|
It’s been 6 years since I created Matt’s Movie Reviews. My goal was to construct a movie review website where the critique would come from a unique perspective: mine.
Not to generalise too much, but it’s been my experience that many film critics / bloggers share many of the same ideological, social and political viewpoints, and make no mistake such outlooks help shape movie opinion.
I wanted to present a different voice, an alternate point of view, one that (for example) spoke fondly of the important religious messages found in The Exorcist and The Tree of Life, one that applauded the strong conservative messages in films such as Argo and Skyfall, and one that refused to give blind devotion to the likes of Joss Whedon or Quentin Tarantino just because they are fanboy favourites.
During my recent time away from Matt’s Movie Reviews (of which I am grateful for your patience and understanding) I came to realise that my goal has been skewered by too little focus on original content (reviews, Top Ten, articles) and too many hours on uploading trailers, and images, and posters, and other content that every other movie related website has in spades.
In short, Matt’s Movie Reviews had slowly become a bulletin board for movie distributors who wanted to flog their product for little in return. (That’s right, I said it!)
Not anymore. Months of darkness has given way to a new dawn. Going are the trailers, images and movie poster pages that took time away from writing about the movies. Slowly changes are appearing on the website. Hopefully by years end it will be a smooth online experience.
My dream was always to be a professional film critic. I’m proud to say I gave it shot: several years were invested into establishing a freelance career (which included quitting my job so I could focus on the task at hand), with the goal of securing enough work to support my family. Although I was published on multiple occasions, alas it was not to be. Work was too scarce, pay too small, and opportunities to find employment with a reputable publication too difficult within a shrinking industry.
Professionally Matt’s Movie Reviews will be my legacy. 6 years of hard work has been invested into it so far. I look forward to doing this for many more years into whatever future awaits. I hope you join me for the ride.
Cheers,
Matt
Owner / Editor / Writer, Matt’s Movie Reviews |
