James Rolfe On Ghostbusters

So yesterday James Rolfe, aka The Angry Videogame Nerd posted a video talking about how he's not going to see the new Ghostbusters movie because he believes it'll be bad and this has caused quite a backlash. Not from fans, but from fellow critics. Dan Murrell, Leon Thomas, Bob Chipman Lindsey Ellis have all commented saying it's unfair and unprofessional of him to simply blacklist this movie because it's based on a nostalgic franchise. Now while I semi-agree with them I'm gonna play devil's advocate here and say what Rolfe says isn't bad, just misworded.

Now look the important thing to remember here is that James Rolfe is an independent critic, he doesn't represent a news outlet or company, he reviews whatever he wants to review, and if he doesn't want to see a movie because he thinks the trailers look bad, he's perfectly allowed to do that. If anything I think it's a good thing he won't see the movie, he says himself in the video that he's biased, he's nostalgic for the original film and considers it one of his all time favourite films, and with the onslaught of bad remakes of 80s classics we get these days, plus the bad marketing of the film, it's not surprise he would assume the movie is going to be bad.

With that being said I think Bob Chipman put it best, it's going to be impossible to actually judge this movie without comparisons to the original, debates about feminism in movies, yadayadayada and really it'll be about 5 years (I'd say 10) until we actually find out what people think of this movie. Me personally I didn't grow up with Ghostbusters, I saw it when I was 13 and thought it was fine, I didn't see it again until I was 18 and liked it a lot more but it's not something I'm nostalgic about or love all that much. But with that being said I'm not looking forward to the new movie at all, I'm not a fan of Paul Feig or Melissa McCarthy and I thought the trailer was piss poor. Will I see the movie? Probably not, even if it does get good reviews because I quite simply do not care. But at the same time I'm not gonna do a melodramatic video talking about how this movie is destroying a classic film.

-Danny

Uncharted 4's Bad Review

Oh hey, been a while...cool now that we got that outta the way.



Let's talk about this shit storm that is forming around The Washington Post's review of Uncharted 4, if you don't know this story, Michael Thomsen wrote up a very negative review for Uncharted 4 which brought the Metacritic score down from a 94 to a SHOCKING 93...oh boohoo. So now there is a petition for his review to be removed from Metacritic...Now look I read his review and I very much disagree with what he said, hell I just think it's a badly written review that barely discusses the game but more so his feelings on Uncharted as a concept. But Jesus Christ people's reactions just shows how fragile people's egos are and if their opinions are ever challenged they turn into crying brats.

Let's take a look at what the creator of the petition has to say and why they felt this petition was needed. “It harms the Flawless reputation of the game for absolutely no reason. A review is not about what you think a game is , its about what a game is. Objective measures are applied.”...Okay where to begin. First of all "flawless reputation" listen kid-and I assume this is a kid because only 12 year olds act this way-no videogame is flawless, no art piece is flawless, and to suggest it has a flawless reputation would suggest that every single person who played it thinks it's the greatest thing ever, if even one person left that game not thinking that, then it ain't a flawless reputation. But what really gets me is that second part, "A review is not about what you think a game is , its about what a game is. Objective measures are applied" and yes, that bad grammar is exactly how they word it. So let's talk about this "Objective measures are applied". Here's a lesson everyone needs to learn: There is no such thing as an objective review. A review is saying what you like or dislike about a game with a decent enough selection of evidence to back up your points. People aren't robots, everyone has had different experiences, likes & dislikes in their life that shape who they are as people and what their preferences are.

But even more so, how unconfident in yourself do you have to be that some stranger's opinion has affected you so damn much that you start a petition. If this critic doesn't like the game then what did you think was going to happen? Your copy of the game was going to magically disappear? You see this type of mentality form all the time, if something is widely beloved and one critic or several critics doesn't love it then people will swarm on them like a witch hunt. Uncharted, Mad Max: Fury Road, Game of Thrones, audiences are so unsure of their own opinions because as much as people like to bash the critics, it's surprising how many people let them affect their own opinions, because if this person apparently knows the medium so well that they get paid to give their opinion, and it doesn't match your opinion then that must mean there's is more valid right? No! It doesn't matter who says what, if you enjoy a piece of art or hate a piece of art, no one has the right to change that! I don't care how many times people tell me 2001: A Space Odyssey is a masterpiece, I think it's shit. The same with Pirates of the Carribean franchise, everyone thinks 2 & 3 are awful, I love them to death.

So let this be a lesson to you, your opinion is not always going to mesh with particular critics, or even the majority. As long as you're not trying to take away from other people's experiences then why should you let someone do the same to you? Like what you like and if someone doesn't like it then good news, that's something that's bringing you joy that someone else doesn't have, why let that bother you?

-Danny