebob's content?

[Trippy Turtle]

Similar to yahtzee, I enjoy him for entertainment value but I wouldn't judge a game/movie over what he said about it. In most cases.
With that said from the movies I have seen that he has also reviewed hes does seem pretty spot on most of the time. I just have a bad habit of liking games and movies that everyone else ever thinks are the worst.

 

[Flunk]

I used to, lately he seems to have been really phoning it in.

 

[Sylocat]

Now that Jim Sterling is gone, I selected the first option: "He's my favorite Escapist contributor."

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

He can certainly be entertaining at times but other times I just disengage. Particularly when he was crossing over his Youtube identity into The Big Picture, he lost me in a big way for a time.

Still, I do enjoy some of his content so I won't write him off but he is nowhere as interesting or entertaining when compared to Jim or Yahtzee's contributions to the site.

 

[CpT_x_Killsteal]

Aren't "Generally no" and "Occasionally yes" the same thing?

Anyway, those are my answers. A lot of his stuff doesn't interest me because I'm just not into those areas that he's talking about, that's fine. Some of his stuff does bring a unique perspective though, which I enjoy.

 

[Sanunes]

I mentioned this elsewhere, but I will say it again here. Most of the time I am fine with most of his video content, but I much prefer his written content or when the TV & Movies podcast has a subject that interests me he seems to be interesting to me. An example is Interstellar, for his movie review made it seem like he really dislike the movie, but listening to him talk about it on the podcast it was more of a "its okay, but not great".

 

[Tanis]

I don't agree with ALL his POLITICAL views, but I tend to agree with MOST of is MOVIE reviews.

 

[Ihateregistering1]

With the small exception of some of the wacky and esoteric movies he introduces me to that I've never heard of, no.

He comes across as petty and arrogant and as someone who has a massive chip on his shoulder. His hatred of "bro" culture seems to be entirely rooted in "I was picked on in high school, therefore I associate all bro culture with the people who picked on me and hate it".

His hatred of Kevin Smith seems to be based heavily on jealousy that someone who is VERY similar to him (an overweight, nerdy, comic book geek who loves movies and film and is from the Northeast) has become highly successful, while he hasn't.

He can't seem to go 3 minutes without talking about racism, pulling up some borderline insane examples of what he thinks constitutes 'racist' (his theory that people love Zombie movies because it lets us live out our fantasies of white colonials mowing down brainless 'savages' was my definite favorite).

His pseudo-feminist pandering makes him sound like a 35 year old virgin who has put women up on such a high pedestal that they are incapable of doing anything wrong, and he must constantly defend them from all the evil misogynists out there.

But really, it's the insane left-leaning arrogance that bugs me. The smugness in the way in which he addresses anyone who thinks differently than him as being somehow beneath him and an idiot. Dude, you do videos about Samurai Pizza Cats and Power Rangers on a not-particularly well-known internet site, and you wrote a book about Super Mario Bros. 3, you're not Martin Luther King Jr, get over yourself.

 

[Redd the Sock]

I guess I echo a lot of what's been said.

On a professional level he's fallen off. Long video clips and recapping things instead of critiquing and introspection in movie reviews and comic stuff on the big picture, and less effort to make a convincing argument than just vent his spleen when he talks politics and social issues. It's like trying to make a review of just telling us the already public knowledge and going it's good or it's bad, and show off historical knowledge. That can be interesting, but in the wikipedia age, it's less a baagable skill. His SHIELD stuff actually sums up the laziness: write a 3 page article, 2 that recap the show, and one the give basic searchable stuff for the names they dropped and wild speculation about wha might happen based on comic book knowledge. Don't get me started on the Game Overthinker and what he thinks is an entertaining plot and entertaining jokes.

Non content related, he's always been a bit of an ass, but as time when on he pretty much accepted that as his true nature and ran with it. Now, I have no problem with assholes that are open about it, if they have the skills to pull it off. Bob was never THAT good in the first place, let alone now. He seems to want to yell at strawmen rather than make a point to real people. Okay, he doesn't think some things are censorship, but he states his beliefs instead of telling me why I should share them, and then goes onto twitter to condescend to those that don't see the enlightened view of the internet z-list schlub from Boston. And that's a relatively decent attempt at making a point. At his worst he comes off like his opinions are formed solely while waiting in line at the Starbucks like every hipster know-it all. Even that might not be so bad, but for a guy into the social justice thing and how we should show more empathy for others, so it's hard to take anything he says seriously when he can show none to people he disagrees with.

Maybe when he started he had merit because video blogs were new things and still catching on. If he premiered today, he does nothing not done better by others and would get lost in the shuffle.

 

[Rellik San]

Never really seen any. I don't watch films these days and have no interest in comics, barring a nostalgic warmth for 2000AD/Judge Dredd, so his content has never been relevant to my interests.

Oh you won't catch him covering those... as we all know: Pop culture only exists in America... only American comics ever matter... GOD FORBID someone who looks at Geek Ephemera would look at 2000AD or Sonic The Comic. Why... that would be positively madness. Not even a wider look at Dan Abnetts work when Guardians was coming out.

Um...God forbid somebody have interests which happen to not extend far beyond the borders of their own country? I would agree that most of the things Bob is familiar with are American based (barring film history, he is quite well versed in global film history and trends), but that doesn't mean he's only interested in American media because he looks down upon the works of other countries or sees them as unworthy of following. That's just ridiculous. In general I only eat American food, but that doesn't mean I think the food of other nations is unworthy of touching my lips. I just...don't like them. Or I haven't had the time or means to go out and try them.

But when you're making content for a global audience... and said audience is salivating for a sequel to one of last years best action films... when said action film came out and was awesome... do you not think it may have been cool to do a Big Picture episode on the origins of said character or about the book he spawned from?

It's just something that irks me, especially when he's also one of those occasionally known to pull the "All of geek culture..." crap (and I do mean occasionally)... when it comes down to it, what he means is "All of American Geek Culture...", because apparently the European Geek Culture doesn't exist. But it's especially galling as Bob likes to frame himself as someone who tries to make a point of getting his audience out of their comfort zone and reading/watching something interesting, the fact that he'd ignore the British scene, a scene where people like Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, Mark Miller, and Neil Gaiman (some of the most influential names in comics and legitimising comics as an art form respecting by traditional critics) were forged in the hearts of dying stars and solar empires, are you telling me that isn't worth doing a Big Picture episode on? I dunno just seems like... dare I say it... the dreaded American Imperialism.

 

[Zhukov]

But when you're making content for a global audience... and said audience is salivating for a sequel to one of last years best action films... when said action film came out and was awesome... do you not think it may have been cool to do a Big Picture episode on the origins of said character or about the book he spawned from?

Just out of curiosity, what film are you referring to there?

 

[Rellik San]

But when you're making content for a global audience... and said audience is salivating for a sequel to one of last years best action films... when said action film came out and was awesome... do you not think it may have been cool to do a Big Picture episode on the origins of said character or about the book he spawned from?

Just out of curiosity, what film are you referring to there?

That would be Dredd.

Ah apologies for the confusion Dredd was 2012, but aside from that, my point still stands.

 

[Redryhno]

I used to watch him from time to time when I lurked about six or seven years ago, but since I signed up, no, not really. He's just not really that entertaining to me, and as someone who basically grew up about three years behind everyone else around me, I've found out most of the things he brings up in terms of movies and cartoons that's interesting to me and he just doesn't bring anything to the table.

Even Yahtzee's worst content still has his accent and speech patterns. Even Jim's worst episodes had his Willem Dafoe doll. Unskippable still gives you an idea that you might want to check out a game due to the artstyle you see at least. Bob's worst episodes are dead air with nothing all that shiny to draw the eye.

And his views on some things are just horrendously skewed and outright wrong to me. I mean, there was the infamous "Link should be a girl for progressive reasons"(and I will never let anyone forget that, the Zelda franchise has a huge amount of female characters that should get a game before Link gets chesticles). And then the two-month(?) lead-up to the TMNT movie earlier this year where he was defending Bay and his movies, while simultaneously bashing Smith, and saying it wouldn't suck when everyone knew it was going to except for maybe a scene or two.

 

[Revolutionary]

Yeah, I don't agree with a lot of things he says, especially his views on the more way he looks at a lot of the equality discussion either explicitly or implicitly, but regardless he makes good content.

 

[lord canti]

Let me put it this way. If moviebob was an indie game developer, Jim sterling probably would have a jimqusiiton about him.He seems to be unable to share his opinion without insulting the people who have the opposite opinion. He just constantly comes off as a bitter child who throws a fit if everyone doesn't agree with him.

 

[Teoes]

Yes I do. I enjoy the info-dump Big Picture episodes where I can learn about some of the more odd and obscure aspects of movie and comic history and I appreciate his film reviews. I don't always agree with his opinions, but get this - I understand they're opinions, I understand reviews can't be objective, I understand my tastes will not always line up with those of another person. That's why I watch other reviews from other people as well, to get a sampling from which I can form my own expectations.

I don't think he's as skewed on some subjects as some would have us believe (namely Marvel) and I don't have a problem with him repeatedly bringing up stuff like DKR or Man of Steel when he was so disappointed in how they turned out. These things do not bother me, sorry.

Some of the stuff on Twitter has been questionable but I'm waiting to make my mind up on that.

 

[Sampler]

I'm not a fan of his movie reviews as he can't seem to keep a good spoiler to himself, hell, even a slight one - I know his argument for it in his video's but personally I feel a review should be a peak under the bonnet of a film - what are the stories broadstrokes, what artistic endeavour were the team behind it aiming for (even if that boils down to "Bay make things go boom!"), did they get near that and was the acting passable.

or a more indepth discussion on a film, it's story and anything a spoiler may impact on I feel that's more where his Big Picture shows should come in.

But that's just me, all I do know is stear clear of Escape to the Movies for anything I'm fairly sure I'm going to go see (or wait for video) and only run through the ones I'm either not sure about or simply don't care for.

I don't follow his twitter and don't watch his overthinker series (mostly as the first I'd heard was the big picture cross-over and if that was supposed to be at it's best to sell itself than I don't think it's a show for me).

Some of the Big Picture stuff he does is cool though and I see plenty of people like him on hear (more so than those who dislike him, didn't realise that was a thing until reading this topic), but each to their own, we all have our own preferences and priorities and way we like to see things done and that doesn't always gel with the rest of the world..

...and that's ok.

 

[themilo504]

I enjoy his stuff unless he talks about video games, I feel like he simply hasn?t played or knows enough about modern non Nintendo games to talk about video games in the way he wants to.

As a person he seems like kind of a jerk, at the very least he seems to have good intentions just poor methods, I really wish that people like him would stop accusing things they don?t like of sexism or racism, those are big accusations that should not be used lightly.

 

[Ten Foot Bunny]

He has his good moments (I especially loved his Kevin Smith retrospective) but I don't go out of my way to watch his videos. Like others in this thread, I appreciate the depth of his knowledge and would never question his devotion to the subject. He just doesn't review the types of movies that I like, and on the rare occurrences when he talks about something that interests me, I find his presentation a bit dry.

The best way to state it is that I see his videos as condiments, NOT my main course.

(And until Bob starts reviewing a metric fuck-ton of horror movies, I'll stick with Bloody Disgusting.)

 

[jklinders]

At first I saw his content as being similar to Yahtzee in that he seemed to be taking the piss a little bit. Then I realized that unlike Yahtzee he was actually frequently insulting to people who did not share his views. I used to see his reviews as I had enough of a lead on his tastes to know that if he disliked something I would likely like it. Then I also started noticing he would seemingly go into a movie with a red pen just on the basis of it being directed by someone he doesn't like. Frankly that makes his opinion (which as a critic is his job) utterly worthless to me. So I stopped looking at his reviews.

Big Picture, much like his Twitter feed seems to be turning more away from pop culture and more toward other *COUGH*gamergate*cough* things. Lots of places on the internet I can find that if I want to, I really don't need it sprinkled into pop culture analysis as well.

I just find him lately to be full of hatred and contempt and that's not what I am looking for from an escapist content producer. So yeah.