bABA: The difference is there is no spin here. If the movie fails at the box office, I will be the first one to admit it was a failure or disappointment. I will not write off a movie just because some dumbass critic/critics did not like it. I decide whether I like a movie or not. That is where the majority of the audiences are.

Otherwise, National Treasure, Meet The Fockers, Madagascar and others would have been failures. These movies ended up being monster hits since the people liked them even if the critics did not.

Neither National Treasure nor Madagascar nor Meet the Fockers started off THAT badly.

We don't have to wait long. In a couple of days we will know if these reviews matter to audiences.

Ouch.

I think everybody concurs with you, but with such bad early buzz chances are increased that the public might not like it that much either.

i think we all just didnt expect it to be that low, i mean i know the book and ultimately the movie are polarizing, but not this much

Wowzers, terrible! Home page of MSN.com has a main article up titled "DaVinci Code Panned at Cannes". Terrible showing so far, I knew Ron Howard would ruin it. I told you all along I was really sceptical of Ron Howard, and it looks like he ruined yet another film. *sigh*

PEACE, Mike.

FYI, I think the movie still looks great and i dont plan to cancel my tickets Anything set in europe and with a conspiracy has me by the balls.

jb. you already know that you're one of the few here that i know wont make excuses or spins. in the past, you've never used RT as an argument unless its a proper argument.

its easy to see who are spinning and who are not. quite evident here actually.

That sounds cool.

BTW, have you seen the movie?

nope .. nor do i intend to anymore.

i'm watching xmen next wed though.

Reviews won't matter much on first weekend, but we'll get a picture whether the general audience agree with the (early) critics or not.

You said better than me.

I agree. Metacritic is a much better site for reviews since ony the major newspaper and magazine critics are counted.

Personally, I don't think most people will much care about the reviews for The Da Vinci Code. Loads of people will see it regardless. So-so reviews didn't effect plenty of other big blockbusters in the past few years. Why is this any diferent?

Metacritic is much more lenient with the score than RT. Not many film can average a score below 50 there. I think their approach is more like school grade, where everything below 60 is fail, instead of normally distributed from 0 to 100. They gave Variety's review a 50, but the review is close to an all-out pan.

In the end, Metacritic score tends to converge with RT's average score (not the fresh rating).

I think people are trashing critics way too much. In most cases, especially for adult-oriented films, the general consensus from public does turn out to be in line with the percentage from critics, even though each time, it's different individuals who disagree with them.

Few people are saying critics mean much to the film's box office. We are just concerned (and surprised) to see the score being so low because it could mean a lot of us won't enjoy it.

Where did you guys find the Roger Ebert grade? He has nothing on his site or the Ebert and Roeper site. He never has anything up on his site until the movie actually opens.

I'd like an actual link, if possible (not doubting anyone, just want to read it/curious). I'm happy to hear Ebert gave it 3/4 stars, at least.

PEACE, Mike.

It's from people who got it on wire. The review is not online yet.

What does that mean? ("on wire")

And wgere did YOU (i.e. people HERE at KJ) find the grade? You must have found it somewhere, even if someone else got it "on wire" (whatever the heck that means...)

PEACE, Mike.

That's exactly what he said.

It's from OscarWatch's forum. I think "on wire" means some type of inside information from Chicago.

Metacritic's 56/100 is much more like it. I've always maintained Metacritic reflects much more accurately the reviews the public are ACTUALLY reading. They do not include swathes of unread critics.

Xiayun, I'd point out that people do not simply "agree" with critics. Their opinions on a movie are moulded BY the critics before they go in, and it takes quite a show for them to change that mindframe.

I do hope it's reviews improve because

1. Im rooting for it to be the biggest movie of the year
2. I really, really want to be entertained.

Plan C

Lol, yep, just like kong, remember? i think kong got to plan Y before people stopped the excuses for its not uber boxoffice.

The difference between Kong and the Da Vinci Code is

The Da Vinci Code has probably already outsold Kongs entire opening weekend in presales alone

That's actually probably true.