[July 01, 2011] The Shuffle: Great expectations Tweet Jul 01, 2011 (St. Joseph News-Press - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Last week, Entertainment Weekly's resident film critic Owen Gleiberman wrote a heavily commented on column titled "Do critics pick out certain movies to bash?" It's an interesting piece in which he claims that critics write nasty reviews of select films to take "a bold 'stand' against 'The Machine'" or "let off some toxic guilty steam." The piece largely revolved around "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," which was buried by just about every single movie critic out there -- except Mr. Gleiberman, who gave the robo-sequel a "B" grade. Gleiberman argued that the vast majority of critics chose to villainize Michael Bay for being the poster boy of substance-less CGI blockbusters rather than revel in the movie's over-the-top fun. Gleiberman also pointed to a few other examples of excessive critical beatings: "The reviews of 'Godzilla' were really a way of punishing director Roland Emmerich and screenwriter Dean Devlin for the jaunty-glib, neo-Reaganite 'Independence Day,' which had gotten way too free a ride. The bashing of 'Hangover II' was perverse payback for the overpraise of 'Hangover I.'" You could say the same thing happened last week with the release of "Cars 2." After making the brilliant, heavy, heartfelt films "WALL-E," "Up" and "Toy Story 3," Pixar chose to release a simple, silly, kid-centric movie starring a tow truck voiced by Larry the Cable Guy. And critics hopped all over it. The movie's Tomato-meter stands at 33 percent (that's 15 percent below the recent Jim Carrey release "Mr. Popper's Penguins"). Conversely, the "Toy Story 3" Tomato-meter still rings up at 99 percent. You know, I almost bought in to Mr. Gleiberman's argument. After all, I gave "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" a 3 out of 5 score on our "Live at the Movies" segment on News-Press 3 NOW in 2009. I, too, had a blast watching the robot royal rumble on the big screen. But I recently watched "Revenge of the Fallen" on my TV at home and realized I ignored the film's many, many, many shortcomings because I was blinded by shiny metal Autobots and fiery explosions in the theater. It was awful. I overlooked the horrific acting, disjointed plot, amateur dialogue and racist robots because I was too focused on how cool the "Mortal Kombat"-style Decepticon fatalities were. To this day, "Revenge of the Fallen" is the only film I wish I could go back and issue a different score. You see, originality, timing and essence are key to artistic success (but not necessarily commercial success). "Revenge of the Fallen" earned poor marks and scathing reviews because it lacked heart and originality. Michael Bay and his crew didn't make room for deep, emotional scenes between the Cybertronian battles but did manage to include recycled dialogue and blatantly stereotypical characters. "The Hangover: Part II" was cruelly panned because it borrowed way too much from its remarkable predecessor. That's why horror sequels often get bad reviews, too (think "Saw"). And "Godzilla" deserved being raked through the mud because it was long, boring and completely uninteresting. I was 12 years old when I went to the Capitol Theater to see "Godzilla," and it was the first movie in my life that I ever hated. Because critics have seen far more films than the average movie-goer, they find more to pick apart when they watch newly released movies. They can recognize a stolen scene that others might not. They can recognize when a supposedly heartfelt moment doesn't seem so genuine. The problem is that Hollywood has pumped out so many movies that it's hard for any filmmaker to come up with a completely original film. So instead, they're making sequels, spin-offs and rip-offs to monetarily capitalize on former successes. To answer Mr. Gleiberman's question: No. Critics do not pick out certain movies to bash. They just haven't seen any good flicks lately. To see more of the St. Joseph News-Press or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.stjoenews-press.com/. Copyright (c) 2011, St. Joseph News-Press, Mo. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]