If you have the internet and you happen to visit movie blogs on a regular basis then there’s a pretty good chance that by now you’ve seen Red Letter Media’s 70-minute take down of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. The video dissected the myriad of problems with the film and it quickly went viral, helping many fans verbalize their disappointment with George Lucas. The same guys went on to produce video critiques of several other movies including Avatar, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and most recently, Prometheus. It’s clear that a lot of work goes into these videos and they have some interesting things to say, but are they really as brilliant as a lot of people seem to think?

It’s worth noting that their Prometheus video is a lot shorter and is obviously intended primarily for laughs, but I’ve noticed a lot of people referring to it as a “review” of the film, which it most definitely is not. It is essentially one guy rattling off four minutes of questions that the movie fails to answer — some of which are valid complaints (in my opinion), but many of which are ridiculous nitpicks. I can’t help but feel that the popularity of videos like this are changing the way people evaluate films; that is to say, a few plot loopholes are enough to write off an entire movie. What do you think? Are the Red Letter Media videos solid examples of film criticism or are they nothing more than hyperbolic fan rants? Do people take these videos at face value without stopping to think for themselves? Does their take on Prometheus prove that it’s actually a bad movie? Give us your thoughts here on Open Forum Friday.