Everyone thinks they are a movie critic. In all honesty, I’m guiltier than most. But every now and again, people jump on a poor movie and rip so many holes in it, that the good points about that film get lost. Below, I shall defend three movies that, in my opinion, have been given far more abuse than they deserve. Warning: there will be major spoilers. I am sure there are more out there, so leave a comment below. If your argument is good enough, I may even been inspired to write a follow-up article.

3 – QUANTUM OF SOLACE

I understand that Quantum of Solace is not the best Bond film. It was based on short story by Ian Fleming and was forced into being stretched into a feature film. The end result was far from perfect. We were left with a half-finished film: an absence of Bond wit, a convoluted plot and certain far-fetched sequences (yes, I am looking at the plane fight). But it is easy to forget, looking back, that this film was released during the Writers’ Strike, so the crew were working with scripts given to them the morning of filming.

However, looking past the flaws, Quantum of Solace has certain sides to it that are great. The cinematography is magnificent and Daniel Craig once again brings a chilling depiction of Bond, emphasised by his incredible powerhouse acting and some of the fight scenes are great. I think the main problem with this film is that it cannot escape the shadow that Casino Royale left. We cannot all expect a Bond film to have a deeper meaning, sometimes it is just about Bond stopping the bad guy. I predict that the follow-up to Skyfall will have a similar problem. However, we, as Bond fans, need to just take each movie individually, sometimes being content for a simple film of explosions, car chases and most importantly, Bond.

2 – FANTASTIC FOUR

People complain that the Fantastic Four film is lazy, simple and doesn’t strike the same chords as the X-Men or Spiderman trilogy did. I shall admit that Fantastic Four is nowhere near the same quality as those movies, but I do think that they deserve their own applause. This movie was not about proving anything other than getting four popular superheroes onto the big screen. Sure, maybe this makes this film one for the fans, rather than the public as a whole, but it still stands against the earlier superhero films (the ones that were swept under the rug, because they were that awful), and proves that we finally have the power to make these CGI blockbusters with some childhood heroes.

Sadly, I cannot defend the sequel. That was soul-destroying.

1 – THE DARK KNIGHT RISES

OK, this might throw some. It definitely threw me. I have recently discovered, now that the hype surrounding the Dark Knight Rises has died down, several critics and fans are picking apart the trilogy’s finale’s corpse and ridiculing it. I’ve been caught up in several conversations about how Bane’s plot is lazy, stupid and absurdly convenient for the rest of the storyline. Also, the ending has been criticised by fans. Surely Bruce Wayne would be recognised a few days after his ‘death’. How irresponsible is it for Bruce to leave the legacy of Batman to a hot-headed, often inexperienced cop (yes, I know I brought this up in an earlier article, but that was in good humour)?

The truth is, yes, the story has some flaws, but you need to look past the nit-picking. The story was merely a vehicle to bring these amazing character arcs to a close. We should focus more on the major details that Christopher Nolan drops ever so subtly into the film. The Dark Knight Rises is a shining example that film-making can be classed as an art and everyone needs to see this, instead of letting their obsession with criticising the most talked about films of the year