Waking Ear

I've been browsing around the reviews of Revenge of the Sith. Anthony Lane's critique in the New Yorker is uncharacteristically juvenile, funny and probably too mean. But the one that really got me was Peter Travers' review in Rolling Stone.

I've long suspected Travers of being a shill, and his 2002 review of Attack of the Clones was the straw that broke my camel's back. Sure, he noted accurately that the dialogue and acting and direction were awful, but read the review, and you'll come away with the feeling that this movie is actually pretty good.

In the new review, Travers calls Sith mostly crap and calls Clones "atrocious." So maybe he's no longer selling out. Maybe he got a new boss or something. But he's certainly inconsistent. I remember being shocked by the number of stars Travers gave Clones. On rollingstone.com, it shows only two stars. If anybody out there has a copy of the print edition of the review, let me know. I'd bet my ass it was at least three stars at the time.

I can't believe I actually wrote three paragraphs on that. Sorry. Travers really bugs me.