Reviews: Taking them too seriously

Practically everything and anything will be reviewed. We judge mainstream stuff to see if people think there is a quality film, show, etc... or mediocre product. Sometimes, both sides will mostly agree or have different opinions and have a big number differential in the like/hate ratio. However, there are some people who take the reviews very seriously that they will be outraged about some change or how the majority felt about it.

When it comes to the movies, there will be that one reviewer that ruins it for people. That example is critic Armond White. He came to my attention back in the summer of 2010 when Toy Story 3 hit theaters. Like the first two films, it was unanimously well received and enjoyed a big run from mid-June until the end of the year. Not too long, White put up a negative review which dropped the percentage at Rotten Tomatoes from 100 to 99. Obviously it really angered people. To my understanding as time has gone on, he is one of those people who reviews bad films positively, and good films negatively. Around the same time with the new Toy Story, Jonah Hex hit theaters. White would give it a positive review as the film was panned and bombed at the box office. 

Now, I don't mind liking a film that is considered bad. Everybody has their guilty pleasures, and the films that they enjoy despite their hatred from almost everyone. White is constantly doing that gimmick for a very long time and he gets the people right where he wants them. Right now, it's the film, Get Out. It has been a huge hit in its three weeks in theaters, making over 100 million dollars. Not only that, but it's gotten critical acclaim. Like Toy Story 3, White gave it a negative review and it dropped from 100 to 99. I simply don't get it. What is he trying to accomplish? Being different for the sake of being different is not always the best decision. I think he knows what he's doing and he's going to stick with it to keep getting people to berate him. Essentially, he's an old fart troll who will keep ruining things.

Recently, there has been some buzz going around with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. So far, it has been given a lot of praise and has one of the highest scores ever on Metacritic. That number was at 98. Now it's at 97. To keep this in mind, Zelda is a Nintendo franchise, and the on the internet, it is obsessively loved. A YouTube reviewer, Jim Sterling, gave the game a 7 out of 10. That is not a bad score. Unfortunately, it has not been the case for anyone that loves it. The fact that he got DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) on his website and petitions to cause harm shows the bad side of fanboys, especially Nintendo ones.

Personally, every company has its share of psycho and extremist fanboys. As far as video games go, every developer and publisher has those. I find the worse to be Nintendo and PC fanboys. Maybe RPG fanboys as well. However, I've never seen anyone go beyond obsession of a review until the last 24 hours. I visited a website that will remain unnamed. A user was really flipping out over the score and was creating topic after topic and posting anything regarding Sterling. I've never watched the guy and probably never will, but the amount of hate that was being put, you would of thought there was money at stake. Most of the user's posts and topics have since been deleted, and has been put on probation from the site for only a few days.

If it were any other franchise, it would have been a shrug from the shoulders. The thing is, there is a deep love religiously for Zelda and Nintendo. Anything that is shrouded in negativity and the rabid fanboys will go on a full front attack and say things that don't make sense. To be fair, it happens with a lot of other companies, but I feel it is way more common with the ones interested in this Japanese company. It's just a damn review. If you can justify your score and give your exact reasons, then most people will understand. Especially if it's a score that most will definitely not agree on and go after you for. 

This age of Internet, social media, and other things have been pretty toxic. I'm guilty of saying certain things like everyone else has. However, I have never seen anything like this. All this over a review. As far as something like a movie, I think it's justified when it comes to someone like Armond White. For games, it's going to keep continuing with whatever the next universally praised game gets those same marks as Zelda. Maybe in a different generation, things will get better, but right now, it's as explosive as you can get and it's going to get more dangerous to be a reviewer.