I'm always amazed at how a movie will elicit so many different responses. One person will hate it while the other thinks it's the greatest movie of all time. Nearly every movie on IMDB will get as many 10's as it will 1's. How is this possible. There are some who appreciate B-Movies above all other films. It can't be because they are better made, but because of different tastes.
Personal taste aside, occasionally you will find people who will hate a movie because others like it, and vice versa. You're being influenced by trends, as much as if you were agreeing with them. People will be so outraged that a movie got good reviews that they will be offended and will judge it based on that.
People's views can be tainted by reviews and criticism, not only by professional critics, but from friends and family. If you hear a movie is the greatest someone has ever seen, your expectations will be raised. If the movie doesn't live up to this high bar, you'll have a negative impression. While if you've never heard anything about it before viewing, you'll give it a less critical eye.
I don't accept anyone's opinion of a movie, I need to see it myself. Although I'll be more excited to see a movie if my friends give it rave reviews. The Matrix (1999) was like this. Everyone praised this movie, and, it was incredible. The Shawshank Redemption (1994) was on the other side of the scale. As great as a lot of people think this movie is, I don't see it. It's rated as #2 on IMDB after the The Godfather (1972) . I've tried watching it many times, thinking that I was missing something. How could so many people have so much love for this movie, and I wasn't able to experience that. I just don't like it.
If your favorite director, actor, writer, etc, doesn't do as good a job on their latest movie as their last, they'll be criticized unfairly for that. M. Night Shyamalan will forever be haunted by The Sixth Sense (1999). If there's not a twist at the end of his movie, people will be disappointed because it's now expected of him.
Your opinion of a movie can be influenced by how you're feeling at the time. If you're just not in the proper mood to see a movie, you won't enjoy it. When I first saw Thelma & Louise (1991), I didn't like it, I thought it was just a man-hating movie and brushed it off as a chik flik. Watching it later on, I was able to appreciate the strong female characters and enjoy the on-the-run theme. I still don't see any Ridley Scott in it though. When I first saw Finding Nemo (2003), it was in a noisy theatre, with two kids that were allowed to run back and forth threw the aisles, by an apparently sleeping parent. I wasn't able to get into the movie and had a bad impression of it. Viewing it later, I was able to enjoy it and see it for the great movie that it is.
Many bad reviews can be traced to the viewer not understanding the movie. The movie goes over their head in it's intellectual depth or artistic metaphor. The Fountain (2006) was like this. Completely confused and irritated me. It was later explained to me; the parallel stories and lives. I still don't like it.
Often people, who have read the book, will dislike the movie. Stating that it wasn't as good. That's an unfair criticism, it may not be as good as the book, but that shouldn't influence your opinion of the movie. If you know the ending to the movie before it happens, that isn't a failing of the movie. Movies should be critiqued on what they put on screen and not what was in the book.
An ending can ruin a movie and sometimes save it. I've read reviews of The Mist (2007), that are positive until they come to the ending. The Others (2001), was the opposite for me, I was irritated through the movie, until the ending when I was convinced that it was brilliant and changed my opinion of everything I had seen before.
Whatever it is, movies, love or hate them, should entertain. Or should they enlighten? Teach? Create some emotional response? I don't know. I just know what I like.
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