PopcornTreeCt

I think Rotten Tomatoes is a better indicator of quality:

X-Men 82%
X2: X-Men United2 88%
X-Men: The Last Stand 57%
X-Men: First Class 87%

Draven

Then that means Avatar and Transformers 2 were the best examples of their genre.

You cannot be serious.

Supermallet

Scott Pilgrim disagrees with you. So does Blade Runner.

ibobi

Never! Do I think Avatar and Titanic are the two best movies ever? Puhleeze. But a movie's success *within its genre* is well indicated by the B.O. If people like it, they go. If not, they stay away. A lot more of them are staying away from XMFC and Green Lantern than would be indicated by even a *decent* summer superhero movie. If I hadn't seen them both, I could walk away happy in the knowledge that they were subpar, based on the numbers (and I'd have another $30 in my pocket now).

I think you're looking at "all critics" RT numbers, not "top critics," yes? There are wayy too many cooks in the "all" kitchen, especially fanboys who go gaga for anything with CG in it. Look at the real, top critics numbers & you'll see a clearer picture (ahem, 71%) that backs the box office numbers neatly.

ibobi

Scott Pilgrim? Equally loved & hated by viewers. It looked so twee to me I never saw it (not a Cera fan).

Blade runner was 30 years ago, man. Whole different ballgame now in terms of what info people have at their disposal to determine what movie they see. Rareely will you see a "cult" hit that only succeeds on DVD any more. But thank god for Blade Runner.

islandclaws

at the fact you referenced these two films in one sentence, unless it was to say how one is infinitely better than the other.

Supermallet

If you didn't see Scott Pilgrim, you can't really say whether or not its BO was indicative of its quality.

gmanca

Scott Pilgrim was a better movie than I gave it credit for, even if the main characters are a bit more hipster than I enjoy. What's funny about it is the praise for it's style by the same people who bitched about Ang Lee doing the exact same thing in Hulk.

Solid Snake

Yeah except Wright made it part of the world added to it's craziness. Lee added it in only to look weird in combination w/ the seriousness (well...not too serious) he put in w/ it.

gmanca

I don't agree with that, especially when the criticism was that using multi-panel shots don't allow for time to let it breathe. It's a comic book film, what film would be more appropriate for the technique?

Solid Snake

The Hulk didn't establish a good parameter for what it visually could and couldn't do. SP kind of just set it up and ramped it up, didn't feel weird to me. Hate hate hate that comic panel outline w/ Jay Mohr flying out etc. I get what it was trying to do but it didn't really have an effect worth having it there. SP had it as a stylish reference and it worked better.

gmanca

Yeah, that's a bad shot, but it's not a multi-panel one. The shot of the five reacting at Gideon's club, that's as busy as any of traveling shots that are in Hulk.

One used them for reactions and the other used them to drum up what would be uninspired scenery.

PopcornTreeCt

*sigh

Top Critics score:

X-Men: 59%
X2: X-Men United: 83%
X-Men: The Last Stand: 52%
X-Men: First Class: 71%

Either way, First Class is the 2nd best reviewed X-Men movie.

Solid Snake

I'm not sure IBobi doing too well proving his point.

Hokeyboy

X-Men: The Last Stand did gangbusters B.O. "for its genre"...

So did Meet The Fockers.

The aforementioned Transformers 2.

All shit movies.

And if "fanboy Rotten Tomatoes critics" who go gaga for CG spectacles artificially inflate RT ratings/scores, how is the craptacular Green Lantern still in the lowly mid-20s?

Daytripper

Who the hell looks at the "top critics" on RT!? No, most, if not all, look at "all critics".

Boba Fett

As does:

Black Dynamite
Shaun of the Dead
Grindhouse
The Shawshank Redemption
Fight Club
Office Space

Supermallet

Hulk is the only Ang Lee film I like, and the style had a lot to do with it.

That being said The Incredible Hulk was the better Hulk movie.

MoviePage

This thread has taken a turn into the standard "my favorite movie can beat up your favorite movie" area.

ibobi

I'm as mystified as anyone about Transformers. Why was it made? Why would anyone see it? It can't all be Megan Fox's butt. My guess: HUGE huge marketing spend. All the Pirates movies fall into the same category for me -- nothing to see here, but people still go in droves. What are you gonna do.

Yes those are all awful. Brett Ratner, what a non-talent. These are all sequels as well, of course, and get a lot of BO based on their predecessors (which is why I saw XMFC).

We're getting into the realm of how much marketing $ a movie receives versus its BO totals. All those movies were notoriously poorly marketed. In addition, IMHO all but the last 3 are vastly overrated by their culty fans.

Supermallet

You keep changing the goal posts. First you say that BO take is always indicative of quality, then you say it's a function if marketing, or that the movie is too old to count, etc.

Solid Snake

pick a side and stay w/ it IBobi.

ibobi

As Alec Baldwin and Meryl Streep would say, it's complicated. Certainly marketing plays into it. And that effect is greater now than 30 years ago by many times. Still on the same side; allowing for other factors too. Do you really think it's black or white? That's a bit naiive...

Hokeyboy

Buh?

Ash Ketchum

Well, they made TRANSFORMERS 3 without Megan Fox's butt.

TRANSFORMERS 2 was made because TRANSFORMERS 1 was a big hit. Why was TF1 a big hit? Because it pleased demographics that went way beyond the Transformers fanbase. Women started telling me how great it was, including co-workers and family members--not the usual Transformers fanboy crowd--and so I went and was very pleasantly surprised. It was funny and witty and also suspenseful and imaginative. The story was well structured and kept me engaged the whole time.

I went to see TF2 because I was hoping it would be as good or half as good as TF1. It wasn't. But enough people went in with that hope to make it a huge hit.

Will I go see TF3? Yes. I'm a fan of giant robots (think Gundam) and am curious to see how they fare in 3-D.