The New York Times‘ A.O. Scott is not a fan of The Avengers. The critic panned the film in his recent review, leading star Samuel L. Jackson to take to Twitter in response.
“#Avengers fans, NY Times critic AO Scott needs a new job! Let’s help him find one! One he can ACTUALLY do!” Jackson tweeted.
Scott said, “The Avengersis hardly worth raging about, its failures are significant and dispiriting.” Scott also called Jackson’s role as the head of superspy agency S.H.I.E.L.D “more master of ceremonies than mission commander” in his review.
So, do you agree with Jackson in calling out the reviewer? Or is the reviewer only doing his job in stating his take on the movie?
He’s trolling in hopes to get traffic to his site more likely. Note, I’ve not seen the movie yet so I have no personal comment on the content however I’ve found movies that are getting good early genre feedback like this one does basically means he wants the nerds that love the series to come rage at him so they get ad hits.
The reviewer is doing his job by telling his view & take on the film and Sam is doing his job by blasting the reviewer for his idiot opinion. All is right with the world.
I’m with Tom on this, if only because a lot of the genre-related commentary coming from NYT these days seems designed to spur a negative reaction. See their comments on Game of Thrones, for another example.
There’s also this ridiculous level of “more cultured than thou” critical backlash going on with The Avengers, which IMHO, says more about the reviewers than the film’s merits.
Either the NYT is desperate to get website traffic, and encouraging their reviewers of pop-culture and/or genre material to be contrarian on purpose, or the people they are assigning to do these reviews are so upper-crusty, high society “cultured” they aren’t fans of any genre save romance and “lit-ra-chure” (see previously mentioned “girl” who reviewed Game of Thrones).
When reviewers let their disdain for the content they are reviewing bias their reviews beyond the pale, they need to find another profession, else they’ll die early from ulcers. Or from fanboy retribution.