Samuel L. Jackson Hilariously Told a Critic to Get a New Job After a Negative ‘The Avengers’ Review
With every movie release, there will be reviews from professional film critics and movie fans. These reviews are plastered all over the internet on critic websites, online newspapers, and most importantly, Twitter.
No review will have full agreement from the masses. Sometimes the reviews can have significant backlash. Recently, Samuel L. Jackson had a few words to say on Twitter about a review of The Avengers.
A New York Times film critic was not a fan of ‘The Avengers’
On the eve of the release of the 2012 film, The Avengers, The New York Times released a review of the movie. Film critic AO Scott had plenty to say about the Joss Whedon movie, and it wasn’t very positive.
Scott didn’t seem thrilled with the release of another superhero movie when he started his review with, “Scientists estimate that we reached Peak Superhero in the summer of 2008 when The Dark Knight sucked the attention of every critic, pundit and sentient moviegoer into its inky nexus.” He continued,
“It is not as if the number of movies featuring troubled guys wearing costumes and fighting evil has diminished since then. Quite the contrary. But, the genre, though it is still in a period of commercial ascendancy, has also entered a phase of imaginative decadence.”
Scott spends the majority of the review discussing what the movie does well but especially where it misses the mark. The part that raised the fury of some is when he wrote,
” … while The Avengers is hardly worth raging about, its failures are significant and dispiriting. The light, amusing bits cannot overcome the grinding, hectic emptiness, the bloated cynicism that is less a shortcoming of this particular film than a feature of the genre.”
Scott also directly addressed the character of Nick Fury, played by Jackson, and said he was “more master of ceremonies than mission commander” in The Avengers movie.
Jackson did not appreciate the NYT review
Jackson was quite furious about the review in the New York Times by Scott, according to Deadline. In fact, he addressed his over 800,000 followers on Twitter and said, “#Avengers fans, NY Times critic AO Scott needs a new job! Let’s help him find one! One he can ACTUALLY do!”
Some brave fans did offer some pushback to Jackson’s tweet. One wrote, “The critic has a right to his opinion. Just because the movie has made a ton of money does not mean it is a good movie.” Jackson replied, “Actually, sometimes IT DOES.”
The Film Nest responded, “Disappointed to hear @SamuelLJackson respond irrationally to negative review of #Avengers. People aren’t entitled to their own opinion? :(‘” Again, Jackson tweeted back, That is My Opinion! & what’s irrational about it? They aren’t going to fire his jaundiced a** and You & I Know It!”
Finally, Scott got the final word. He replied to the kerfuffle, “@SamuelLJackson @thefilmnest Jaundiced?”
Jackson has been defending superhero movies
Superhero movies have been the subject of criticism for quite a while. Some critics and filmmakers just aren’t fans of superheroes, and they don’t mind talking about their distaste.
Martin Scorsese made waves in the entertainment industry when he talked about Marvel movies with Empire. He said,
“I don’t see them … I tried, you know? But that’s not cinema. Honestly, the closest I can think of them, as well-made as they are, with actors doing the best they can under the circumstances, is theme parks. It isn’t the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being.”
Jackson responded to Scorsese and other film directors when he appeared on ABC’s, The View. He said,
“Movies are movies … Those are the movies that I went to see when I was a kid. And the artistry of making a movie is something that was a mystery for so long. Making movies is no longer a mystery. Kids know to do it on their phones. So it’s easy for [directors] to dismiss it, only because people aren’t going to see their movie.”
