Critics long ago stopped even pretending they had any effect on the moviegoing habits of the mass audience. So to be forbidden an early peek at a film, as we were last week with The Avengers, is to be momentarily flattered that we matter. Hiding a film--especially a big-budget action-adventure with a certain pedigree--is a studio's open signal that the picture smells. It is a mystery how moguls think they can tell an epochally awful movie from a routinely bad one; last year, for example, there were plenty of press previews for The Saint, to name just one other dyspeptic update...
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