First Inkling
Like other film goers of the Boomer generation, I cut my movie-going teeth on adventure films like the Star Wars trilogy and (especially) Indiana Jones. Though they basically contain B-movie plots given A-list treatments, their over-the-top audacity and sheer enthusiasm made up for any shortcomings in probability or plot construction.
When Disney announced the premiere of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (IJ5), I welcomed the fan reviews despite rumors of rewrites, production delays, and on-set ego conflicts. After all, what business endeavor, particularly an artistic ones, doesn’t have its share of creative differences?
However, the overwhelming negativity of many reviews, particularly those appearing on YouTube, surprised me. Titles like “How Could Indy Flop This Badly?” and “Indiana Jones Is a Total Disaster for Disney” hyperbolized the film’s failure while providing little basis for their declarations. Many reviewers’ analyses seemed totally specious. Some ascribed the movie’s failure to Phoebe Waller-Bridge‘s inadequate performance. Others blamed Harrison Ford as being too old for playing the role. A few perceived deeper, managerial forces at work which forced director James Mangold to reshoot scenes and alternative endings for various audiences.
Due Diligence
None of these criticisms made a lot of sense to me. If the film was this bad, mainstream media critics would roast it as well. However, most assessments tended to resemble the one provided by Inverse‘s Alex Welch which concluded the film “offers a surprisingly nuanced take on the power and utility of nostalgia.”
Reserving our judgments on that evaluation alone, my wife and I attended a Monday matinee performance and were enthralled the entire 142 minutes of run time. We left the theater shaking our heads. What gives?
Common Assessment
At first glance, It appears many of the film’s most negative critics have their own political and social axes to grind. Some, like Midnight’s Edge, berate Disney films in general for imposing a “forced diversity” component upon the audience. Others, like Ryan Kinel, creator of RK Outpost, go further, blasting Disney films for promoting what they consider “sjw (social justice warrior)/woke content.”
All of this type of negativity John Mangold and Quora commentator, Chris Walters, dismiss as part of a growing yet grudging fandom menace. Walters encapsulates the group’s feelings this way, “many who are unhappy with anything after the original three [Star Wars] movies, they don’t like Lucas tinkering with the original three movies. They don’t like the three prequel movies, although some of the dialog and Jar Jar Binks are terrible. And they definitely don’t like the three movies that Disney released to finish the Skywalker saga.”
Could It Be Something Else?
But is this “fandom menace” comfined to Disney alone? Or is it more widespread and insidious? Finding reliable sources disscussing this topic is difficult. However, in one critical response toward The Last Jedi, researcher Morten Bay declared the backlash to that film should be regarded with more than a grain of salt. His study, “Weaponizing the Haters,” discovered 50.9 % of the negative reviews were “politically motivated or not even human.” In actuality, these fan base disagreements are “deliberate, organized political influence measures in disguise.” Their purpose–“increasing media coverage of the fandom conflict, thereby adding to and further propagating a narrative of widespread discord and dysfunction in American society.”
Unfortunately, Morten is not so precise as to identify or give the number of Russian websites involved in such trolling activities. He also dismisses the total involvement by these trolls to no more than 21 per cent of the total online discussion. Still, provoking such dust-ups and amplifying discord through local and national media offers a tremendous return on sowing doubt and cultural uncertainty.
Conclusion
Given the rate of return, trolling a cultural icon like Disney by criticizing the movies they produce seems like a soft power weapon whose use is difficult to resist. As Vitaly Bespalov, a former operative for the St. Petersburg troll farm says, “Putin doesn’t see any conflict in such operations. He sees trolling of any kind as ‘an equivalent step to the so-called ‘negative actions’ that the West is doing against Russia.” Regarding the West’s reaction, he concludes “I think they are not used to these black games. They are more naive.”
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Artificial Intelligence (AI) already affects writers and the publishing industry. However, the recent release of ChatGPT threatens authors’ livelihoods on a whole new level. In a
itemizes the opportunities AI offers in terms of acquisitiion, production, and marketing. In his view, AI could depose Amazon, the over-charging, 800-pound gorilla in the publishing industry. While independent publishers like him might welcome the overthrow of their competition, individual entrepreneurs, writers, and artists could find themselves shoved further down down the publicity and marketing chain. McElroy’s analysis is astute, but relies heavily on his approach of book publishing being an information-dispensing industry.
As individuals, people respond to differIent stimuli differently.
binder for my proposed work, Black Phantom. The binder remained empty for years, however, because I had no access to horses of any kind. Finally, when the chance to ride one did happen, I clung to the saddle horn for all I was worth while the horse galloped back to its stall for a fresh bucket of oats. However, the action, the adventure, the thrill of that incident stayed with me. Like Farley’s narrative of a boy’s enduring love for his horse, these qualities inspired the path I’ve chosen these many decades later.
For these individuals and the people inspired by them, “good enough” is not acceptable. Publishing information remains limited to the
Melungeon–a particular yet ominous-sounding word which happens to rhyme with dungeon in English. Sometimes spelled malungeon or melongeon, the term has several meanings. The broadest of these, according to
The reason for my interest in the appelation is two-fold. First, my father’s side of the family perpetuated the notion that our dark complections and brown eyes stemmed from our Cherokee heritage. Second, my research into the background of country-western singer
In your reading, did you discover media you can trust? Do they cite their sources and check their facts? Or do such constraints seem to get in the way of a good story, convincing opinion, or solid argument?
Down the Rabbit Hole
OK. At this point, case closed. Or is it? One instance appears on the BBC News web page, the other on the web page of a “leading free market think tank.” Both sources for these links appear reliable, but consider the context in which these articles appear. The BBC is government-owned entity renowned for being “the world’s oldest newscaster” according to Wikipedia; MI or the Manhattan Institute, formerly the
objective evaluation of the issue? My procedure: when in doubt in the 21st century, conduct a Google search. The first result of a “media bias” search turned up
MBFC is only one of several sites devoted to information objectivity and bias-identification. Many media experts regard
What Is the Rule of Three?
Examples
Expressions and Catchphrases: 
What It All Comes Down To




#1 
Development
Deemphasis and Revival










