When Pirates of the Caribbean 2 came out all the reviews said it was stupid and boring. I went to see it anyway and loved every minute of it. It never got slow like the reviews said. I have also yet to meet someone who didn’t love this movie as well. It was one of the highest grossing movies of the year and the majority of the people who saw it loved every minute. Which begs the question, what movie did the reviewers see? Was it the same movie?

I feel the same way about how people are talking about the Oscars. I thought this was one of the best Oscar broadcasts in years. I loved all the bits like the sound choir and the shadow people and I thought Ellen did an excellent job of being funny without offending anyone. My husband even commented that it was the best staged production of the Oscars he had ever seen with all the little mini shows. Honestly, aside from a few long speeches (during which we entertained ourselves by making fun of the people), I didn’t get bored the entire night.

But the reviews all say Ellen wasn’t funny and that the show was boring. There is actually a quote from one of the major mags that says the exact opposite of my husband. While we actually said the exact words that it was the best staged production of the Oscars that we had ever seen, this article said it was the worst.

Now, like Pirates 2, millions of people watched and enjoyed and it was one of the biggest audiences in years. Which, of course, begs the question:

Did we all watch the same Oscars?

Is it because those of us that sat down to watch the Oscars or Pirates 2 said to ourselves "this will be fun" and went in with a mindset of enjoying it while the reviewers are forced to watch it so they are more likely to be bitter and hate it? Is it because the Oscars was very geared towards women this year and the reviewers are mostly men? Is it because reviewers think its "hip" to hate things that most people like? I really don’t get it.

More importantly, what worries me is if the critics pan what I felt was one of the most enjoyable shows so far, does that mean that they will change it next year based on the critics even though the ratings were up? How much does popular opinion count for anything anymore? Now, naturally, there will be more Pirate movies no matter how bad the reviews are because money talks. But how does that translate into TV?

Oh well. Even if the reviewing elite didn’t like it, at least we had a good time watching.

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