When New York Times film critic AO Scott, the Old Grey Lady’s be-initial-named, monocle-polisher in chief, wrote an uncharacteristically Armond White-like review of The Avengers (here’s mine!) earlier today (sample: “For all their maverick swagger, the Avengers are dutiful corporate citizens, serving a conveniently vague set of principles. [...] The price of entertainment is obedience.”), he probably didn’t expect Samuel L. Jackson to call him out on it. But that was ignoring a central tenet of Samuel L. Jackson, which is that Samuel L. Jackson keeps it super real. Jackson seemed taken aback by Scott’s failure to toe the fanboy ass-kissing line:
#Avengers fans,NY Times critic AO Scott needs a new job! Let’s help him find one! One he can ACTUALLY do!
Now see, I would’ve put the emphasis on “DO” rather than “ACTUALLY,” which just proves Samuel L. Jackson needs a good director. Other than that, his comments didn’t seem particularly noteworthy, but of course, everyone from The Hollywood Reporter to USA Today picked up on it, because OMG, FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! For his part, AO Scott’s ascot didn’t seem particularly ruffled. He responded to a tweet of support from New Yorker Critic Alex Ross, which said:
@AOScott His call for you to lose your job only supports your point about “glowering authoritarianism” in pop culture. Well said!
Holy hell, that’s the most New Yorker shit I’ve ever read, excuse me while I wedgie myself. Anyway, so then AO Scott was like,
“I have to say I feel more flattered than threatened. which may prove the point a different way.”
And then Sam Jackson was all,
That is My Opinion! They aren’t going to fire his jaundiced ass & You & I Know It!
Jaundiced? How dare you, sir. Everyone knows the proper film critic insult is “albino hemophiliac.” I would’ve also accepted “asthmatic eunuch,” or perhaps “palsied impotent.” In any case, seeing Samuel L. Jackson get through an entire Twitter beef without ever once using the word “motherf*cker,” a piece of my innocence died.
CROSSWORD PUZZLES AT DAWN?? I SAID GOOD DAY!
[THR]
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Don’t get the aversion to Scott’s analysis. It’s pretty spot-on. He admits he likes portions of it, mostly dialogue sequences (which have always been Whedon’s calling card anyway) which he suggests are overshadowed by predictable/huge action sequences. It’s nothing new to suggest that blockbusters are poorly-disguised corporatism meant to sell memorabilia, which seems to be Scott’s main argument.
But then again BING BANG BOOM WHIRR ZZZZOOOOOM SPLAT KERPOW
I was mostly ball busting, but to imply that a superhero movie is corporatism is a pretty Professor Obvious-level analysis. I agreed with almost all of the likes and dislikes in the review.
I have to disagree. From all the crap that has come since probably around 2000 when Michael Bay made the Island and realized that he never needed plot to make money off movies. While the Avengers was geared towards the teenage demographics and thus emphasized the fighting, I would not say that scenes are in any way similar to the crap that has been put before. If you want to dissect someone one part at a time you lose the entirety of the project. This movie has huge action scenes but not in the same way like Transformers where Bay used it to simply move the movie along. This is part of the whole, the entire movie builds up to the battle scenes. To think of this COMIC BOOK movie in any other light is simply trying to make a Mona Lisa out of your 4 year old’s finger painting.
Who wears a tie to review movies? Seriously get an ASCOT!
Or a pink beret.
ASCOT is some grade-A unintentional mind-blowing-for-some-reason wordplay right there
I throw my hands up in the air sometimes saying AO. Out of frustration. It’s a stupid name.
Gotta let go, my friend. Gotta let go.
Am I the only one who is disappointed that Samuel L. Jackson does not tweet in all caps.
You are not alone…
Yeah…unless you like hot-zpacho!
“They aren’t going to fire his jaundiced ass,” to which Kenyon Martin replied “Leave me the fuck out of this I can still pull down boards like a motherfucker.”
AO Scott watches porn for the dialogue.
I guess you have to turn to the arts section of the NYT to read any actual criticism of “glowering authoritarianism”. Cuz clearly that’s MUCH more of a problem in the film industry than anywhere else in america.
Oh, I don’t know about that AO. I found that vague set of principles to be very inconvenient.
I used to think Sam Jackson kept it real, too. Then I saw that fucking Apple commercial. Jesus Tap-Dancing Christ, if he got under $5mm for that piece of shit Tarantino should add it as an after credits scene to the next edition of Pulp Fiction.