Well, at least New AV Club is continuing the Old AV Club tradition of hyping some random movie to the hilt only to ultimately give it a C-.

Reader bitches about quality of publication.

Remember when you guys used to send actual film critics to the major festivals so they could tell us about the actual movie and how actually good it was? But I guess secondhand reports on the lengths of ovations is also good. Please. More claps. I want to hear of all the claps. Were there loud claps? Soft claps?…

“Then, Wilde spoke to all of us on the internet, gleefully soaking up the drama: ‘As for all the endless tabloid gossip and all the noise out there, the Internet feeds itself. I don’t feel the need to contribute; I think it’s sufficiently well-nourished.’”

Is Olivia Wilde paying or blackmailing you guys?

Thank Christ! For a moment there I thought a day was going to go by without yet more interminable drama and gossip about this fucking movie. 

It’s a challenge, you know: one doesn’t want to respond to a review with “you just don’t get it man” because the whole purpose of a program like this is to invite discussion: the ambiguities and uncertainties are explicitly designed to position different audiences differently. Its not overly prescriptive about where…

It’s the two dragons Viserys promised (good timing! Definitely not a deus ex machina!).

I don’t mean to be rude, but these reviews are the worst....snarky recaps with almost no substance and numerous incorrect inferences. Anyone have a recommendation for true reviews of the episodes?

the king seems content in his marriage (to, I will stress once again, an underage girl)

Yeah, if Legolas can single-handedly take down a humongous oliphaunt and its entire squad of Haradrium in the middle of a huge battle, Galadriel certainly shouldn’t have had much difficultly dispatching a lowly snow troll, yet there were people whining about how unrealistic it was...

I was sold on the sword stuff when the instant the fight started, another elf laid out his sword as a ramp for Galadriel to run up. Like, she’s not saving her power moves until the end. She’s fucking up this troll from the word go.

In MCU they had really strong scripts. Without it they're mediocre at best.

It’s almost as if the Russos just aren’t the greatest film makers. I think they found a good match between their talent — grand but bland action movies — and source material in The Avengers. But there’s only one MCU, and without access to the characters, backstories, and goodwill that Marvel provides, the Russos don’t…

TV is a writer’s medium first and foremost. Which is why so much “television” is much, much stronger than the bulk of films in theaters or on streaming. Bringing tentpole film thinking to a series is just the wrong foot to start on. TV simply doesn’t need auteurs. It needs great characters, tension, stakes, pacing and…

Pretty obvious that the man who fell to Middle-earth is David Bowie.

if I’ve learned one thing about mothers in law from the internet , it’s that they get stuck in washing machines a lot

No Amazon fan, but I’d bet my hard earned paycheck they likely had their mind made up way before seeing it

My parents were big Tolkien heads.

They used to follow the Fellowship around the country on tour, selling cheese and lembas sandwiches in the parking lots and bootlegging tapes of the Song of Durin.

What do you know, the one big negative review for the show is coming from the Entertainment Weekly guy who gave The Witcher an F after not actually watching any of it past the first episode.