I was looking at my movie collection the other day, and I realized how many of the movies I've got are ones that the critics hated—and how many of these apparently-bad movies are on my list of favourites.
( List of movies and my opinions on them behind the cut; spoilers practically inevitable. )
All of this got me wondering—what makes a movie "good" or "bad"? Why do we put so much weight on critics' opinions? Is it because we're too lazy to figure out what we like for ourselves, or is it because so many people are such good little sheep that they'd just rather have somebody else make up their minds for them? If I'd listened to what most of the critics were saying, I'd have missed out on some of my favourite films. And if liking films that critics have tended to hate makes me unenlightened and uncultivated, then so be it; quite frankly, my choice of entertainment is my own, and I don't require anyone else to approve of it.
All of this got me wondering—what makes a movie "good" or "bad"? Why do we put so much weight on critics' opinions? Is it because we're too lazy to figure out what we like for ourselves, or is it because so many people are such good little sheep that they'd just rather have somebody else make up their minds for them? If I'd listened to what most of the critics were saying, I'd have missed out on some of my favourite films. And if liking films that critics have tended to hate makes me unenlightened and uncultivated, then so be it; quite frankly, my choice of entertainment is my own, and I don't require anyone else to approve of it.