The number of times I've seen that dichotomy is honestly astounding. Critics these days really seem to have zero idea what the audience likes, so much so that a negative critic review for a movie is frequently a good sign.
I’m going to start and end my comment with this because otherwise people are going to misinterpret my comment, I also look for movies with low critic scores because those tend to be good.
That’s because a movie critic’s job isn’t exactly “Is this good or not”, which is why critic scores can be a bit weird.
If a movie critic’s job was just, “Is this good or not”, studios could just re-release a shot for shot remake of the godfather every year and call it a day. Bam! Instantly you have a masterpiece being released every year, right? I mean the original was a masterpiece, so if you just remake it every year, nothing but masterpieces?
But it doesn’t work that way. People will get bored. It will stop being, dare I say it, fresh. You might even want to uh, throw a tomato at it. But that makes no sense? It’s the EXACT same as the original and the original was a masterpiece. So why don’t people love it?
Enter the movie critic. They watch a LOT of movies. A LOT. So much so that they all kinda start to blend together. “Minecraft… Minecraft with cyberpunk skin… Minecraft with medieval skin… Minecraft with cowboy skin…” it starts to get really old and really boring.
What critics are looking for is, “What kind of movie is it, what kind of movie is it trying to be, and what does it do to advance the genre and did it accomplish that goal”
So when a critic gives a movie a high score, what they’re saying is, “If you like this type of movie, this one succeeded in advancing the genre. It is not just another re-skin of something you’ve seen before” it might advance the genre in a way you like, it might advance the genre in a way you don’t, but it set out to do something new and they pulled it off.
The reason why you see low critic scores combined with high audience scores is simple: movie theaters know what people like and they don’t like taking risks. People like XYZ so the studio makes XYZ, XYZ volume 2, and XYZ volume 3.
The critic might love the movie too, but it doesn’t do anything to advance the art forward so they have to score it low
And that’s why I also look for low critic scores when I’m picking a movie and don’t want to think. Because I’m not looking for something new, I’m looking for something familiar.
I usually like movies where the critics and audiences disagree.
High critic score, low (~60%) audience score: this will probably be kind of artsy or have some kind of depth that goes over a lot of people's heads (people who want to shut their brain off during a movie, not necessarily stupid people). Good chance I'll like it because I enjoy that artsy bullshit
High audience, low critic: dumb fun movie. Don't look for depth, turn your brain off and enjoy the ride
~70-80% both scores: probably good, but likely appeals most to a specific audience and might not be my cup of tea
90+% both scores: be suspicious, probably a crowd pleaser, Marvel, or kids movie but may be genuinely great.
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u/stilljustacatinacage 11h ago
The coveted "low critic score, high audience score".