shamone wrote:first off this is not a defence of ebert. i find his work has become sloppy, frequently lazy, and he seems to be not following the movies as they happen
However, the role of the critic seems to be very misunderstood in a lot of examples here.
first of all critics is not short hand for criticism. they are reviewers, so they are not out to bash the movies you love, they are there to review them.
Secondly critics review movies based on the quality of the movie, not the popularity. so if they give a review of a movie, it doesnt mean that they dont think people will like it, just that its not good quality. So TF, or avatar can get average reviews, but smash box office. Popularity is not a reflection of quality. Miley cyrus, jonas brothers and bieber sell tonnes of records, it doesnt make them good.
finally this argument that critics are failed movie directors and therefore not equipped to review movies is a fallacy. Are restaurant critics all four star michellin chefs, are art critics hidden van goghs. No because it is about appreciation of the art. these people will have studied film, seen enourmous amounts of film, and would understand the history of cinema. Film historians arent usually fil directors (failed or otherwise). Doing the job is not neccesary for appreciation
You just sidestepped the entire point of the thread and went right to justifying Ebert's review of the film, which I stated earlier is not the point of this thread.
So I'll direct the question of this thread directly to you shamone. Are you ok with what he said about fans of RotF, and fans of pretty much anything as quoted in the original post I made? We know you hate RotF, so do us a favor and save that topic for the million other threads about it.