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Hollywood Producer Blames Rotten Tomatoes For Convincing People Not To See His Movie (vanityfair.com)
An anonymous reader shares a VanityFair report: These days, it takes less than 60 seconds to know what the general consensus on a new movie is -- thanks to Rotten Tomatoes, the review aggregator site that designates a number score to each film based on critical and user reviews. Although this may be convenient for moviegoers not necessarily interested in burning $15 on a critically subpar film, it is certainly not convenient for those Hollywood directors, producers, backers, and stars who toiled to make said critically subpar film. In fact, the site may be "the worst thing that we have in today's movie culture" -- at least according to Brett Ratner, the Rush Hour director/producer who recently threw the financial weight of his RatPac Entertainment behind Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Sure, the blockbuster made over $850 million worldwide in spite of negative reviews ... but just think of how much more it could have made had it not had a Rotten Tomatoes score of 27 percent! Last week, while speaking at the Sun Valley Film Festival, Ratner said, "The worst thing that we have in today's movie culture is Rotten Tomatoes. I think it's the destruction of our business."
Hollywood Producer Blames Rotten Tomatoes For Convincing People Not To See His Shitty Movie
If your business depends on tricking people into watching crappy movies, it deserves to die.
The problem isn't the review aggregators; it's the constant stream of bad movies.
Perhaps there needs to be an End User License Agreement for movies that bars unfavorable reviews. **ducks**
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
...of your abusive business model, where you make shit films, charge too much for them, trick people into going with clever advertising, and then get laws passed that criminalize format-shifting because you're so afraid that a tiny bit of revenue will slip through your greedy fingers. Even Hollywood accounting can't win in a free market. Man, that really sucks. Your life is so hard.
I watched the movie in question online a few weeks ago, I got bored and skipped an hour in the middle, and honestly don't think I missed anything important. I can't possibly imagine having to wait though the ever so slow plot line in a movie theater with no other distractions available.
Bateman vs super man was a mediocre movie at best. The problem is these are big characters and you had no backstory for. 2 out of 3 main characters were new. If they had done a Bateman movie alone with Ben affalac (?) and had the ending, a cut scene etc tie it into Bateman vs super man it would have been a much better movie. Bonus you could also tie in sucide squad members being arrested after a confrontation with Batman.
It took Marvel a couple of tries to realize that. Now people look for cutscenes for the next marvel movie.
If you go back to 2007 and iron man and play the movies and tv shows in order you get a mostly consistent plot.
Batman vs super man is taking the plot of avengers 2 with out the character building arcs to make you care.
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
They're able to - they just don't want the risk. Rebooting old movies from the 80's or making yet another sequel is safe - even if it's terrible people will buy tickets (unless they're warned in advance by terrible reviews).
Turns out, it's not safe to make garbage and expect to turn a profit.
I went in expecting a terrible movie and was pleasantly surprised to find it was a mediocre movie. I still think it deserves the poor RT rating though
It's very simple. Stop remaking the same movies over and over. Come up with something NEW for once.
Corporatism != Free Market
Exactly this. There are amazing numbers of untapped novels out there that would make wonderful movies.
That the movie industry spends most of its effort ignoring this resource leaves me with absolutely no sympathy whatsoever for any whining I hear from them. Where's Neuromancer? Where's Tau Zero? Where's (any one of) the Bolo stories, or Galactic Odyssey? Pretty much anything Gene Wolfe ever wrote? Axis of Time series? Novik's Temeraire? I could on for days just in the areas of fantasy and SF. There are tons of untapped thrillers and etc. out there too; Lots of as-yet-to-be-mades (not to mention as-yet-to-be-made-wells) from Clancy, Clavell, etc.
And then, when they commit crimes against art like create utter crap like "Soylent Green" out of really good books like "Make Room, Make Room"... then I'm glad they're not digging up good novels as sources. Let 'em make more formula superhero movies like the (utterly terrible) Batman vs. Superman we're talking about here. Keeps me from tearing my hair out.
Honestly, if the movie industry died (which it shows no sign of, this buffoon's whining aside), I'd just read more books.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
I find humans being utterly reliant upon reviews for every fucking thing in their life completely pathetic. Can't even drink a cup of coffee or eat a pizza without asking a panel of five-star rated liars. Ever heard of product satisfaction being subjective?
Use your own brain for once and make your own judgements. Live a little. Good or bad, it is satisfying knowing at the end of the day the decisions you made were yours, and not made based on sponsored bullshit.
Or, you have limited time and resources, try to spend it wisely. I see about 6 films a year, and I would prefer them not to be terrible if possible. Why would you *not* use the resources available to you to pick well?
All recent DC Comics universe movies are know to have had an awfully hectic production process. The producers, and generally the Fox production teams have turned the movies into horrible mess.
By the way, Batman VS Superman is surely not the worst of all. Sure it is bad, but not so bad. This movie is just an average failure.
Man of Steel was a total trainwreck. The worst is that it looks awful. Visually, Man of Steel is the worst high budget movie I have seen for years. It looks like utter crap. It feels like the director had no steering power over his own film to make it consistent. I had not seen so many lens flares in a video since I watched Babylon V. The colors are mostly awful, and for whatever reason, the time in the movie is almost always late afternoon, whether the scene is in the US or in the foreign country. As a photographer I know that the golden hours sure look good, but it should be used sparingly.
How can such high budget movies can be shot so badly?
Stupidity is the root of all evil.
I would pay good money to see Jason Bateman versus Superman. Should there be an Arrested Development tie-in?
I didn't know the duck's name was Ben. But if AFLAC reconciled with Gilbert Gottfried and got him to do the voice, I would be waiting in line to see that one as well.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
I think you're looking for Hancock
Brett Ratner is one of the biggest problems in Hollywood, not Rotten Tomatoes. Here's his directorial resume (I count one decent movie):
2014/I Hercules
2011 Tower Heist
2007 Rush Hour 3
2006 X-Men: The Last Stand
2004 After the Sunset
2002 Red Dragon
2001 Rush Hour 2
2000 The Family Man
1998 Rush Hour
1997 Money Talks
As someone who is aware of super hero comics and once faithfully followed one of them and watched the cartoons, the whole idea of Batman vs. Superman was just ludicrous from the title alone.
Batman is basically a rich guy with fancy gadgets on his toolbelt. He's not a LOT different from anybody. He just has better gadgets.
Superman is a God, effectively.
This fight is over before it even starts so why the hell would I want to pay to see it? Well, I wouldn't and didn't and never needed to read the reviews. These characters used to be allies as well so the idea of having them fight each other sounds like something a four-year-old kid would come up with, bashing action figures in a sandbox. Whatever, man. Not gonna see this movie. Honey Boo Boo, which I have also never seen, sounds more interesting.
Sig for hire.
I find humans being utterly reliant upon reviews for every fucking thing in their life completely pathetic.
Getting opinions of people when you're stepping into the unknown is not pathetic, it's just common frigging sense. Those reviews for pizzas aren't so locals can masturbate over them, they are for people who have never been there before don't know the town, city or even country, and who want to know if they are going to get screwed or not.
Ever heard of product satisfaction being subjective?
Indeed. That's why people who agree with aggregate populations go to aggregate reviewers, people who agree with specific reviewers look up specific reviewers, and people who see themselves as different from people in general either avoid review sites, or sometimes sort them by 1 star ratings.
Use your own brain for once and make your own judgements.
Using brain is fine providing the process doesn't cost me an entire evening or a boatload of money.
Speaking of:
1.5 stars. GP wrote nothing of value because he didn't understand how reviews work. Would not read again.
I don't mean to downplay the actors, but a lot of the problem is the writing.
I suspect given the same script that Christopher Reeve would still be a better Superman than Henry Cavill, but Cavill's biggest problem was his scenes and dialog in Man of Steel and Batman v Superman. Reeve would have been every bit as dumb with "save Martha!" and Cavill never got the chance to play the bumbling but adorable country boy with lines like, "Well gee, I don't know, Lois!" and "Golly!". Cavill never got to play off the transition from bumbling, awkward Clark in his disguise to Superman. All that is not his fault.
Likewise, the biggest thing that made Val Kilmer terrible as Batman was just the scenes and dialog as Bruce Wayne in Batman Forever. Keaton had much better writing in his two Batman films. Keaton and Christian Bale couldn't have done much with the stupidity Affleck had to deal with in Batman v Superman either.
And while we're at it, while I think Leto was especially bad in Suicide Squad (probably the worst super-powered movie I've ever seen), even Jack Nicholson, Mark Hamill, Cesar Romero, or for that matter Denzel Washington, Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro, or Tom Hanks would not have made that Joker good. The story, scenes, and dialog for the role were just as unbelievable pointless, boring, and stupid as the rest of the movie.