The schedule of the pre-release rollout may have also played a part in the shift. The constituencies for which a studio advance screens a movie, and at what intervals, are as calibrated a part of a movie's release strategy as on which television program to buy advertising time.
In a series of tiered screenings, the studio showed it first to many of the online columnists who rightly or not are often characterized as not bringing the same level of scrutiny to a film as more veteran critics, judging it instead by the standard of whether it's smarter than many of its summer-movie counterparts. (One of the few print critics of note to see the film in this first tier was Rolling Stone's Peter Travers, known for being one of the more generous of print reviewers. He went on to proclaim "Inception" "the mind-blowing movie event of the summer," a quote Warner Bros. promptly used in its television spots.)
But such a strategy also poses risks. Too much early buzz can stir contrarian feelings in those who see it later — even perhaps rigorously independent critics. "Any individual critic is going to say they're evaluating the movie on its own terms," O'Hehir says. "But I think in the aggregate this larger phenomenon does come into play, especially with a Chris Nolan or Jim Cameron [writer-director of "Avatar" and "Titanic"] who can divide critics. I don't know if it's conscious or unconscious, but I think there is this thing where some of us go into a movie spoiling for a fight."
Ansen put it this way: "I think many of the observations would have been the same, but the tone might have been different."
Indeed, one of the unusual characteristics of the "Inception" debate has been critics evaluating the film in the context of other reviews. "I truly have no idea what so many people are raving about. It's as if someone went into their heads while they were sleeping and planted the idea that 'Inception' is a visionary masterpiece," wrote David Edelstein in his New York Magazine review, adding "Slap! Wake up, people! Shalalala! Slap!"
Among other factors, say pundits, many of those in the early wave might have also been using a weaker frame of reference.
Ansen says the people who see it first "maybe feel like they want to help make a movie, and then critics come in later and grade that down."
Many students of film criticism point out that this cycle isn't new — it's just faster.
"Dwight Macdonald noticed this phenomenon years ago: The daily critics say the obvious thing. The weekly critics feel inspired to correct them. The monthly critics set themselves up as adjudicators," Ebert said in an e-mail, citing the 20th century editor, critic and essayist. "Of course, with the Internet, this process takes only a weekend."
steve.zeitchik@latimes.com
