From Roger Ebert's Journal: I'm a proud Brainiac
Pete Chattaway posted this up on Facebook. It is an interesting piece. I subjected myself to the first Transformers movie and have no wish to see the second. It distresses me that so many people excuse crap in the name of escapism.
Roger Ebert's Journal: Archives
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Roger Ebert's Journal: Archives
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posted by Magnus at 20:12
5 Comments:
I proudly concur, kind sir!
It wasn't crap. Honestly - I went to see it with cousins who also grew up playing transformers all the time and it was a movie with lots of fighting robots. I like giant fighting robots.
This isn't the oscars here...just a bit of fun. I found it better than the first. It amused. I felt like a little kid playing transformers...so enough for me.
I'm just tired of everyone talking craop about films when they haven't seen them. Just because something isn't perfect, it doesn't make it crap. If it entertains and amuses some I feel it has done it's job. I am ranting, as I've run into a lot of poeple who have lately started nitpicking things to death over wierd details.
I'm not excusing crap by any means. There is a lot of it. People who make films without caring or bothering to get things right. I'm just tired of people dissing movies they haven't even seen.
I read that over it seemed a bit snarked up. I'm in a bad mood so it's just an extension of that...
I think it's the "it isn't that intelligent" part of the criticism of the film that I don't get so much. Where would I be without Brak, and a lot of other odd humour that other people don't get? I don't think everyone should have to like something to make it good.
I'm not saying it's the best film I"ve ever seen...I agree with Ebert on most things and I respect his opinions. Usually he's the reviewer who I will trust for an honest review because deep down he's a nerd who gets stuff. I think people who thought this was the best movie yet this year are seriously deluded...but I see no reason why there can't be a bit of fun here and there...
I hated the fist film so seeing the second film is not on my agenda. I think Bey's sensibilities are questionable as are the choices he made for an alleged film for children. I think he's a hack with no real talent other than making special effects fight it out real well.
But what I have heard from adults who liked the first one is that they were moved by a strong sense of nostalgia. I have been moved by nostalgia before, against better judgments of taste - but it is something more with Transformers.
I am a would-be writer and someone who has produced art - I want, no NEED, people to push themselves forward and expect more, expect better.
I know what you read Geo and your expectations from literature is much higher than your expectations from film. It does boogle me from time to time. We've never discussed it, because you get rather uncomfortable and kind of defensive. If I am hard on a book, the two of us can have a good discussion. But film? I tread carefully around you, because it is almost like you take it personally when it certainly is not aimed at you personally. My expectations like some others who post here, are high for both - but always subject to personal tastes, whims and fluctuations in the barometric pressure.
Hell, being friends with Pete has given me a window into just how capricious and relative a critic's tastes can be. But I value is input even if he hates a film I like. Not every film has to be Oscar quality, but it should be something more than yet another vehicle to help launder drug money through Hollywood.
I totally get what you mean. It is true - I am like that. I think that altho I am a very picky filmgoer (ahem) I feel I have to to justify thinking something was cool...just for the helluvit. And sometimes I don't want to analyse something if I enjoyed it at first glance..as the more I pick at it, the sourer a taste it leaves behind instead of a pleasant one.
If I enjoy a film and someone tells me it's stupid and contrived...well it is a bit hard to not take that as an insult. I know it isn't meant as one...but I am more than a wee bit sensitive about such things I admit, mostly from being tired of having to be analytical. I do that at work all day and sometimes I want to turn my brain off...not have to analyse why I just found it to be "cool" yet still rather crappy. Don't know why but the word stupid has always been an automatic red flag/hold up your shields sort of word for me. Suppose I should work on that :)
And yet other films I will freely tear apart. I don't get it either... Books I'm much harsher on, yet will still read to the colclusion most times. If I figure it out way before the characters...it's so dissapointing.
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