Cinemas are slowly starting to reopen, and those outdoors in the United States are now working again as usual. There are conflicting perspectives on protecting yourself from sitting in a crowded cinema, and several Internet sites have been advanced to verify that their critics will not review The New Mutants if they are going to attend public screenings.
The A.V. Club, The Boston Globe, RogerEbert.com and IndieWire are among those who don’t need their critics to put themselves at risk, the biggest challenge is that theaters allow shoppers to take off their masks for eating or drinking concession items.
Av Club AA Dowd film critic drew up the resolution by stating: “Last week we published an interview with clinical experts about the threats to go to the videos now, a pandemic that is not under control. They didn’t. Chew your words: there’s a very smart chance he’ll get sick. And it’s a threat that the AV Club would possibly not accept to review a movie.”
“In fact, we adopted the official policy of reviewing only the films that our authors can safely watch, either at a socially remote press screen or with a virtual screen,” the essay continues. “And yes, this applies to all our writers, even those who are willing to take on the threat of a mission, because we are also not willing to monetize that threat.”
Press screenings have taken a stand for Tenet in some positions, but this does not appear to be the case with The New Mutants, a sign that Disney is aware that it will not be well received.
It’s easy to see why those sites feel that way, but viewers can’t afford socially remote projections or online controllers. In the end, it’s their choice, and possibly Disney is the loser because critics (and Rotten Tomatoes’ scores) influence viewers. Of course, if The New Mutants is terrible, they probably won’t bother too much!