Robovski wrote: ↑Sat Oct 17, 2020 1:10 am
Is this in the right topic thread G-Man?
Nostalgia Critic and RLM were namedropped on the first page as examples of (like Rick) "they're right because they're cynical".
For NC, I would say that Doug was never a good critic, he was just in the right place at the right time, cashing in on endless nostalgia value, while coasting on his name recognition until a bunch of people realized that he was a bad person. He's negative because nitpicking is the easiest form of criticism, and him putting out several videos per-week probably contributes to that (since he doesn't have time to make a thoughtful argument). And Doug never grew or got better.
For RLM, the Mr. Plinkett character comes from Mike, and Mike was in a position of deeply loving Star Trek (and Star Wars), and being deeply disappointed by the TNG movies (and the Star Wars Prequels). His rage built until he decided to start making hour-long essays on youtube about his myriad of complaints with those movies (which wasn't really a thing that existed until he started the trend). And those videos are good criticism, good enough for Roger Ebert to suggest that Mike/RLM should get into film criticism as a career. And since then, Mike/RLM has been different. The "Titanic" review, for example, was basically a love letter to that movie. And Plinkett was basically retired as RLM focused on regular movie reviews. For good or bad, other youtube channels have basically picked up Mr. Plinkett's torch and run with it. When Mike returns to Mr. Plinkett, he's basically just doing a bit, for fanservice or obligation.
One of modern RLM's main "cynicism" points is that they frequently say that you shouldn't think that corporations are your friends. They just want your money. Like, Disney/Marvel is feminist, but don't believe for a minute that Disney/Marvel is feminist because Disney/Marvel is woke and Disney/Marvel believes that feminism is the right thing to do. They're feminist because feminism as a business plan is working for them. If they found a good path to money in homophobia, they'd cast their wokeness aside and go homophobic (like, Mike frequently points out the "a case of the notgays" trope, when a film does something that might possibly be construed as gay, which is immediately followed by an unrelated and pointless scene that solidly establishes the characters as "not gay", to placate the homophobes in the audience. The studio absolutely knows that the homophobes are there, and it'll go out of it's way to satisfy them and take their money). Doesn't mean you can't enjoy Disney/Marvel movies for their feminism (and RLM has solidly recommended practically every single Marvel movie to cross their desk), just... stop ascribing human traits to a corporation. There are usually good people within a corporation, but those people don't run the show, the corporation is just letting them take point for the cameras, because a real person's face is more believable.
RLM's "Nerd Crew" bit exists for them to cynically satirize the corporate hijacking and commodification of nerd culture (when they see a good example of it). Because that's a real thing that they find distasteful.
If you want positivity from RLM, look to their "Re:View" series, where instead of the latest Hollywood blockbuster (or the B-movies they cover on Best of the Worst), they spotlight an older movie that's not getting much attention anymore, usually because they happened to love it.
BTW, Mike McMahan (showrunner on Star Trek: Lower Decks) won an Emmy for the "Pickle Rick" episode of Rick and Morty. I wonder if Chuck is reviewing R&M partly as background work to support his eventual Star Trek review work? It wouldn't surprise me, because Chuck is a fantastic reviewer.