Right, well just for a change, I figured I would do a post on something a little different than the usual reviews, as something has piqued my interest lately on Youtube as I have seen a few posts from different Youtubers saying how they hate CinemaSins for numerous reasons. So, I thought I would throw in my upon tuppence worth and say a bit about what I think of CinemaSins, its flaws, drawbacks and whether I hate it like these Youtubers do.
So is CinemaSins really that bad and does it have its own sins??? For sure it has its share of sins for things the channel either misses, or doesn't get, or simply makes some rather mean spirited sounding comments about films and occassionally the filmmakers involved.
However I personally don't think that CinemaSins is bad as I do quite often enjoy watching the channel for its observational humour and picking up on various flaws or "sins" in films. However as I said it does have problems, so that is what I will cover in this post.
And before I start I just would like to say this is all just my opinion, so you can all disagree with me if you like.
CINEMASINS RECURRING SINS
Well to start off I have to say I think one of the problems with CinemaSins is that it makes an excessive use of the same sins. And as an example one of the recurring themes or "sins" they keep adding to their sin count is "reading" i.e. where we get captions at the start of a film explaining the background story to set the scene. Yet, CinemaSins for some unspecified reason has a problem with reading. Why??? I mean the whole point of the captions and paragraphs of text at the start of the film is to explain things to the audience, to set the scene, to give some background exposition of what to expect. So, for those reasons I really don't see why "reading" should be counted as a sin as it serves to establish what the film is about!
Another recurring sin is DC comics in DC films. This is another that remains unexplained and Jeremy Scott, who does the voice over for the channel said that one day they might explain why they keep adding a sin for DC comics. However until then, it remains a somewhat pointless sin as far as I am concerned unless they are prepared to explain why it is a sin in the first place! The only reason I can think of in regards to sinning DC comics is probably because DC stands for "Detective Comics" so basically by saying DC comics, they are really saying "Detective Comics Comics" which is a bit pedantic but then CinemaSins is certainly all about that! However I think that isn't the reason why in itself, so this remains a rather bizarre sin unless they explain it.
Another recurring sin is when CinemaSins keep criticising movies that take their time to build up to scenes or move at a slower pace. Basically, Jeremy Scott comes across as a really impatient guy, who wants films to cut to the chase and get to the action pronto, rather take time to build up to it to these moments. And its Scott's impatience in these videos that can at times make them quite annoying to watch as not every film needs to move at a breakneck pace in order for them to work.
Further to this point, CinemaSins criticised Blade Runner in their video for being such a long movie when its running time is just under two hours! Of course what they meant is most likely the film feels long given its somewhat slower pace.
And lastly another recurring sin is the one where CinemaSins keeps pulling up films that use captions to show where a film is based or where specific scenes are set, e.g. Tokyo, Japan and in which case Jeremy Scott might narrate "In case you mistook it for Tokyo, New Jersey!". However while a fair amount of these captioned locations can be identified without the caption's help, not all of these locations might be automatically obvious for viewers.
And one such example is in X-Men Apocalypse where the caption "Pruszkow in Poland" was sinned and Scott said "In case you mistook it for Preuszkow, Kentucky!". Now I have to say that this Polish city is really not that obvious to me or probably to alot of people, so I think it was a bit unfair of Cinemasins to sin it. But in the end, it is one of CinemaSins running jokes however it doesn't always work or is well justified.
BIZARRE SIN REMOVAL OR LACK OF SIN REMOVAL
There are also times where CinemaSins remove a sin for the most bizarre of reasons in a film or more to the point they don't remove sins for scenes that are really good and actually deserve a sin to be removed for. CinemaSins also appears to remove sins at times more for sexual scenes than other scenes that might deserve a sin removal on merit. Such examples though of weird sin removal are in Batman Returns where Catwoman first appears and beats up a mugger and she says "This is my first time!" to the mugger and a sin is removed for that. Then there is of course Showgirls, where a sin is removed when Elizabeth Berkely and Gina Gershon kiss near the end of the film. So unless there is a bit of sexiness, a lapdance (another recurring joke in Cinemasins, or was) then there are times where a scene simply doesn't qualify a sin being removed even if it is great.
However there are many instances where they don't remove a sin for a great moment in a film, such as for example in Blade Runner, the replicant Roy's "tears in rain" speech. In fact they removed only one sin for whole film and that was for Vangelis's score and nothing else! Then there is The Matrix, which Scott claimed to be his favourite film, yet he didn't remove one sin throughout the whole movie! Although to be fair, this was one of earliest videos on the channel, so maybe the sin removal counter wasn't a part of it all back then.
CINEMASINS SEEMS INCAPABLE OF GOING AGAINST THE FLOW OF WHAT IS A COMMERCIALLY A GOOD FILM VS WHAT MIGHT BE UNDERRATED ONE
Now, OK, everything in life is subjective and when it comes to films, what one person might think is a good movie someone else might think is awful. However my problem with Cinemasins here is that they tend to always jump on the bandwagon of what is popularly considered to be good (with maybe perhaps the odd exception) yet they will slate films that perhaps deserve a bit more credit.
As an example, CinemaSins praised films such as Wall-E, Mad Max: Fury Road, Interstellar and Unbreakable, which of course all got very positive feedback and praise from critics and audiences, however as far as I am concerned all these films are overrated. However that is of course just my opinion and you can all disagree with me here.
However Cinemasins have also slated films, which are actually quite underrated such as maybe the odd numbered Star Trek III: The Search For Spock, Revenge of the Sith (which again is subjective!) which has always been considered the best of the three films (or even the least awful one!). They also had a go at other films such as Ant-Man, which again is quite an enjoyable, entertaining film and of course Hellboy, which is also another film I'd consider underrated (well certainly not by Cinemasins!).
My point here is that CinemaSins don't really seem prepared to go against the flow alot of the time, its all about what is popular and commercially considered being good as opposed what might actually be good and was less successful in the public eye but might deserve a second look. And Cinemasins really do take a pretty narrow minded approach to their videos and what films might be considered as being overlooked.
CINEMASINS AT TIMES JUST DON'T PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT GOES ON IN A FILM
There are of course various occassions where Cinemasins sin a film in certain scenes because they overlooked something when they were watching it.
As an example there is a moment in Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, where the character, Ilsa Faust is being watched in London at a busy train station and in the next moment we see she is gone, yet Cinemasins said that this should be impossible. However on slowing down the scene itself, it is actually relatively visible that we see Ilsa flee through the busy crowd and CinemaSins have been shown to actually freeze footage at times in the past, so funny how they missed that one.
Another example is in the Bond film, Spectre, where Bond is admitted into a secret SPECTRE meeting without any hassle as he simply shows one of the guards the octopus ring he took from a baddie in the opening scene and later Blofeld suddenly notices Bond above him without even looking up. However what Cinemasisns didn't notice is that the guard actually makes a phone call after Bond enters the meeting, which tells us Blofeld has set a trap for Bond to walk right into.
Another example is one I picked up on myself personally and its in their video on Rocky IV, where Adrian joins Rocky in Russia to support him as he trains to fight the mighty Ivan Drago, yet she decides to leave her son behind on his own without anyone to look after him except the big robot they have! However this is a blatant movie sin that Cinemasins failed to even pick up on, which I actually find quite astounding!
Then there is a scene in Seven where detectives Somertset and Millers along with a SWAT team discover the "Sloth" victim of the serial killer, John Doe and there are loads of air freshners hanging from the ceiling to blot out the rotting smell of the victim's decaying body. However, CinemaSins seem to think that the freshners wouldn't be able to do that despite the fact that there are HUNDREDS of them!
There are of course loads more examples I could quote but that would take forever!
SUM UP
So, to sum up, I like CinemaSins as a channel as their videos can at times be funny and well observed in picking out films numerous flaws and niggles. However the channel isn't without problems in that some of the content can come across a bit mean spirited and they do tend to gear themselves towards popular opinion in terms of what are good movies and what are considered bad movies. And there are times where you feel a bit frustrated in the channel's narrow-minded view towards certain films and their general unwillingness to give films that might be now considered underrated a fair shake. Jeremy Scott also seems to have an impatient streak when it comes to movies, as everything must happen now or he seems bored and resorts to saying "get on with it already!" and what the hell is wrong with "reading" or indeed captioned plot exposition!
However despite its flaws, CinemaSins is still a channel I enjoy although I just wish at times it would play a bit fairer in its attitude toward films in general. Its fine to poke fun at films but being mean spirited certainly isn't and there are times where CinemaSins should try and rein that in.
Anyway, so that's it for now and I will be back again with another post soon.
Till the next one its bye for now.
No comments:
Post a Comment