3 ms·
This is the popular narrative, but what it misses is how relying on the public/internet at large to fund criticism (or even art in general), you’re not going to
by keiferski 2y ago
This is the popular narrative, but what it misses is how relying on the public/internet at large to fund criticism (or even art in general), you’re not going to get the kind of niche hyper-expert analysis that previously would have been funded by a newspaper or magazine owner. Fifty years ago, you could pick up a newspaper and expect the critic to be fairly educated in the topic. Nowadays you have to go to the third page of YouTube results to find a similar level of expertise, if you can find it at all, and that critic isn’t making a living at it.
Reddit has plenty of its own biases and isn’t a great source either.
- menzoic 2y agoThis type of analysis is heavily rooted in personal preference. Critics have their own biased. Relying on mass review system should represent more of what the average person like rather than some elitist idea of a critic of what should be.
- piva00 2y agoThe issue is for finding stuff that doesn't cater to the "average person". I'm not interested on what the average person like if I'm looking for artistic value.
- keiferski 2y agoSure, there is some value in knowing what the average person thinks about it. But if I want a more expert or educated opinion, then there is more value in asking someone that knows more about the topic. The labeling of any sort of expert opinion as “elitist” is precisely the issue.
- mrbombastic 2y agoRotten tomatoes seems like a good case study in the value of both by presenting a critics score and a general audience score. Usually when they diverge greatly is when it is most valuable for me, e.g. critics loved it and audiences hated it, it is probably pretentious and arty and I can skip, audiences loved it and critics hated it, it is probably mass appeal slop.
- kevinventullo 2y agoCurious what you make of the The Last Jedi then: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/star_wars_the_last_jedi https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/star_wars_the_last_jedi A terribly lazy movie that even the popcorn-guzzling public could see through, but which mysteriously received rave reviews from the “culturally elite” critics.
- BriggyDwiggs42 2y agoWhy do you think that was?
- soco 2y ago41% is not terrible either, but if you want the most blatant example from that universe, take The Acolyte: 18% given by the audience for a show of high school project-quality was quite generous, even.
- bluepizza 2y agoBecause it is a fantastic movie, with fascinating characters, a thrilling storyline, and full of interesting concepts. The popcorn and soda public loved it - it was the highest grossing movie in 2017. There is no mystery in its rave reviews. Both critics and general public enjoyed it. The vicious hate this movie gets is from Star Wars fans only. Nobody hates Star Wars as much as its fans.
- Fnoord 2y agoI'm not sure if those still count as fans or former fans suffering from nostalgia. Consider Call of Duty. I really liked 3 and 4. After that, not so much, and I have not even bothered with recent ones. They could've stopped there, as far as I'm concerned. I also did not really like The Phantom Menace either, but I get the appeal for _others_ (and I liked the next one a lot more). Do I include that in my review? If it is a personal review, no. If it were a professional review for a magazine or website (i.e. critic)? Sure. I believe (cannot prove) the main reason the latest Star Wars movies gets a lot of flak is Star Wars = Disney, and Disney is too 'woke' for some people. They don't like a female POC lead.
- bobthepanda 2y agoFor now. If you thought botting on reviews was bad now, LLMs and the like are going to supercharge spam and drown us all in a grey goo of bullshit.
- Scarblac 2y agoExactly, and with most dubjects what the average person thinks is useless. The average person knows very little about most subjects.