This weekend, as you all know, The Green Hornet starring Seth Rogen and Jay Chou has been released (I’m seeing it today so you’ll have my review sometime in the future). The film brought in around $40 million over this holiday and is currently at number 1 at the box office. However when you look at the critical reception, there’s definitely been a lot of hate. Rotten Tomatoes has this film sitting at a dismal 45% and Metacritic also has it sitting at a worse 39/100. This sounds like bad news.
However, from looking at some other online critics, mostly among blogs and some other big named film websites, while not admitting it’s a perfect film, they have absolutely enjoyed this movie. Now this begs on question: Does the critical scoring of sites such as RT and Metacritic matter anymore, and even to take the question further from that, did those sites really matter at all?
Now I am a big fan of movies, always have been, always will be. And the one important thing I’ve learned over my years, being on movie sites and writing on this blog for nearly two and a half years, is that film is subjective. What you may consider a masterpiece, others may not. Or vice versa. What others may consider a masterpiece you think is a mess. It all depends one your view, on your opinion of things.
So do you need sites like RT to influence your thoughts? If the film (to you) is bad and RT gives it a low rating, sure. I would definitely agree with the low score giving to Season of the Witch because the film was horrible. However, would I have known that had I not seen the film myself? Would I have agreed with the low rating if I hadn’t figured I’d sit down to see what MY OPINION is of the film, rather than looking to others to decide for me?
Take, for example, The Lovely Bones. When The Lovely Bones cames out about a year back, critical reception for the movie was very poor. And by hearing that, I didn’t want to see it in the theaters. I was listening to what other people were saying rather than deciding for myself. But once it was out on DVD I saw it and I loved it. I thought it was a magnificent film. Sure a lot of professional critics didn’t, but I’m not them. You see what I’m saying?
You don’t really need critical reception sites to control you to whether you wanna see a movie or not, nor should you think that site holds sway as to what your opinion will turn out to be. In the end it’s your call. If you think the movie didn’t deserve that much praise, that doesn’t mean your right or wrong. It’s just your take on it, and that’s what matters. If you loved The Green Hornet, that’s great for you. I have yet to see the film, but say I differ from you, that’s perfectly fine. If I hate the movie and you love it, it’s fine for both of us, because it’s our opinion. I know I’m kinda repeating myself with that, but it’s the true. In the end, our take, our opinion is what matters, not what RT and Metacritic says.