Lucasfilm gets writer to yank negative review

Movie reviews are meant to inform others about the content in a film, the general plot, and whether or not you would recommend it. Taste in movies is a very personal matter; much like your taste in music.

Apparently one movie reviewer found "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," released mid-August, to be bad. No, not just bad. Horrible. Dreadful. Appalling. Worthy of such harsh criticism that he needed to write just exactly how he felt about the thing.

While I would consider his review to in fact be mildly offensive to those involved in its creation, in reality, it's still just one person's opinion. Sure, his opinion may matter to some people and in turn discourage them from wanting to see the film. But does this warrant demanding he remove his over-the-top "this is a horrible movie" review? I think not.

The controversy lies in how "Knowles, the founder of fan-driven movie site Ain't It Cool News, published this unabashedly negative review ("hated the score, the animation, the shots, the characters and most of all the retarded ******** idiot story") of the animated film "Star Wars: The Clone Wars." After viewing the movie, Knowles's post was unpublished.

Hollywood Newsroom cited an Ain't It Cool regular who claimed Lucasfilm got Knowles to yank the review — most likely by threatening to bar him from all future advance viewings."

The review, in its entirety, can be viewed online. What do you think? Should a film production company allow a movie critic an advance screening only on condition that they have the authority to censor his review if necessary?