a thing of the past?

Film critiquing – has it become a thing of the past? Have people pushed the accelerator so much so that we no longer have those few people whose judgements we value the most? Are we stuck inside a snowballing cybersphere full of opinion and thoughts that just get lost? Is technology not only taking over the films themselves but the reviews and critiques too? They become lost not only in translation but in cyberspace as well. However is it a bad thing?

Check out this blog - it’s quite a controversial discussion about reviews of the movie District 9. Controversial due to the fact that the comment that precede it are pages and pages or discussions slash arguments from what the blogger said about unbiased and intellectual film critiques.

Heres one of the comments: “A.O. Scott’s review isn’t “at odds” with our review, nor does it cast any doubt on Chris’ ability to be “totally informed and unbiased.” The two reviews are clearly describing the same movie, and the same intentions; if you ran the pieces side by side (without cutting out the heart of their arguments), you’d see that they both address the movie’s metaphorical intentions, as well as its slide into action set-pieces in the third act. It so happens that Scott and Stamm disagree on the *quality* of the movie.”

However what brought me to the site in the first place was the bloggers commenting on the ‘digital age’ and how it affects reviews – “But as we approach the end of a decidedly digital decade I have to ask – is it necessary to hire one person to give their very personal view of someone else’s art? Someone who is paid to deliver the equivalent of the Sermon on the Mount about the latest album from U2 for instance?”

The digital age has taken over and we are in the middle of a muddled mess that is the World Wide Web. Now this may seem a little deep and ironic for a film blog but interesting at the same time! bloggers have taken the pedestal away from the almighty reviewers and set a new bar for small littler bloggers (like this one? J) to have their opinion – similar to a for the people by the people type of thing…

Anyway keep watching movies and keep reading…

Blog Reference:

http://www.pampelmoose.com/2009/08/district-9-and-the-problem-with-movie-reviews-in-a-digital-age