Criticizing the Critics

By: James Southworth
 

If there's one thing the general population can agree on, it's that at one time or another we have not agreed with a critic's opinion on something. Whether it's movies, music, TV shows, books, or any other medium of art, there is always some critic whose opinion we just cannot bring ourselves to accept because we either like or hate that work, unlike them. And that is just fine. All opinions are valid in their own ways, and the opinion you hold is just as valid as mine. But when our opinion leads to infringing on another person's opinion too much, that's when problems arise. This idea of infringing opinions leads to an event I want to talk about that has happened recently. "Suicide Squad" came out last Friday, with pretty positive reviews from general audiences (it has an average rating of 7/10 on IMDB) and decidedly less positive reviews from critics on Rotten Tomatoes- a 26% ("rotten" certification) to be exact. Based on Rotten Tomatoes' standards, that's a really bad rating. And the reviews reflect the low percentage, with many critics completely bashing the movie. The result of this? A lot of fans of this movie were quick to react in anger to the critics. Many of them didn't think that these opinions were "correct". So, there was an actual petition started on change.org to have RT taken off the internet. To my utter disbelief, there are already over 15,000 signatures. This is actually a sort of scary thought: it shows just how many people in America don't believe in free speech despite the fact it's in our constitution.

I won't lie: Rotten Tomatoes is far from a perfect site. Sometimes their percentages will be a bit wrong, and the percentages often bring more weight to the top critics than any of the other ones, which is unfair. The consensuses done for each movie/TV show they review is pretty generic and the consensus doesn't accurately represent the thought of every critic- which is a pretty hard feat to accomplish anyway; reviews always have many nuances. But that didn't give all these people the right to react in such extreme ways to the critics' reviews of "Suicide Squad". It seems in this day and age, America has become so individualistic that if you try to criticize anything in an objective way, you will get called out as utterly wrong by another person. To that person, there is no room for discussion of your opinion, as their opinion is the only right one. Social media has so many examples of this, primarily on Facebook. People are always looking to be offended by some sort of opinion, instead of trying to have an understanding of it. Even better, they could just move on instead of just flat out hating on the opinion. The way people are expressing their disdain for RT's reviews is not the right way to express their opinion. They are actively trying to shut the critics' rights to free speech so that they can be special snowflakes and have their view point be the only one right.

This RT incident is just a more extreme example of several times when critics have been unreasonably hated on for merely doing their job. I know upon writing that, many people will be quick to point out that they think some critics ARE bad at their job. And there are certainly some who are worse than others: some critics will be quick to over-analyze every detail of a movie in ridiculous ways. Others do not do a good job of expressing what they think; they don't offer evidence to back their opinions and instead just make insane statements with no legitimate reasoning attached. But do the haters really think the critics will change if they are flat out hated on for what they are doing? The answer is no, negativity doesn't change anything. If anything, critics will keep even more staunchly to what they are doing; the haters are just adding fuel to the fire. They will do it just to make haters mad. I know, human emotions are unpredictable and often irrational. That is the beauty and the tragedy of the human condition. But to the people who hate unreasonably on the critics: do you think you could take a deep breath and think rationally before just madly ranting about your anger? It's guaranteed you'll look worse than the people you're hating on.

Now don't think that I'm saying critics don't deserve any criticism they get. As a critic myself, I love when people tell me what I could improve on in my writing; I appreciate it when someone suggests how I could analyze a certain thing better. The best way to criticize those who do criticizing for a job is to start a dialogue; leave room for discussion. Everyone hates when someone will just leave a hateful opinion out there and refuse to move on from it. People will generally be more willing to talk about a critique or problem you have with their content if you just talk to them about it with CONSTRUCTIVE, not DESTRUCTIVE, criticism. I myself have been guilty of using destructive criticism. As I've grown up, I've learned how to use my constructive criticism to still express an opinion that doesn't infringe on the free speech of others. But I'm still not perfect at it; no one is. We all just have to grow and learn the many subtleties of discussing opinions. If expressing opinions is going down a negative path, I generally try a different tactic that keeps both of our opinions valid, and makes the discussion healthier, rather than just yelling "You're wrong!" in different deviations. Maybe some of you don't agree with what I'm saying here. That's fine, I'd love to hear why, as long as you're not just straight up dismissing my opinion without discussion. I think that's what the critics want, too. I hope that change can happen. But for now, we're a long way from making that change. Bottom line: this petition of deleting RT was idiotic and wrong. If you signed the petition, you're part of a very relevant problem. If you didn't, thank you. Let's all try to keep free speech and the healthy expression of different opinions alive, one person at a time.