Okay, so some have called me snooty, overly critical, or a snob even. Here's the deal, I have been exposed to some really good story telling, some really good life changing music, books, movies and even video games (as far as entertainment). But a lot of people watch, read, and play the same things I do, yet have no idea when they are being ripped off, cheated and patronized. And I guess I'm fascinated by the decision people like me, who get angry when this happens, versus those who are just always entertained and only seem to have "Like it" and "Love it!" on their opinion meters. Us snobs like to think by being critical we are able to have more fun, or enjoy something even more because knowing no shortcuts were taken, no detail overlooked, and genuine care was taken in creation. Formulaic ideas don't sit well with us critics, not to say they can't or don't (see Harry Potter), but generally the formula is there because it's easy, and can be reproduced without backlash and for profit generally.
And that's the point that we snooty, artsy folk get hung up on: some guy recognizes a large portion of us (us as a society) will still buy the formula if it's dressed up with enough marketing. Instead of re-filming a portion of a movie to fix a glaring plot or performance error, they can spend 5 million on a good marketing campaign and save 10 million in movie production. It's like in Elf, when the dad doesn't "okay" the reprint because it's missing the last few pages, "What, you think some kid's gonna notice two pages?". We deserve better. It's about moving past the idea that they can have our money just for producing something. Not to say we critics are perfect, sometimes it just feels like we're being taken advantage of and it's not the case.
I will admit that I have been wrong in misjudging various things. So, how can the "light" or purely "entertaining" items ever pass my critical-eye-beam-of-death? Marketers are often to blame for these eye-beam related deaths as the critics themselves imo (imo = in my opinion). There is no code of ethics within the successful marketing companies. They're job is to tell you what you want to hear and sell it. If you've never been mislead by an advertising maybe you have no idea what I'm talking about, but most of us have. Maybe my outrage over these things is meaningless, maybe the dollars I hold back from buying into the crap they're trying to sell me won't change the system... but it does change the system for me. And more importantly than anything else I end up saving more money (which we can all understand I think) than do the, what we certified card carrrying critics call, drones.
