More often than not, knowledge of a movie’s troubled production history is more a cloud hanging over one’s appreciation of that movie than a tool for insight into it. Earlier this year, for example, with the ill-fated John Carter, it seemed as though critics were not permitted to write about the picture without mentioning that it cost A QUARTER OF A BILLION DOLLARS (and yes, the all-caps were mandatory as well). The movie itself was hardly perfect, but I doubt whether anyone would have been quite as concerned with how expensive it was without being told first.
[Read more]