Pinthouse Pizza
Savlov's Criticism Multifaceted
RECEIVED Sat., July 26, 2008
Dear Editor,
As a founding member of Sequential Tart, a web-comic writer, a manga adaptor/editor, and a comic-book writer, I want to thank Marc Savlov for his insightful, evenhanded reviews of comic-book-related and geek-culture-related films. Some geek-culture fans have a rather immature sense of "fannish entitlement" when it comes to "their" geek-culture films. If a critic doesn't like a geek-culture film, he/she must be automatically prejudiced against geek culture or he/she just "doesn't get it" or is just unwilling to "commit" to it, whatever the real case may be. They also mistakenly believe that if a geek-culture film throws enough budget at CGI and art direction, other factors, by which all other films have always been reviewed, somehow shouldn't apply to "their" films. To them, a "fair" critic is supposed to disregard script quality, the level of acting and direction, as well as pacing, if their pet film has enough eye candy or pumps up their adrenal responses adequately or is based on some comic they've been reading since they were 9 years old or adapted from some cartoon they dearly loved as a child.
I'm not one of those people – I love good filmmaking as much as I love geek culture. I believe the two can, and should, go together. Any geek-culture movie that can't manage that deserves a bad review. It's that simple. A critic's job is to judge a movie based on all standard, applicable criteria, in a way that informs all potential viewers of its worth. The critic stands in as a kind of product tester for the audience in its entirety, not just those who like geek films. It's a tough job, but someone has to do it. Few do it as well as Marc Savlov. Keep up the good work.
As a founding member of Sequential Tart, a web-comic writer, a manga adaptor/editor, and a comic-book writer, I want to thank Marc Savlov for his insightful, evenhanded reviews of comic-book-related and geek-culture-related films. Some geek-culture fans have a rather immature sense of "fannish entitlement" when it comes to "their" geek-culture films. If a critic doesn't like a geek-culture film, he/she must be automatically prejudiced against geek culture or he/she just "doesn't get it" or is just unwilling to "commit" to it, whatever the real case may be. They also mistakenly believe that if a geek-culture film throws enough budget at CGI and art direction, other factors, by which all other films have always been reviewed, somehow shouldn't apply to "their" films. To them, a "fair" critic is supposed to disregard script quality, the level of acting and direction, as well as pacing, if their pet film has enough eye candy or pumps up their adrenal responses adequately or is based on some comic they've been reading since they were 9 years old or adapted from some cartoon they dearly loved as a child.
I'm not one of those people – I love good filmmaking as much as I love geek culture. I believe the two can, and should, go together. Any geek-culture movie that can't manage that deserves a bad review. It's that simple. A critic's job is to judge a movie based on all standard, applicable criteria, in a way that informs all potential viewers of its worth. The critic stands in as a kind of product tester for the audience in its entirety, not just those who like geek films. It's a tough job, but someone has to do it. Few do it as well as Marc Savlov. Keep up the good work.
Barbara Lien-Cooper