F*** Film Reviews by Justinfinity response

Introduction

Welcome back to Your Opinion Is NOT Law, where we counter argument videos with inaccurate statements and biases. Today's subject is Justinfinity, recommend by Claytonium Studios. Judging by his comments and this video alone, it seems this Justinfinity character is one of those commentators: you know, the ones who have an unhealthy and counterproductive bias towards Disney and Lucasfilm because they weren't happy with the recent Star Wars movies. This post will address that, but more importantly it will address why this guy has poor taste in judgement, specifically towards film reviews.

Hollywood has ALWAYS been political

0:32 He gives his first reason why he doesn't do film reviews anymore: Hollywood is politically bias. In other news, the sky is blue. In all seriousness thoigh, Hollywood has been political since Day 1. It is inaccurate to say Hollywood is too political now when the first film to make serious bank at the box office was a 3 hour historical drama based on the foundation of the Ku Klux Klan. Hollywood producers know that in addition to providing spectacle, films should ignite a topical conversation so that incites more people to watch it. While not every film is made with that in mind, many films are and some of them have been critical and financial hits. Ben Hur, Hell's Angels, Godzilla, even Star Wars are prime examples of finacial and critical hits.


Social Justice Warriors are good

0:44 He brings up how social justice warriors are a plague in Hollywood. I addressed this on Tumblr so I'll keep it brief: using the term "social justice warrior" as an insult is as ridiculous as saying a 3 year old should act their age. I really wish we'd stop with this narrative that social justice warriors ruin everything when that is far from the truth.


Inaccurate judgment on quality 

1:32 He claims that good acting, cinematography and sound desgin are the "minor" parts of film making and story and characters come first. True story and characters are an essential part of storytelling, buf in filmmaking their are no "minor" parts. Filmmaking is seldom a one-man show. More often than not it's a collaborative effort in which everyone should bring their A game.


Kathleen Kennedy SAVED Star Wars

2:39 He rags on how the recent Star Wars films aren't good and how Kathleen Kennedy ruins Star Wars, going as far as misquoting her. I don't know where this "Women don't care about Star Wars" quote came from, but it wasn't from Kathleen. She has said many times that she wants Star Wars to be more inclusive. If Kathleen Kennedy didn't care about the franchise, she wouldn't have taken the job as producer. I could honestly go all day about how the recent Star Wars movies have been better than many fans give it credit for, but let's keep it brief: Rey's journey is one of self discovery, characters are supposed to change after 30 years, and not every small detal needs to be addressed.


Expanding the franchise

3:27 He asks what the point of the sequel trilogy and the anthology series. The answer is simple: expansion. The Star Wars franchise has largely focused on the Skywalker family, which is understandable, but rather limiting. This is supposed to a GALAXY from far far away and the films and tv shows have only touched on a small portion of that galaxy.  "What about the books?" you might be asking. I'm sure there are plenty of good stories told in the books. That said, Lucasfilm declared these books non-canon in 2014 so that the filmmakers and tv showrunners wouldn't be restricted to follow storylines from these written works.



Ever heard of Word of Mouth?

3:47 He claims that studios are bias because all they care about its getting reviews out. This is not only false, it's illegitimate criticism. Of course studios want people to talk about their films. That's how they get people interested in seeing their film. Also, the general public is alot smarter than guys like Justin give them credit for. The general audience are everyday people, not a flock of sheep. Not everyone goes to the movies based on the reviews alone. There's also the trailer, the rating, who's in the film, who's distributing the film and so on.

Disney =/= perfect


4:20 Justin now claims that most Disney's recent films (as of the video's upload in 2018) have gotten undeserved crititcal acclaim. This is false in both senses. Step 1: With a few exceptions, most of the Disney live action films released in the 2010s have recieved mixed reviews. Prince of Persia, Alice in Wonderland, Alexander's Bad Day (it's actual title is WAY too long and stupid) and the last 2 Pirates of the Caribbean movies are some notable examples. Step 2: The ones that did get critical acclaim rightfully earned their reputation because they reasonated with critcs and audiences in a way that didn't resonate with Justin.


Rotten Tomatoes =/= Objectable Quality 

4:48-6:23 He then pulls the Rotten Tomatoes card in an attempt to prove his point. 👏This👏is👏hogwash! Rotten Tomatoes is not a calculator or a measuring stick for the quality of any given feature film. It's an aggregator site that collects blurbs and links to critics and their magazine's website. The percentage merely shows the amount of reviews gathered by the site that were fairly positive. Yes, 91% out of 462 reviews were positive for The Last Jedi, but that doesn't mean the 9% that didn't care for it were invalid. As for the Death Wish remake, this is not the first time a movie was judged for it's timing (and it won't be the last).


Siskel and Ebert Wouldn't Be Surprised

8:26 Justin then claims that if acclaimed critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert were still alive, they'd be baffled by the discourse in today's society. You mean the same guys who lived though the AIDS epidemic in the 80s and the LA riots in 1992? While it's hard to say what these men whould thought about today's society, I doubt they'd be surprised given what they had to live through while doing their jobs and reviewing movies.

The difference between movies now and then

12:30 Just asks what the difference is between movies make now and movies made back in the 20th century. Simple: diversity. The film industry now has more diversity than ever before. The great movies of old still hold up, but now so will films like Inside Out, Logan, The Dark Knight, Zootopia, and yes, Black Panther.


Conclusion

Justin wraps up the video saying that he knows how storytelling works because he went to school. Wow, what a big ego: does he have a name? Joking aside, this video was at best tedious and at worst just some guy spewing nonsense. His arguments are flimsy, his delivery is stale and he claims he respect others opinions, yet undermines critics who have The Last Jedi glowing reviews and were critical of Death Wish. Can we say hypocrite? To Justin, if you're reading this, you need another lesson in filmmaking and online discussion. Not everyone shares your bias and narrow minded mentality about filmmaking and nobody in the film industry has to cater to snobs like you. Like I always say: Your Opinion Is NOT Law -.-