2013: The Year of the 3 Arrow

Closing in on the glorious blockbuster season, we’re being treated to some pre-season films that could easily fit into the summer rotation. GI Joe: Retaliation is massive in its action and next week’s Oblivion boasts Tom Cruise in a high profile sci-fi project. But we moviegoers are stuck in a very strange run of middle of the road features so far this year. When reviewing films What’s Up Movement has a 5 arrow system that rakes away a lot of the arbitrary guesswork that goes into rating films. The result is a fairly objective scheme that spreads out the appropriate scores of every film we see. But 2013 has proven to be incredibly baffling with most of the films earning three or three and a half arrows.

Usually the scores aren’t that big of a concern, but when so many films fall in line like this I begin to wonder. With 18 films reviewed in 2013, seven of them received scores of 3 arrows and six earned 3.5. That’s more than two thirds of the movies! Be impressed by my math skills. At first I pointed the finger at myself, thinking I was taking the easy way out by not committing in either direction. But after looking over the reviews, that’s not the case. Average performances and average movies without any real attempt at innovation end up in the middle. Sure I enjoyed a lot of them, but that’s not enough.

Looking at the films on the list we have the kinds of movies that tend to populate the first few months of the year on the big screen. There’s the entertaining but predictable action films (Snitch, A Good Day to Die Hard), the moderately funny comedies (The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, 21 and Over), a few “edgy” fairytale reboots (Jack the Giant Slayer, Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters), and the leftovers (Admission, Side Effects). But the category that has been especially surprising to constantly land in 3-3.5 town is the would-be blockbuster.

Oz the Great and Powerful is a massive hit, but the movie is not nearly as impressive as its ticket sales. GI Joe: Retaliation is incredible when compared to its predecessor, but it’s still a shoot-em-up action film that has a few very poor scenes that weaken its story. Even something like The Host, which could have picked up where Twilight left off with fans, collapsed under the weight of what was supposed to be an important message.

As we continue on, the threes may keep coming or maybe Hollywood will break their funk. Only Gangster Squad and Warm Bodies have been able to rise above the mediocrity so far. But I have faith in the summer tent poles. There’s a reason studios dump hundreds of millions of dollars into these movies. So hopefully some are good. But I have no problem continuing to dish out the threes if I need to.

The King of All Critics

Legendary film critic Roger Ebert died yesterday after a lengthy cancer battle. He was 70.

His career was an incredibly interesting one that evolved almost nonstop for more than 40 years. Posting about a deceased celebrity isn’t common practice for What’s Up Movement, but Ebert’s life and career is worth noting because without him, it’s possible that the process of critiquing films would look very different. If you’re interested, I encourage you to read his obituary in his own paper, the Chicago Sun-Times, to learn just how successful he was in bringing film reviews to mainstream America through journalism, television and the internet.

While the idea of turning my film hobby into a website and an exercise in writing can be credited to my mother, my oldest memories of rating movies was in association with Ebert and his rival/friend Gene Siskel on their PBS show “At the Movies.” Maybe it came on after Sesame Street or maybe my parents actively sought it out, I don’t know. But I remember watching the show at a very young age. The two were the odd couple. Siskel was tall and thin, Ebert shorter and stockier. Then when it became Ebert and Roeper after Siskel’s death, I watched even more often. The second pair argued much less if I recall correctly.

“At the Movies” had such influence that the definitive review that films sought was the pair’s signature two thumbs up. I actually borrowed a movie from the library recently (How old am I?) and above the title in bold type face was “Two Thumbs Up- Siskel & Ebert.” Since the show last went off the air there has been no successor to this prominent position. The rating was universal. Three options: good (two thumbs up), bad (two thumbs down) or so-so (one up, one down). Everyone understood. Now studios go with out of context snippets from reviews. (“Best Movie Ever!” says the cashier in the supermarket.) It just doesn’t hold the same weight. The two were so iconic that one of my favorite movies growing up, Roland Emmerich’s Godzilla even featured two characters with similar names and builds to Siskel and Ebert. They were the mayor and his assistant. Siskel and Ebert still panned the film.

In 2012 when I decided to change the grading system for What’s Up Movement film reviews, I researched what methods the prominent critics used. I went back and forth until I came across an essay by Ebert where he talked about his process trying to solve the same problem of rating movies. He mentioned that he preferred a 5 star system to four because some movies fall in that middle area. Four stars splits the options to either good or bad. As a self-proclaimed optimistic film critic, that made a lot of sense to me. You’ll notice we now have a 5 Arrow system here at W^M.

In the last act of Ebert’s career he became a prominent blogger building a huge web presence. To be honest, I very rarely read his blog or his reviews because it was near impossible to read his thoughts on a movie and not recycle his words into my own work. It may sound strange, but I was a fan, so I didn’t read his reviews. On the rare occasion I did, his points would immediately poke holes in what I believed to be a sound case for a film.

The headlines and coverage of Ebert’s death probably seem a bit odd for the casual moviegoer or non-fan, but Roger Ebert really was the most prominent film critic in history. He changed reviews from just a rehashing of the plot and characters into a commentary filled with jokes and opinions. I’d say he deserves one more day in the spotlight.