The Long Road

12/12/2006 Archived Entry: "Critiquing a critic."

Princess Mononoke is one of my absolute favourite movies. It's the only one I have cravings to watch and the only one I want to force on other people. It pains me, then, that filmcritic.com’s sorry excuse for a film critic, one Mr. Athan Bezaitis, is one of the official reviewers polled for rottentomatoes’ score. It hurts me to my very core that his wrongheaded review is allowed to drag down this movie’s score to a measley 92%.

In a 568 word review, he uses 275 to bemoan the “complexity” of a plot that is fairly straightforward and then goes on to say that “the plot is actually a strength of this film” before criticizing other aspects of the movie.

“Based upon Japanese folklore, Princess Mononoke is the animated story of the war between the encroachment of civilization and the beast gods of the forest. While the forests are being devastated by the Tatara clan, producers of iron, the Great God of the Forest gives power to the other forest gods to protect their domain against the humans in the form of giant animals. Sound confusing? That's just the beginning.”

Does that sound confusing? It doesn’t to me. And I’m sure it doesn’t to most people with more of an attention span than your average goldfish.

Through it all, Bezaitis remains staunchly of the opinion that he knows best what kind of film audiences like; he has the gall to suggest something that no true film lover would ever even dare think about. He proposes changes be made for the movie to be more palatable to American audiences instead of allowing said audiences to discover for themselves a true masterpiece the way its author invisioned it.

“Unfortunately, his rep will not proliferate here in the U.S. without a few changes and some serious editing. The movie does have potential, but in its present state it's a disappointment that few will enjoy immensely.”

And of course, he is wrong. By and large, those who have had the chance to watch this movie have, in fact, enjoyed it immensely. It is the 113th best rated film on IMDB, placed 6th on Roger Ebert’s top films of 1999, and as previously mentioned, scores 92% on rottentomatoe’s poll of 62 critics (including Mr. Bezaitis). In the matter of Princess Mononoke, Athan Bezaitis’ opinion is objectively wrong.

Replies: 23 comments

I don't think Princess Mononoke is immune to criticism. Watching it in English for the first time, not being into anime, and not knowing what to expect, my thoughts weren't all that different from this review.. It was only after watching some of Miyazaki's other movies and then rewatching Mononoke in Japanese that I really appreciated it. Now I feel like listening to the soundtrack.

Posted by Zamir @ 12/12/2006 06:20 PM EST

How dare you, Zamir?! HOW DARE YOU!

I'm gonna make you my tamagotchi, fool.

Posted by Long @ 12/12/2006 07:04 PM EST

You're saying that Athan Bezaitis' opinion is objectively wrong, however, in stating that, you are assuming that the sources you are using as reference reflect the general population, which I would argue they do not.

As stated, rottentomatoes.com's poll is of 62 _critics_. Would you say they represent the average movie-going population? I wouldn't; same goes from Roger Ebert.

IMDB is closer to representing the average movie-goer, but IMDB is only used by Internet-savvy movie-goers that access the website. You must also consider that out of those, only a fraction vote.

Also, if one is to compare, say, just about any random animated Disney movie (eg Lion King) with Princess Mononoke, there's probably a higher chance that your average peon will have heard of the Disney movie vs a fairly obscure and specialized film as Princess Mononoke. 'course, that may simply be because Mononoke is a foreign film -- but I guess that's also the root of Mr Bezaitis' criticism. Because it is foreign, Princess Mononoke has to be adjusted to fit the average American mentality in order to be popular.

I disagree with doing so, just as I thought it was retarded that Harry Potter books were "adjusted" for the primitive American populace, but the criticism still stands.

I am amused that you used the word "gall"; did you perchance get that inspiration from somewhere? :P

Re: your last comment - oh please, please don't talk like Art. Otherwise I'll be forced to call you The n00b.

Posted by Arshwana @ 12/14/2006 01:47 PM EST

(double-posting, horrible, I know, but if there was a post on this topic, or perhaps if I'd noticed one, I would have commented there) -- I notice you've changed your blog title. I like it.

Posted by Arshwana @ 12/14/2006 01:48 PM EST

As statistically unrepresentative of the "average movie goer" as IMDB/rottentomato may be, I'd say they are still one of the best references we can use for such a thing. As we discussed, this was meant to be a discussion on the movie's QUALITY, not popularity (it was NEVER going to win over US audiences); a review giving it a negative score solely based on its "unamericanness" is missing the point, in my wholy objective opinion.

And I wasn't trying to talk like Art...maybe more like Mr.T.

Posted by Long @ 12/16/2006 01:18 PM EST

Hmm, true.

...I don't really see how that's any better. Though it does make me wonder if that means Art is talking like Mr T, which case, that's just plain unsettling.

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