A 6.3 rating. It says more than people may realize....

I truly find it interesting that this film is given, as of today, a 6.3 average rating. I find it interesting because, as many of you have noted, this movie is drivel. A preposterous script, terrible editing, ridiculous effects, poorly written characters and some very hammy acting. One of these alone doesn't doom a film, but all of them pretty much spells out exactly what this film is: a ludicrous attempt at cashing in on what, in reality, is a great story from Japanese history.

The comment I made in the title about the score saying more than people may realize goes to the simple fact of the viewing audience either expecting dumber fare, or simply getting used to it, or perhaps even wanting it.

I see the slowly growing rift between the scores of IMDB, the scores from the populace, and Rotten Tomatoes, the scores from the professional movie critics. It never used to be so different.

Years ago critics and filmgoers would, for the most part, agree on most films. Usually the ones that critics thought were good, so did the patrons, and the same with bad films. Now, with that rift growing, I am trying to decipher why.

The aforementioned reasons could be to blame, and I think the one that is to blame most is the third one I mentioned. I say this without the intention of putting anyone down, but I think that the viewing audience has basically gotten dumber over the past couple of decades. Why else would drivel like this be as liked as it is? I'm not talking about true popularity, as the masses will pretty much go to a theater and pick a film if they don't already have plans to see a specific one. They just want to get out, which I totally understand. No one wants to strictly work and then be stuck at home all of the time. We all have to have activities away from those two things.

With that being said, like I mentioned, I think that much of the reason for this is that the film going audience is simply getting dumber. I'm not saying everyone. There are still many people out there that like truly good films and know very well what a bad one is. I'm simply stating that the demographic of the dumb, if you will, has grown. Quite a bit, I might add. How else could a TV show like Honey Boo Boo or Duck Dynasty, or pretty much any other reality TV show have gotten so popular? Twenty years ago this would have NEVER been the case. People wouldn't have bothered watching it because they would have seen it for what it is...garbage. But today, it invades just about every facet of life. Games, the popularity of the individual people, products with the names of these shows on them, and made in such a way to make people think of these shows.

I can just imagine vacationers from other countries coming to America for either the first time, or maybe a trip after many years, and thinking to themselves..."What happened? I didn't expect it to be this stupid."

Eh, I don't know, perhaps I am just ranting and need to accept the dumbing down of society, but it just bugs me to see the direction we are going. Dumber films and TV shows shouldn't be more popular...the more intelligent films and TV shows should be. What is happening?

And again, it all goes back to being able to see it in the differences between the professional critics' ratings and the masses' ratings.

And tonight, while so many are watching "My 600-Lb. Life", I'll be doing a crossword puzzle with words of more than two syllables. Odd? I wish it weren't so.



"Well, the world needs ditch diggers, too."