Should we trust reviews?

(Should we trust reviews? Says the girl who's trying to make herself some sort of career reviewing fucking films)

This is a weird thing for to me to be thinking about at half one in the morning, I was wanting to write something different to post that wasn't a part of my backlog and I couldn't think of anything. I was ready for sleep when I remembered that I'll be seeing The Emoji Movie tomorrow (tonight? It's 1:30 am) and to prepare myself, I've been reading the reviews for it and...there's not much difference in the way the audience has rated this film and how critics have rated it and it got me thinking. We all know this film was going to be absolute trash, it could be good trash, it could be bad trash but what about the times when critics are the ones praising a film that audiences hate and vice versa? Who should we listen to when it comes to preparing ourselves for films we're going to see or whether we should even see these films? Should we even trust reviews at all and just go into a film with our own expectations? Who is the authority on these things?

First question, should we listen to anyone's opinion regarding a film? Yes and no. Yes because we don't want to waste our money buying tickets to see something or buying a DVD / Bluray or whatever. We want our money to go to a good product and we definitely don't want to go in blind. It's like eating a nut for the first time and having that thing in the back of your head saying "what if you're allergic?" And I get that, after having a fear of eating nuts for...more or less my entire life and wanting to not put money into trash products. But we shouldn't because...well, watching a film is an experience, and it's different for everyone. You shouldn't...for lack of a better word, imprint someone else's opinion into our minds and we go to see that film with that in the back of our minds, preventing us from having our own opinion in a way. If you are going to listen to other peoples opinions then go ahead, if it's something that helps you decide then go for it but don't just listen to one opinion when it comes to looking at reviews. Look at both critic and audience reviews and look at both the good and bad so you can have...a less biased viewpoint going into something.

Let's get into the thing about critics and how they're seen as...the go to opinion when we need information on a film. Critics are not higher beings with an authoritative position when it comes to films, they're just people who have to see a lot more films in their lifetime than a member of the general public. Meaning that they pick up on the little things a bit more quickly than others because...they're exposed to it more. You never really think about it but how many times in films have you heard the "I should have killed you when I had the chance" line in films? I'm gonna bet not as much as an experienced critic who is tired as hell of hearing that combination of words and therefore you're not going to be as annoyed by that because....you don't hear it every other film you see. Films aren't really made to please critics, they're meant to please a general audience because...that's the bigger target to hit. If critics are pleased too then even better, promotional value and all that jazz. Critics tend to write long winded or very concise pieces about a film or an aspect of film that looks very professional and may feel like you're reading an essay for university...but it's good y'know, nothing anyone can expect to write.

Audiences are the ones films are made for, they're also the people who think that critics are up on their marble pedestals thinking a film needs to be a high art, and if it's anything less than, then it's no good at all. It's all or nothing with these critics and they don't speak for everyone. While in a sense that's right because critics are seeing a lot more films than the general public they're seeing something totally different because they've adapted to seeing the same thing over and over and so are looking for more impressive things. It's also wrong because even though critics are essentially the voice to go to to see what's up with a film, but...they're still people, members of the general public. Audiences don't have the same viewpoint as a critic and that's fine. Sometimes, people see them as a beacon of knowledge and sometimes people think they're pretentious dicks sat laughing at the masses for enjoying an Adam Sandler film. (Which is something we have to discuss at some point by the way.) Audiences tend to write pieces that are more...general, really, they don't pick out specific things unless it's really good or really bad. They just give a general yay or nay on a film and that's great, to be honest. They just get to the point and I feel like that's very underappreciated in a lot of things.

So should we trust reviews? Honestly, I don't think we should listen to anyone and if you want to know what a film is like, you should see it yourself. Reviews are just opinions at the end of the day, whether "professional" or not, and critics are just people who have a passion for watching and talking about films. There are times when people don't agree with them and there are times when everyone has the same general feeling about a film and there are even times when nobody can agree on something. But you know, we're all human, we're all going to have an opinion on something. For example, I did not like The Revenant. Buy your pitchforks and torches here. I thought it was boring, pretentious, and an obvious Oscar grab. Wanna know something fun? 81% critic score and 84% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. What the heck everyone else in the world? Did y'all just want Leo to get his Oscar to end the memes or something? I don't get it. Point being, we all have our own opinion on something and every single opinion is valid so...my advice is to just go out and watch a movie if something pulls you to it. Even if it's the emoji movie or...47 Metres Down you go watch it becuase you'll probably come out a different person than when you went in.

Anyway, I've spent 3 exhausted hours on this because I just wanted to get this out. I'm gonna get what...3 or 4 hours sleep because I gotta get my ass up early so I can be ready but that's it for now, see you in a couple of days when I write about The Emoji Movie. Peace out, stay hydrated and...get enough sleep guys.