I never thought I’d see the day where I’d consider giving up film criticism…Forever.
Today may be the day.
One of my all time heroes, Roger Ebert, once said, “Your intellect may be confused, but your emotions will never lie to you.” I have lived by this quote ever since I discovered it back in high school (I even used it as my senior yearbook quote). I have been reviewing movies since I was 13 years old. I am now 21. I was planning on reviewing movies forever.
But things change.
Because it is in this quote by Roger Ebert that has for the first time, failed me. This is directly linked to the outlandish and irresponsible bashing towards M. Night Shyamalan’s newest film, The Last Airbender.
First and foremost, let’s get the obvious stuff out of the way. The movie is being viewed as a disappointment. And it certainly is. The editing is choppy, the acting and writing are stiff, and it feels very rushed. While I still found it entertaining enough to give it a positive review, I understand why this film has been negatively received.
That is not the issue here. The issue is HOW it’s being negatively received. In all my years of reviewing and loving movies, I have never seen such clear and blatant hatred towards one filmmaker (you’ve been impeached Michael Bay). The saddest part? It doesn’t even seem to be about his movies anymore. It’s becoming personal.
This is not a film critic’s job. A critic’s job requires him or her to look at a film, ANY FILM, from a clear and objective viewpoint. Everyone knows my hatred towards Michael Bay, (and yes I enter his films cautiously), but I’m always optimistic that he may surprise me. As for M. Night, I have and always will be a big fan. While I’m sad to see him underperform again, he does not deserve the hatred that has now been injected into his bloodstream.
“Your intellect may be confused, but your emotions will never lie to you” is a quote about trusting your own judgment. Who cares what anyone else thinks? If you have an emotional connection to a movie, then it’s your responsibility to honor that when your intellect is having trouble keeping up. For example, when I first saw Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain, I couldn’t figure it all out, but I knew it was one of the most emotional experiences I’ve ever had watching a film.
In regards to The Last Airbender, (EVEN BEFORE THE MOVIE WAS EVEN RELEASED TO THE PUBLIC!) there has already been a universal agreement that this is “the death knell to Shyamalan’s career” (James Berardinelli from ReelViews). That “he is an idiot” (Matt Pais from Metromix.com). That “M. Night can ruin the world” (Jordan Hoffman from UGO). Even Roger Ebert, one of the fathers of film criticism, collapses under his own words. Ebert hates 3-D. And yes, he’s right, the 3-D is awful here. But he also took away a whole star from Toy Story 3 because of the 3-D, so he seemed ready to jump on Airbender before even viewing it. Why didn’t you see it in 2-D? Or were you too excited to jump all over the 3-D because you knew it would be a more interesting piece of journalism?
In fact, I could even use a quote from his review from The Happening, which he liked and gave three stars, to describe how I feel about The Last Airbender. “I suspect I'll be in the minority in praising this film. It will be described as empty, uneventful, meandering. But for some, it will weave a spell.” You forgot about us some this time around, Mr. Ebert.
He’s not alone. Everyone’s jumping on the bandwagon. It happened in 2008 with The Happening, in 2006 with Lady in the Water, and in 2004 with The Village. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen someone change their mind about Shyamalan just because everyone seems to shit on him.
Therefore, I conclude with what I started with: Has the emotions of critics confused their intellect? Are they automatically built to search for the negative and block out the positive in a Shyamalan film? Am I the only who found the third act of the film to be a rousing, visually stimulating action spectacle?
It’s completely acceptable to hate the movie. Go ahead. It’s your right as a moviegoer. But it’s not cool to do it for coolness sake. It’s cool to remember that Shyamalan has made some great movies. And that hopefully one-day, when everyone gets over being a critic, they’ll remember what it was like to be a moviegoer. If this onslaught continues, I will be forced to depart from the critic inside me and join the latter. I fell in love with this profession because I love the movies. I would hate to become the person that would make someone feel the way I feel today.
After all, your emotions will never lie to you.
3 comments:
took the words right out of my mind.
I think and feel that this movie has a lot of failings, not because of it's director as a person, but through how the director and the producers went through the process of making The Last Airbender (i.e. usage of source material, casting decisions,etc). In short he didn't do a good adaptation of the original cartoon.
That said, I guess the critics are going overboard.
...Unfortunately I can't bring myself to sympathize with M. Night Shayamalan on this one.
Thank goodness you can expand upon your gut feelings as coherently as you do. This could have become a true rant.
Let's look at that for a moment. What goes into a movie review? What motivates one to write the words for a movie review?
1) Expectation - M. Night Shyamalan has worked very hard to create high expectations for his films. This is documented. He puts his name prominently on all the films he makes. They're *his* films made for *your* viewing. After The Sixth Sense, he was clear that these movies were artistic extensions of himself. So with The Last Airbender, we have expectations. His detractors expect excrement and his fans expect art. MNS expects you to love it. Read The Man Who Heard Voices to be disturbed by MNS and his expectations of his audience and backers.
2) Source Material - This film had proven source material. Failed adaptations are often lamented or reviled. Check out Ralph Bakshi's attempt to adapt The Lord of the Rings and how angry it made people. That brings me to ...
3) The Fans - The economic support, the audience for this film came from an established fan base. Making changes to name pronunciations and races is inexplicable, but changing characters as radically as MNS did to the ones in the film he made is, at best, a message to the fans that MNS knew better and was going to make the characters as *he* saw fit. He had source material and flew in the face of a proven story. It was the cinematic equivalent of marking his territory, and that's dangerous.
So we have to ask why attack the filmmaker? Why are the criticisms so personal? Because fans treat the source material reverently. Because MNS played fast and loose with the source material. Because MNS made creative choices so far outside the expectations of the fanbase that it makes no sense. Because the hope that this film would become a means of reaching a wider audience are dashed by the filmmaker. Because MNS has torqued off so many Hollywood insiders that they want him to put up or shut up.
Casey, reviews are not pure expressions of one's movie experience. Often, the reason one reviewer sounds so different from another is background experience. In the case of MNS, he's had years to make a movie that was not about *him* and he's failed.
As a fan of Avatar: The Last Airbender, I am offended that MNS has not a shred of humility to treat the audience for the subject matter with some respect. MNS is being slammed because he has put himself above his work and his audience. That's inexcusable.
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