Are movie critics overrated?

revoltub said:
There always seems to be a disconnect at least recently between the audience and the critics,for example, critics love star wars last jedi but fans hate it. Infinity war was massively received by fans, while critics only have it at 83% on rotten tomatoes.

I used to read critic reviews, now I avoid them. They all seem to piggyback off each other, that is...if the critic consensus is that a film is good, other critics parrot this. The same for if the film is considered bad.

I feel that today especially, films are reviewed based on merits outside of the quality of the actual film. For example certain films seem to get high reviews because they adhere to leftist socio-political standards. As an example of that example, I feel last jedi only got good reviews because it had a diverse cast, not because of the merit of the film.

I feel the same way slightly about Black Panther. I think it is a great film, but overhyped due to the wrong reasons.

Anyone else feel this way?

Why do you think critics and fans don't agree? And do you think films are reviewed by critics based on the wrong things?
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I think the Last Jedi really highlighted a lot of the problems with critics today, obviously talk about Disney having potential influence over them but also I think that the net and less qualified individuals doing these jobs has led increasingly to safe groupthink plus a tendency to let politics drive opinion. A lot of the fuss we had about "toxic fanbases" was I think clearly the media looking to cover itself after getting caught with its pants down.

I mean I'm politically very liberal yet when you have films that get caught up in such issues I take opinions on them with a massive dose of salt.

Generally I find critics are far more useful in highlighting smaller film releases were influence and politics aren't tied up as often, even then I pay little attension to most of them who are just blaggers who's bullshitted themselves into a role creating "content" for a website.
 
I trust him a hell of a lot more than I trust 90% of RT critics.
 
moreorless87 said:
I think the Last Jedi really highlighted a lot of the problems with critics today, obviously talk about Disney having potential influence over them but also I think that the net and less qualified individuals doing these jobs has led increasingly to safe groupthink plus a tendency to let politics drive opinion. A lot of the fuss we had about "toxic fanbases" was I think clearly the media looking to cover itself after getting caught with its pants down.

I mean I'm politically very liberal yet when you have films that get caught up in such issues I take opinions on them with a massive dose of salt.

Generally I find critics are far more useful in highlighting smaller film releases were influence and politics aren't tied up as often, even then I pay little attension to most of them who are just blaggers who's bullshitted themselves into a role creating "content" for a website.
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I'm trying to think of when this really began. For some reason I think TDK kicked off the critic loved superhero films along with iron man, who both deserved it, but then studios said "hey we can use this rotten tomatoes thing to our advantage"
 
I read (here maybe?) That netflix has hidden their star rating system so you cant even see what other users thought of the movie they watched. So they can create and push out what they want you to see.
 
sniper said:
I read (here maybe?) That netflix has hidden their star rating system so you cant even see what other users thought of the movie they watched. So they can create and push out what they want you to see.
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Haven't used it in a while but didn't they change it to a thumbs up/thumbs down sort of thing?
 
SSgt Dickweed said:
I used to care about Stuckmann but I think his success got to his head
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Same here. He used to be my #1 most reliable movie reviewer.

After he gave The Last Jedi a positive review, not addressing its obvious faults I know he would have noticed in the two times he watched the film before posting his review.

Critics skewered the prequels, but they almost universally praise the new movies... because of Disney.
 
I disposed of them entirely after Naked Gun 2 1/2 getting half a star. I went and fell out of my seat laughing. That theater was all dying laughing.
Yeah, so it's been a while since I listened to critics.

Just sherdog is enough.
 
I grew up with Siskel & Ebert so all these nowadays Youtubers and Rotten Tomatoes hacks can go piss up a rope. Most movies are pretty terrible these days anyways so if it looks good or if a number of esteemed members of the Sherdog society for true gentlemen and classy women recommend it, I'll probably check it out. I'm also a jaded asshole when it comes to movies.
 
yes they suck.

i use median score on imdb to aid movie decisions and it has worked a lot better than rotten tomatoes and a lot better than imdb mean score.
 
GearSolidMetal said:
Same here. He used to be my #1 most reliable movie reviewer.

After he gave The Last Jedi a positive review, not addressing its obvious faults I know he would have noticed in the two times he watched the film before posting his review.

Critics skewered the prequels, but they almost universally praise the new movies... because of Disney.
Click to expand...

Disney says jump and the film industry says "how high"
 
revoltub said:
There always seems to be a disconnect at least recently between the audience and the critics,for example, critics love star wars last jedi but fans hate it. Infinity war was massively received by fans, while critics only have it at 83% on rotten tomatoes.

I used to read critic reviews, now I avoid them. They all seem to piggyback off each other, that is...if the critic consensus is that a film is good, other critics parrot this. The same for if the film is considered bad.

I feel that today especially, films are reviewed based on merits outside of the quality of the actual film. For example certain films seem to get high reviews because they adhere to leftist socio-political standards. As an example of that example, I feel last jedi only got good reviews because it had a diverse cast, not because of the merit of the film.

I feel the same way slightly about Black Panther. I think it is a great film, but overhyped due to the wrong reasons.

Anyone else feel this way?

Why do you think critics and fans don't agree? And do you think films are reviewed by critics based on the wrong things?
Click to expand...

Personally, I stopped caring about movie critic's opinions a long time ago. I chose the movies I watch based on genre, cast and synopsis.
 
How is "only" 83% at RT bad? You expect 100%?
 
revoltub said:
Disney says jump and the film industry says "how high"
Click to expand...

People always look on this as some kind of conspiracy theory but really Disney do have obvious ways to influence critics, especially online critics. The websites these people work for(or run) generally depend heavily on advertsing and Disney are likely the biggest advertiser on most of them, they also often want to have access to stars/directors/etc for interviews and again Disney control this.

I mean to be fair it helps with Marvel that few of the films are actually bad and several are excellent but when you have stinkers like the Starwars sequels praised to heaven it starts to look rather dodgy.

As far as highjacking politics goes I think that's something that's really come to the fore in the last 3 years or so, basically films that don't really make much to say politically but try to play on "inclusivity" and talk down any criticism as bigotry.
 
I always check audience scores before committing to seeing a movie in theaters. If the audience thinks it sucks, I probably will too. It's rare that I agree with critic consensus over audience consensus but it has happened.
 
I used to enjoy watching Siskel & Ebert on Sunday mornings as a kid. Obviously people didn’t always agree with them but for the most part they were pretty good. Critics today seem to be the super poor mans version of them extra mean cheesie etc.
 
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