I wrote this long speech in Primis's blog entry about the same subject. So long, I decided that I should just repost it here as an entry now that I have access to the Blaaaahhhhhg again.

For the most part, I find that there's a good reason why the majority of reviewers praise or criticize a movie. If most reviewers gave positive reviews to a movie, I can expect that to be a good movie. If most reviewers gave negative reviews to a movie, I can expect that to be a bad movie. If a movie has mixed reviews, then it's a case where I would need to see the movie to understand my feelings for it.

Reviews are like book cover. A positive review is like an amazing book cover that gets you hyped up, a negative review is like a dull book cover that leaves you uninterested, and a mixed review is the kind of book cover that leaves you thinking, "Well, it might be good, or it might be bad... can't really tell..."

And this is where I say the overly-cliched phrase: "You can't judge a book by its cover". And the reason I made the comparison between reviews and book covers is because "You can't judge a movie by its review".

Critics hated Steven Spielberg's Hook (1991) to the point where Spielberg himself considers it an embarrassment (they even made a reference to this in the LEGO Studios Backlot game; the Director, modeled after Spielberg, says "It'll be worse than Hook!"). Completely unaware of this fact, I went to see the film and found it rather enjoyable. It was no masterpiece, but I liked the concept, the characterization, and the musical score by John Williams. I thought it was a pretty good movie, and I was shocked when I saw the 22% approval rating on RT.

Most of BZPower, or at least the vocal section of BZPower, says that The Legend Reborn is a terrible film, an embarrassment to BIONICLE, full of corniness and kiddiness, and the number one cause of teen suicide. When I hear these people, I shake my head in disbelief. Every time I watch that film, I feel like it is the best of the four BIONICLE films, with actually less corniness and kiddiness than the others. The only major problems I have with the film are its lack of villain characterization and its lack of Nathan Furst (curse you, John D'Andrea!). So, once again I enjoy a film that the majority hates.

On the other hand, according to RT, 62% of critics gave David Lynch's Dune (1984) a positive review, meaning more people liked it than hated it. And I despise that movie with every fiber of my being. It was a horrible adaptation of a great book, with poor storytelling that had many unnecessary changes and cuts. The whole movie was the definition of a mess. My father, who also loved the book, shares my opinion on this movie. Apparently, I only agree with 38% of "professional" reviewers.

Also, one must remember that not everyone is going to have the same taste. If this was the case, every film with positive reviews would have a 100% rating on RT, and every film with negative reviews would have a 0% rating on RT. But that's not the case. Most well-received films have ratings between 75% and 90%, and most poorly-received films have ratings between 20% and 40%. There is always somebody who will dislike a movie with mostly positive reviews, and there is always somebody who will like a movie with mostly negative reviews. That "somebody" could very well be you.

Reviewers are more like guidelines than actual rules. They suggest that you will probably like/dislike something, but they may not be right, so sometimes the best way to determine what you like is to go to the theater or rental store and see it yourself.

However, getting back to The Legend Reborn, reviewers can also have a negative impact and can actually sway your opinion even if you disagree with them. For example, when I first saw The Legend Reborn, I was absolutely sure that it wiped the floor with the original trilogy (and this is coming from someone who did not hate the original trilogy). As BZPower's views of the movie became increasingly negative, it rubbed off on me, and my views went from being "Wow, this is the best BIONICLE movie by far!" to "Okay, I guess it's a bit better than Legends of Metru Nui...".

I also think it is a good thing that I did not read reviews when I saw Hook. Self-fulfilling prophesy is a horrible disease. If you walk into the movie theater thinking to yourself, "I read reviews and they say that this movie is going to suck", chances are you'll be predicting a bad movie, and as a result you will have a higher chance of disliking this film because you predict it to be bad. It will create a sense of negative bias that would not exist if you did not read the reviews. If I had first seen Hook knowing full well that critics hated it, I probably would have viewed it as a bad film.

Basically, reviewers can help, but you may not always agree with them and you cannot let them sway your feelings.