Saturday, December 23, 2006

'Critic'al Thinking

Movie critics, does anyone ever actually listen to them? Let me start at the source for this post...
When I first saw previews for "Night at the Museum" I was pretty skeptical about the whole thing; I didn't know how they were going to tie the movie together. After seeing it tonight I can say that I think they did a fairly decent job and released a family friendly movie that might even encourage some kids to visit a museum, or at least take an interest in History (my field of study...).
Now, back to my point - Movie critics are destroying this film and I don't understand why. To properly discuss the issue I am going to be taking excerpts from an Associated Press review and then rebutting them;
"Other than the basic plot point of inanimate creatures coming alive and some occasionally inventive visual effects, "Night at the Museum" is unimaginative and annoying, as movies by director Shawn Levy (Cheaper By the Dozen, The Pink Panther) often are." Inanimate objects coming to life in a museum is unimaginative? I would have never thought of it, and I'm guessing the author of the article wouldn't have either - maybe that's why he's so mad.

"Robin Williams provides a few chuckles as the bullheaded incarnation of a wax figure Teddy Roosevelt, though the laughs come more from seeing him in Rough Riders costume than from anything in the dopey script by Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon." It's not Shakespeare, but it's not dopey either. Honestly, the target of the film is kids, and most kids I know will love it! The dialogue in the first Rocky movie was awful (in my opinion) and that won best picture. It doesn't have to have amazing dialogue to be a good movie, most of what moved the film along were one-liners by Ben Stiller or Owen Wilson, and in my opinion it was an enjoyably funny movie.

Ok, I've been serious enough for long enough...well, maybe I can endure it just a bit longer. In closing, I will say this, "Night at the Museum" while not Oscar worthy was an enjoyable, family friendly film. Apparently that just isn't good enough for modern society though. Whatever happened to the movie that was good because it was heartwarming and fun, not because it was shocking and crude. The guy who wrote the article quoted above will keep getting paid to write what he thinks...I'm going to stop listening to him, for free.

2 comments:

Josh L. said...

For the record, things coming to life is not imaginitive or original, it's a staple of children's movies("Toy Story", "Cars") , so get that out of the way... second, i agree dialog isn't important in a childrens movie, but for an oscar movie, yes, it's slightly important. While I agree critics sometimes rate movies too harshly, if they treat everything as an oscar candidate, they have to evaluate them honestly.

Rachel said...

I took my 9 year old to this movie on Christmas Day and he LOVED it. He was laughing out loud during quite a few parts of the movie.
His favorite movie so far that he has ever seen was the remake of The Pink Panther so it is no wonder that he loved it.
Fart jokes go a long way with him.