If you were on the fence about going to see Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, and hoping this morning’s reviews would help you Read the full post.
Jul 7
2006
02:33 PM ET
Reviewing the Reviews: 'Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest'
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If “critics are using a whole different set of criteria when they respond to a movie than average moviegoers”, then what exactly is the point of these critics? They are being published and paid because they intend to be read by “average moviegoers”. To say the box office is no indication of whether a movie is any good is a sorry argument. Ticket sales are the average moviegoers’ voice. Don’t sit there and say it doesn’t count. You say “don’t expect the critics to call such movies the greatest things ever produced.” Is it too much to expect critics to be objective and intelligent enough not to judge a movie like Pirates by its “artistic excellence”? Go ask anyone at Disney if they intend this franchise to be artistic. They’d laugh in your face. It’s meant to be entertaining. Duh!
Attn: moviebuff
1. I saw “Pirates 2″ and hated it. The audience wasn’t feeling it either; some laughs here and there but nothing beyond that. I caught wind of alot of folks saying how disappointing it was after it let out.
2. You fail to understand what I said about Ms. Schwarzbaum. Just because she didn’t like either “Pirates” film doesn’t mean she hates summer blockbusters. Look at last year for a great example; she went on and on about how she loved “War of the Worlds,” “Batman Begins,” “Wedding Crashers,” etc.
3. I didn’t say nor imply that audiences were stupid for seeing and/or liking “Pirates 2.” But I (as well as you) know that a film’s box-office success or failure has zip to do with its quality. There are plenty of films that opened to huge opening weekend numbers that were considered “bad” and vice versa.
4. I seriously doubt Ms. Schwarzbaum is going to lose any sleep b/c a film she hated made a ton of money. She doesn’t appear to be as personally involved with that as certain people in this board. It’s just a film, folks. Chill out…
5. Yes, you can just say, “I respectfully disagree” and leave it at that.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Folks, just for the record, the person who posted a comment on July 9 at 10:10:50 am and signed it as “Owen, G” is NOT Entertainment Weekly film critic Owen Gleiberman. –Jay Woodruff, managing editor, ew.com
Hi again, FilmNerdJamie.
It seems there are a bit of sour grapes going on here since your opinion is in the minority. Just because you didn’t like the movie, you can’t pooh-pooh the fact that it broke several major box office records. Sorry, but it’s a significant indicator that a great deal of people thought it was a good quality movie (as are a majority of the posts you see on this web page). Regarding your defense of Schwartzbaum, my problem with her review is that she judged Pirates by what “artistic stake” it had in its audience’s response (see next to last paragraph of review). I checked your references to her reviews of last year’s summer movies. She judged Batman Begins by these criteria: “1) Make it fun; (2) make it fresh; (3) make it meaty.” Her review of Wedding Crashers introduces the movie as “an unabashedly jiggly, bawdy, it’s-all-good comedy about a couple of guys who love getting laid.” And Schwartzbaum didn’t review War of the Worlds, Glieberman did. Nowhere in those other two reviews does the word “artistic” appear. Her review of Pirates is ridiculously unfair and biased.
When anyone goes to see a movie they go because they believe it has potential to be good or even great. Most people dont base their movie outings on critics specially when its summertime and they just want to go out and have a goodtime. Pirates of the Caribbean, i mean, the title alone makes me want to see it since i’m stuck in New Jersey with its cold beaches and heck, i like pirates and adventure. I saw the first one and i hated it but i want to get away, thats all. What did i hate about it? Well, everything Johnny Depp said could hardly be deciphered since he was slurring every word, the romance was really weak with no real chemistry at all and the action was kinda tacked. And the story? What story? There wasnt much of one now was there? But so what, maybe i will like this one you know? I’ve read all the reviews and they arent promising at all but that wont keep me from going. Will it suck? Sure, it could totally suck and i could hate this one even more, but i still want to see it and decide that on my own. I need a vacation and sometimes a movie can give you that even if its for only two hours. Sometimes dumb entertainment can be better than none at all.
Folks, I think that some of you are taking this negative review a little too personally. Let’s try to remember that we all have different opinions about movies and that one differing from your own is not a personal attack. Let’s also try to remember that ticket sales does not a good movie make. The last 3 Star Wars movies cleaned up at the box office and look what “clunkers” they were (I am a Star Wars fan for those of you who may be offended by that). I do plan to watch this movie (when it’s released on DVD) and hope to enjoy it for what I assume will be some mindless entertainment from some very mindful actors.
Attn: moviebuff (We really need to chat on AIM, Yahoo or something with this debate!
)
No its not sour grapes b/c as I’ve said various times, “It’s only a film.”
Yet again, you failed to read everything I said in my original post. It broke box-office records. Good for them. They earned it. But “box-office success” doesn’t automatically equal “good film.” It’s up to each individual viewer to make that call. I, for one, say the film was garbage. I liked the original for the record!
But I’m not the one attacking Ms. Schwarzbaum just b/c she didn’t see eye-to-eye with everyone else towards “Pirates 2.” That’s all that annoys me.
Both Pirates of the Caribbean movies are great! What makes it so good is that it is for people of seriously every age, young kids can enjoy it and so can adults. And NO ONE can play a pirate like Johnny Depp, and im already ready for the third one to come out!(Yes there is going to be a third)
Okay, FilmNerdJamie. It’s understood that you’re not attacking Schwartzbaum because you agree with her, and that the box office and positive comments posted here mean nothing to you. But I’m curious, since you think the movie is “a piece of garbage,” how would you have made it better? No generalizations like “make it shorter.” Specific ideas please.
Well actually I’m not attacking Schwartzbaum b/c I just plain don’t do that to people. There are plenty of times I disagree with folks (including certain EW film critics), but I don’t start screaming to the top of my lungs b/c we don’t see eye-to-eye (like some people on this board.)
As for what would I do better? That has nothing to do with anything…and you know it! You’re just trying to change the subject b/c you don’t have a defense of attacking someone and then *gasp* someone else calling you out on it.
Seriously, I’m done with this topic b/c I can’t have a simple debate without either mud-slinging or changing the topic of said debate to an irrelevant subject.
Too bad you decided to cop out on this perfectly legitimate topic, FilmNerdJamie. You go on and on about how the movie stinks but then you have not one idea on what changes would have made it better? The only response you can come up with is to whine about how I changed the subject? Typical. Um, and yes I do have a defense for criticizing the D+ review (the whole point of this topic page, remember?). My post dated 7/10 discusses how Schwartzbaum didn’t use the same criteria to judge this movie as she did with other summer movies she liked. You conveniently ignore that point because in the end, you’re right and everyone else is wrong, no matter how many facts they present to back up their statements. I don’t know where you think mud-slinging comes into play here. Are you mad just because I did a little research on Schwartzbaum’s reviews to challenge your statements? I don’t blame you for being done with this topic. Take your ball and go home.
A final note on this film and the whole critics debate. According to boxofficemojo.com “[Studio Buena Vista's] exit polling indicated that the audience’s assessment was on par with the original with 92 percent rating Dead Man’s Chest ‘excellent’ or ‘very good,’ and pollster CinemaScore backed that up with an ‘A-’ rating.” Rotten Tomatoes users gave it a 78% approval rating. Yahoo.com critics (which includes Schwartzbaum) gave it an average grade of B-. The movie does not deserve the bashing it has received by a select few.