Peter Travers of Rolling Stone lists AOTC as one of the worst films of the year

http://www.rollingstone.com/features/featuregen.asp?pid=1351

It's listed at the bottom of the page

Compare and contrast this vast change in opinion to his AOTC review when the film first hit theaters:

http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/movie/review.asp?mid=2043824

Note that 2 star rating wasn't there in the original review (also note the review itself doesn't match up with the 2 star rating, anyway)

Looks like Mr.Travers changed his tune because he gauged the still present critical backlash (not to mention Spider-Man's success) toward the SW franchise over the summer and decided to make himself look all the better by not saying anything positive about AOTC anymore

Credible? I don't think so

YJ edit: Wow, I never would have guessed that this thread would have turned into a AOTC vs. Spider-Man vs. Harry Potter vs. LOTR thread...

Who cares what critics think?

 

"Always wanting to be cool, the critics are"

Personally I dont care what he thinks, Ioved AOTC and still do.

 

That's it, I'm gonna cancel my subscription to Rolling Stone magazine.
I don't have one anyway, but I AM gonna PRETEND to cancel it out of outrage.

 

Didn't Peter Travers give Batman and Robin a good review? Case closed there, folks.

Anyways here's a hilarious review I found on the site:

I found it all too funny when Yoda(a.k.a. Yogurt in Space Balls-LoL)tried beating up Dooku who is like around 3 feet taller than him!I found it even funnier that he was walking with a cane one moment,and then the next he is jumping around with a 'lifesaver' beating that Dooku guy's as--butt...I think either Yoda(Yogurt ^.^) was playing mind games acting all old,and talking all freaked up the way he does...putting the verbs AFTER everything else,or the people who made the movie are idiots & never noticed!!I LuV the way JaJa talks it's SO hilarious...overall,though,the funniest part was-all this funny stuff was suppose to be SERIOUS!!I thought it was kinda stupid the way Amidala kissed Skywalker while they just barely escaped excecution...I would advise everyone who hasn't already 2 NOT waste your money on going to see this movie unless you wanna get some laughs.Rent Space Balls...

 

Well hes right the movie did suck.Other than the star wars fanatics who worship these movies,the general public was very dissapointed and spiderman was better

 

Do you have solid evidence that the public, in general, was disappointed with AOTC? 307 + mill at the box office sure ain't proof, neither are DVD sales

 

Do you have solid evidence that the public, in general, was disappointed with AOTC? 307 + mill at the box office sure ain't proof, neither are DVD sales

150 million less than TPM is good enough proof for me.

 

*rolls eyes*

so every SW film has to make 400 mill + to be a "success"

you're kidding, right?

 

Carbon Knight, you know full well that a sequel doesn't always make the same money the original does.

TESB made less than ANH didn't it, yet thats proclaimed by most as the best film of the saga.


Beside a 300 million take at the box office prove it was well liked by the general audience.

 

Yeah, and quite frankly, ESB isn't a mainstream film.

 

Somehow, I don't think that box office success is a good indicator of movie quality. Nevertheless, I think it's laughable how anyone can call AOTC "one of the worst films of the year". If Mr. Travers wasn't trying so hard to pander to 'peer pressure', he'd have seen that AOTC was like The Godfather compared to some of the trashy films that have debuted in 2002.

 

of course BO isn't an indicator of quality

but it's definitely an indicator of popularity, and, success

anyone that expects every SW film to make as much as TPM is full of themselves, not to mention TESB didn't make as much as TPM and ROTJ BO is very close to that of AOTC's

 

I've just got 1 thing to say to that Rolling Stone guy.






















































Screw you, bub.

 

What's this?? Rolling Stone magazine changing their stance on something in order to better fit in with trends?? Come on, that could never happen!

 

I am just as shocked as you are.

 

Rottentomatoes also lists Travers' original review as FRESH.

He has clearly changed his rating (but not his actual review) to fit his new "worst of".

Someone needs to call him out on this.

And has there ever been any clearer evidence of the bias the new Star Wars movies are getting from the critics?

 

This has me wondering. You know so often critics write their reviews in such gobbley guck, you can't understand if they really like it, halfway like it, don't like it but are dressing it up, like it but are dressing it down, or just don't like it.

What's the criteria on a review to be considered fresh vs. rotten? Who decides?

It seems too subjective to me. Maybe I missed a good explanation on the site, can anyone fill me in?

 

And has there ever been any clearer evidence of the bias the new Star Wars movies are getting from the critics?

Of course there is clearer evidence, Miles. How about last week when we saw the same thing from Entertainment Weakly? But your point is legit and 100 percent accurate, no matter how anyone tries to spin it.

 

Who honestly cares what the critics think? I mean it's great to get a critic's backing on one of your favorite films, but if you sincerely enjoyed it then you wouldn't be bothered by a bad review.

It's the people who are borderline about liking a film that are offended by something a critic says.

SH

EDIT: Marvin: I have a brain the size of a planet and I can't even post without typoes.

 

Bj it IS totally subjective...but I am guessing they used his original star rating to determine it fresh.

If you look at the bottom of the original review, he lists AOTC as the third best Star Wars movie to date.

And what did Entertainment Weekly do last week? I forget...

 

FAN REVOLT1!!1!! ARM THE CANONS@! CANT LET PEOPEL GIT AWAY WIT TIS!!1!!


*sigh*

If you people will go to www.rottentomatoes.com and go to the AOTC reviews, yes you'll see a fair share of negativity. But there is also a large amount of good reviews. The film does have a fresh rating. A lot of people hated it, a lot of people loved it. There is no worldwide hatred for the prequels. They just simply aren't loved as much as the OT films and that's expected. So who cares if Joe Smith from Retard, Kansas hated the movie. Well, he isn't the only one.

Believe it or not, AOTC isn't hated as much as some of you let on. Chill out.

 

Sand Hippie:

I think we care simply because it tends to prove a hypothesis that many of us believe: that many in the critical media are biased against the new Star Wars movies.

Now you are absolutely correct that we shouldn't care TOO MUCH about this...but bias is a form of dishonest and that's something we should always be concerned about...particularly when the dishonesty is slandering a man that has made movies that we immensely enjoy.

 

Yeah, you're basically right.

But let me ask you this:

Since when has ANY part of our media been unbiased?

SH

 

Pooja:

Sure we know AOTC was better received than TPM (although the TPM and AOTC ratings aren't that different on rottentomatoes). Particularly among the people I talked to: AOTC was a fine Star Wars movie.

But what other movie franchise engenders things like:

1. A reviewer who pans the movie largely because of the use of a digital camera (same reviewer gave TPM 3 1/2 stars)

2. A reviewer who gave the movie a thumbs up in May, then changed his rating (but kept his review) so he could call AOTC one of the "worst movies of the year"?

3. A reviewer (several in fact) who plead with George Lucas to NOT MAKE EPISODE III in their review of Episode II?

4. Reviewers who insist on spending half of the review on TPM and not even the movie they are reviewing?

5. Reviewers who bring up Star Wars in reviews of other movies...to say "this is how Star Wars should have been"? (admittedly this is happening less with TTT than I would have thought...for now).

After a while you start to wonder...

SAND HIPPIE:

You are correct...media bias is in the nature of the beast.

But that doesn't mean we look past it...it will never be different if we do.

 

I agree, it isn't hated as much as some would have you believe, but there are a few who go to great lengths to hate it. EW is the main one.

In the end, I don't care so much about what they think about it, just that they try to use their power in convincing others, that they are right and anything else is wrong.