Dark Knight' mob attacks defenseless film critic

Not that it matters of course, when it comes to a pop-culture tsunami like "The Dark Knight," but so far most of America's much-maligned film critics have embraced the Christopher Nolan-directed film, which is due to set all sorts of obscure box-office records this weekend. (Is there, for example, a record for biggest July opening during a presidential campaign year?) But there's always a skunk at every wedding. When it comes to "Dark Knight" fans, the skunk is New York magazine critic David Edelstein, who had the temerity to slag off the new Batman film, calling it "noisy, jumbled and sadistic."

And that was just the beginning: Edelstein hooted at the action scenes ("spectacularly incoherent"), the director ("Nolan appears to have no clue how to stage or shoot action") and the movie in general ("it's all fits and starts, fitfully suspenseful, fitfully scary... with jolts of brutality to keep you revved up"). "Dark Knight" loyalists did not take this lying down. Edelstein has been bombarded with so much e-mail abuse since his review posted that he felt obligated to respond to the vitriol. (The New Yorker's David Denby didn't like the movie much either, but he's somehow escaped being tarred and feathered by the angry mob, perhaps because everyone was more enraged by the Obama cartoon on the cover of this week's magazine.)

I'm not going to get in the middle of this maelstrom, since sadly, I'm such a cultural slacker that I haven't seen the movie yet. But I feel a pang of sympathy for Edelstein, who notes that the Batman fanboys seem to want to have it both ways--calling him a snob for taking the movie seriously, then mocking his pretentiousness for offering more than a "Wow!" as a critical response. The ranting and name-calling all takes us back to the primal question of today's moviegoing age: Do critics still matter?

You should read Edelstein's entire response, but here, in a nutshell, is his argument, which is worth pondering:

"There has been a lot of chatter in the last few years that criticism is a dying profession, having been supplanted by the democratic voices of the Web. Not to get all Lee Siegel on you, but the Internet has a mob mentality that can overwhelm serious criticism. There is superb writing in blogs and discussion groups ... but there are also thousands of semi-literate tirades that actually reinforce the Hollywood status quo, that say: 'If you do not like "The Dark Knight,'" you should be fired because you do not speak for the people.' Well, the people don't need to be spoken for. And a critic's job is not only to steer you to movies you might not have heard of or that died at the box-office. It's also to bring a different, much-needed perspective on blockbusters like 'The Dark Knight.' " 

Photo of Christian Bale as Batman in "The Dark Knight" from Warner Bros.

Comments

[Jim]

Edelstein is just jealous because Gotham City, which is technically New York City, now looks like Chicago in The Dark Knight. And the 'mob' is just jealous because Edelstein got to see The Dark Knight first. Batmania is alive and kicking!

[Anton]

The problem with critics is that there are so many bad critics. Critics that are jaded and overly hard to please, and ones that see movies through the lens of a art snob. Then there are the myriad of jump-on-the-bandwagon critics that just parrot everything that other critics have said already. It is critics like these that can destroy movie's revenues. Consider "Speed Racer" which has a favourable crowd response (those who bravely saw it despite terrible reviews), compared to a horrific critic response. How do we rationalise this? The message is we cant. Obviously critics are judging movies according to different standards than the people they are trying to "help." They are like the product you realise is worthless once you buy it. In this day of widespread information, I think the critic, if not dead, should die.

[Thomas]

How can anyone but critics really say whether it's good or not if it hasn't been released? Has EVERYONE somehow managed to see it early? I plan to see it and think it will be alright, but I don't expect it to be the best movie ever made, and really don't plan on it being any better than Ironman. I look forward to heath Ledger performance as the deranged Joker, but whether he's dead or not isn't going to make it any better. I wasn't really impressed with Batman Begins, so I still have mixed veiws on this one. That, and I odn't really like Christian Bale as Batman. Micheal Keaton was the best!

[David J Wilson]

If the "mob" didn't think critics important, they wouldn't attack them.

[Mark Thomas]

Vitriol is a natural human response to stupidity and/or maliciousness weaseling its way into a position of influence and then gloating about being untouchable.

[Bozzmania]

Take heart fans, the "critic's" a few years ago gave rave reviews to a total piece of crap
"Knocked Up" and thereby destroyed sales for a wonderful movie that came out at the same time ("Once").

Whaddya they knowanyway...........................

[L.J. Burgess]

Heath Ledger was a two-bit actor from the git-go anyway.

Any movie with him in top role can't be taken seriously.

[Carl]

Mobs are stupid. The movie's all hype.

[Jsens3]

Well, duh, of course what Hollywood about is money, its the American way! The much maligned critic is correct. The democratization of media has spawned a plethora of banal, pedestrian, offal. Films that are lauded to the heavens on Monday may be in the ash heap by Friday. The taste of the comsuming public is mostly in its collective mouth. Does any thinking person believe a Batman movie starring druggie Heath Ledger is going to be great film! Those who do are likely the same who thought Angels and Demons and The DaVinci Code were great literature. The observation attributed to P.T. Barnum that "there's a sucker born every minute" applies here.

[none]

No, critic don't matter. I haven't listened to them in years.

It's not really their fault...Once you become a critic you learn things about film acting, pacing, editing, etc, that you can no longer watch a movie as the rest of us do. By nature of what they do, they become detached from the normal movie going audience. It's sad, really. But, no, they often don't matter - and often they cannot predict if I will like a movie.