Chad's spot for various thoughts, musings, poetry, ideas and whatnot

Wednesday, November 12, 2003

Movie Critics

OK, I've finally had enough. I've decided that most movie critics are, in actuality, brain dead syncophants with little or no intellect or learning. They are the people in my classes who wait until the last minute to read the articles I assign and then write lame, uninspired and incorrect summaries of them that involve no critical thinking or analytical skills what-so-ever. They don't have time to actually sit down and understand the writer's or director's motive, an actor's inspiration, a cinematographer's sensabilities. All they seem to care about is whether what they are watching is new and/or shocking and, thus, "cool".

What has driven me to this fit of rage? The reviews of the final installment of Matrix Trilogy, of course. Actually, it is the reviews of all of the movies. If you're not smart enough to understand the philosophical discourse, you should really just shut your mouth or at least say that you're incapable of understanding the plot because you were too busy trying to score with that cute other person in your Philosophy 101 course to actually understand the fundamental ideas of epistimology (the theory of knowledge) or the debate over free will vs. determinism. If you look at the reviews of the first movie they were generally dismissive until, all of the sudden, the movie became "cool". What that really means is that somebody finally explained the movie in small enough words for the movie critics to understand. Which, of course, means that they really didn't understand. They didn't see the symbolism or the philosophy or the culture of a generation younger than them dealing with the messes their generation has left behind. But that's a whole different rant.

So now they're bitter. They don't get to belong to the club because they don't have the intellectual firepower to access the material so they do what all bitter people do; which is tear down what they don't understand. They don't understand the issues and values of the generation that created this movie so they trash it instead of saying that they are ignorant.

So, here is a review you can count on. The movie is for people who get it. If you can track along with the philosophy and the generational perspective you'll like the movie a lot. You'll relate to the characters and why they might hold each other instead of going into a groping, liplocked frenzy when they think they might have been separated from each other for all time. You'll understand Neo's actions in the last scene and what's going on with Agent Smith (a hint: he represents an older generation that only seems to be happy when they are making everyone else into copies of themselves...are you listening Boomers????). You'll cheer for the spirit of human courage in the face of overwhelming odds and certain defeat and understand that those are far more lasting values than cynicism and nassarcism. If you are little more than a brain stem and find TV shows like Friends to be intellectually stimulating then you should avoid this movie. You'll hate it and you'll go away mad because your fraternity or sorority membership won't make a difference. You'll still be on the outside trying to get in and you'll know it, which will make you really mad. The only thing you'll think was good was the S&M scene with the Merovingian and you won't understand most of it because you've never truly known what love is.

Ok...maybe that's a little harsh but, by golly, if you don't understand somethign you should keep your mouth shut and learn from those who have more wisdom that you. That's my opinion, I could be wrong.

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