A string of box office and critical duds has clearly broken Taika Waititi’s brain. Even though, by his own account, he hasn’t read any reviews of his work in 15 years, Waititi took to social media to slam the entire film critic profession as “sad lost souls” for disliking his latest bomb, Klara and the Sun.
I haven’t read a review of anything aimed at me or my peers in almost 15 years. But I do listen to the people. 💥🎉🫶🏽💦 So this Halloween, let’s spare a thought for those sad lost souls who couldn’t achieve their dreams of becoming artists, and thus became critics. The same people who also hated Jojo Rabbit 😂🤷🏽♂️ Irrelevant. Out of touch. Obsolete. In the bin. 🗑️😢🫶🏽
To his point, the gap between critical and audience scores on Rotten Tomatoes is vast. Only 26% of critics gave it a favorable review, while audiences have it at a decent 74%.
However, Taika doesn’t seem to know what the Hell he’s talking about. He claims that all of these critics also hated 2019’s Jojo Rabbit, but that’s a lie. Critics positively enjoyed it, with an 81% on RT, while the audience score is 94%. He’s just talking out of his butt, likely from rage, embarrassment, or both.
Frankly, Taika seems to have forgotten that it’s these same critics who elevated him in the first place. I guess I should count myself among them since I praised to the moon Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Jojo Rabbit, and Thor: Ragnarok, but have bashed Thor: Love & Thunder, Next Goal Wins, and Klara and the Sun. Those last three films aren’t very good, and Taika seems to have lost his ability to balance his quirky offbeat humor with dramatic tension, the way he used to.
It’s worth noting that when everyone was singing Taika’s praises, he couldn’t show up in enough places to talk about it. He was everywhere, and was all too happy to speak with critics then. Now, he’d rather tell those same people how much they suck and not him, forgetting that he’ll probably need them if he wants to get back on top.
