Film How do reviews affect your enjoyment of a film?

[Charlie Brown]

Was talking about this with my cousins today. 'Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice' hasn't been getting stellar reviews but my cousins are all still keen to watch it just to see what it's about. So it got me thinking - do you pay much attention to film reviews? Do they affect what movies you watch, or your enjoyment of a film? Curious to hear!

 

[firekid115]

If it's a movie I'm excited for, I tend to stay away from reviews till after I see the movie so that the review doesn't affect my expectations or judgement.

I do pay a bit of attention to reviews, but only really take them into consideration depending on the genre.

For example, I love horror movies, which often get terrible reviews. I usually take those with a grain of salt since (imo) something you find scary/interesting is highly subjective. I've enjoyed films that have had terrible reviews.

 

[Esper]

Reading reviews usually ends up with me getting something stuck in my head when I watch the movie and I'll consciously be looking to see if the review was right or not. That sort of bugs me because I want to enjoy a movie "naturally" and pick up on and notice the things I notice. I tend to keep away from reviews until after I've seen a movie.

 

[maccrash]

I try to only let them impact my thoughts positively, but sometimes if a review highlights something really stupid that I didn't notice, I can't help but think lesser. however I love reading criticism (film in particular) because it often brings to light subtext that I probably wasn't necessarily looking for when I was watching, among other things.

 

[Her]

I tend to not read reviews of anything I plan to go see in cinemas, because I'd rather judge if my money was wasted on my own opinions. Reviews tend to pretty easily make me cynical of a film even if I liked it and so I'd rather put that off until after the fact.

In general I stick to film criticism or film historians rather than 'reviews', I prefer to listen to those who have made film their life/major source of income rather than a reviewer assigned to the subject. Kael, Ebert, Maltin, Sarris, Rosenbaum etc. I'm much more likely to be influenced and more appreciative/dismissive of a film after taking in their thoughts and their ideas, weighing up their criticisms against mine and seeing where we stand. Of course, this simply isn't applicable to many movies in today's market - higher film criticism will hardly matter to something like Batman vs Superman. You just have to go in and decide for yourself whether the shit is good.

Not everyone is a pretentious prick like me and ultimately if you enjoy it, that's swell. I will die for Kung-Pow! Enter the Fist and no film review will ever change that. I rock. And roll. All day long. Sweet Suzy.

 

[Belinda]

Reviews hardly affect me in terms of enjoying a film, if a movie is trash then it's trash. If the movie is good to me then it's good. I've enjoyed some movies which happen to have nothing but bad reviews. I think it's a matter of personal preference (liking the movie) not based on some critics review so I don't need to take them into consideration. Nowadays I tend to look too much into movies and I know where something is lacking. Lack of character development irks the hell out of me though lol.

 

[Treecko]

I don't let reviews affect my opinion on a movie at all. Someone else's opinion is never always going to be the same as yours. There's been many times where a bunch of critics have reviewed a movie poorly, but I still enjoyed it anyways. I don't think a review/reviews should affect a person's opinion on a film at, and you should watch it yourself first. I'm friends with a few film enthusiasts and it seems to me that they literally only love films that receive high praise for critics and/or receive a ton of awards. That comes off shallow quite honestly. I like to enjoy movies causally and not nitpick and notice every single problem cause some person on the internet told me it was a problem.

 

[gimmepie]

It might slightly affect how desperate I am to watch a movie, but in general I make decisions for myself. If I like a movie I like it, I don't need critics to tell me how I feel.

 

[Bay]

As others mentioned, I let myself decide if a movie is good or not and usually I don't read the reviews. I might hear my opinions from others, but that too I won't let it affect if I enjoy a movie or not, or at least not to think about it too much unless there's one part that really bothered me. I usually watch movies months, sometimes years after they're released anyways,

 

[Nick]

Honestly I don't ever read reviews until after I've consumed the content and formed my own opinion. I read reviews to see what other people think compared to what I think, but that's about it.

 

[starseed galaxy auticorn]

I don't really listen to the reviews. I mean, I've watched movies with poor reviews before... and it turns out that I actually really loved the movie. So, I've learned to not trust everything you hear. Like, just because a dozen people don't like a movie doesn't mean you won't like it either. You can't really follow the reviews unless you see the movie yourself and be the judge. It's like when you try something new that everyone else has tried. You can't say you hate that new thing when you've never even tried it, right?

 

[OuterTsuchinoko]

I read reviews after I see movies. Whenever I read them before I usually get stuck trying to analyze all the flaws or good they spoke of in the review while I watch it. Reviews never change my opinion on a movie though. After reading them I may agree and acknowledge the bad things about a movie or how poorly written it is, but I will usually still enjoy it just the same.

 

[Goatman56]

Normally when I look at a review it on rotten tomatoes, so I always look at the critics score and then the audience score. If the scores match then I don't go see it, but in the case of BvS, the critics scores were low but the audience scores were good. So I went and saw it and I loved it. I think my thoughts are more in line with regular consumers, so this generally works for me.

 

[Purist of Black Water]

Sometimes I look to critics for a second opinion.
But usually, I just go with my own opinion or a friends/family member.

 

[Pinkie-Dawn]

From my experience on the internet community, the only reviews you should really pay attention to are from caustic critics (Channel Awesome, Screen Junkies, YourMoviesSuckDotCom, Red Letter Media, etc.), who know more about what makes a good movie and a bad movie - by always accumulating the negative - than traditional professional critics. And because these internet critics are treated as gospel, they affect my enjoyment of a film.

 

[SmokedPaprika]

I always get to see the trailers before the movie with the exception of limited release films a la Whiplash and Birdman. Usually, if a movie has critical acclaim and it interests me, I'll go out of my way to see such films. This doesn't mean I'll always take away from them, but it helps to expand ones horizons.

I think there's a misconception involved with film criticism that, listening to or reading it keeps you from being able to form your own thoughts and views as to whether or not you like a film or not. On the contrary, I believe that you should read criticisms after a movie so you can better learn how to read and react to a film. The more you understand about film and how it works, the easier it becomes to have a greater connection to a fantastic work.

The reason many become critics is to discover and share more of the world through the art of creativity. It's not simply to trash or praise the wit (or lack thereof), structure, or artfulness of a film. Film that presents you with pretty imagery must have a reason for the pretty imagery. The Revenant, as well as it was filmed, for example, arguably likes to show off more than it likes to develop atmosphere. Whereas, say, something like The Witch will slowly grab you and pull you into the world of fear right with its characters - given you meet the film halfway.

Film - no, art - is a wonderful thing that is fully experienced with, well, experience. Critics are just trying to share that experience with the rest of us.