Audience Score vs Critic Score

Because Rian made a movie for the critics and JJ made a movie for the fans (more or less). Rian ended up making a good movie, but a bad SW product, JJ ended up making a less than good movie but a viable SW product (IMO).

 

Ignoring the review bombing that has been well documented and discussed in the past...

General audiences and critics watch movies differently.
Sometimes those things match up. Sometimes they don't.

You can ask a general audience goer why they didn't like something and they might not be able to tell you, while the critic can. Thus the general audience is, at times, more forgiving for certain flaws in a movie than a critic.

Critics are more inclined to understand the nuance of film. Not all, but a lot.
Most GA viewers likely see cinematography as how pretty the picture looks on the screen but there's a lot more too it than that. Critics *should* understand that.

So the GA is probably more inclined to like a movie like TROS that gives them what they want in terms of SW things. A critic, whose job is to dissect the nitty gritty of film, is probably less inclined to like it.

 

As @RoyleRancor pointed out, the audience score for TLJ was tampered with and is not an accurate reflection of how the general audience felt about that movie.

Also, both movies serve highly different functions. TLJ was designed to challenge fans and TROS was designed to satisfy and entertain them. (In my opinion, the former had more artistic merit than the latter as well.) A discrepancy in reactions was somewhat inevitable.

 

Have to also take into account that RT has drastically changed the way Audiences can score now.

After the review bombing that occurred with TLJ RT began to change how scores could be given.
Changed 1st before Black Panther came out, then again before Solo came out, then again before Captain Marvel came out and finally before Aladdin came out they implemented to current system where you need to verify that you bought a ticket for the review to be accepted.

 

Critics and audiences ask different questions. “Is is good?” is different than “Did you like it?” Sometimes those align, sometimes not.

I don’t think TRoS will win any awards. Maybe soundtrack. But I will probably like it much more than whatever wins best picture for instance.

 

Critics tend to be more knowledgeable than the general audience when it comes to the technical side of the film. Likely the vast majority of the general audience has never taken even a single film course. Pacing, flow, dialogue, acting, blocking, effects and more all factor in. Audiences will more often focus on their enjoyment of the film, and maybe how it fits with the rest of a series. I didn’t read too much into reviews for great of spoilers, but i saw a general trend among critics focusing on pacing and possible bloat, i believe.

 

I would disagree the 'audience' wins but what 'we'.....or the 'internet' calls 'critics' or 'reviewers' is definitely in flux, and definitely for RT.

The lingo really needs to change.

'Critic' is somebody that can analyze and contextualize a film from a lot of perspectives, including how an audience receives it, authorial intent, etc. (think Lindsey Ellis). Their own opinion can be part of it, but also can be completely irrelevant to the exercise of 'critiquing' a film.

But today, as you said, we have a lot of 'commentators', 'personalities', 'people with internet brands', 'influencers' etc. that are counted as part of the RT crowd, and they have to tailor their stuff to their 'brand' and their own personal 'subscribers', which is how they get hired and contracted (1099s) by media outlets these days - rather than actual employment (W2 and benefits, lol). So depending on how a fan curates their own internet space, those 'reviewers' (or critics as you utilized it) can be trustworthy to a certain point of view (hehe) or useless.

Understand sourcing is an on-going problem with the internet, unfortunately.

 

Reading some audience reviews I would say some don't align with the Stars they got. Saying it's not a perfect movie but giving 5 Stars?

 

I think the main thing in the difference between the critic and audience score for TROS is that the two groups are primarily looking for different things in the movie. The critics seem to want the filmmakers to push the envelope of movie making and storytelling and to take chances with the movie. Whereas the audience wants a fun entertaining movie.

 

It sort of like an English Teacher. While another person may read right past a missed comma, semi-colon, etc. An English Teacher pulls out the red pen. Enough bad marks and the film moves into a B, C, D, or F.

As much as I loved TROS, I will admit that it has flaws and if I want to judge the film based on nit picks and mistakes I wouldnt have liked it as much as I did. Not going to do that though. I liked it, it made me cheer, it made me smile, it made me cry. I needed all of that so I thank JJ and LucasFilm.

 

Nobody.

 

In those instances, it could be said they were both well made and audiences enjoyed them. That can happen.

Star Wars is an odd space. It can have heavy nostalgia, which critics aren’t too keen on, while fans love it. It can do something newer, try to Push the universe the bit more and in an artistic way that critics love, but divides the fans. But the big thing is to look not at the numbers, but what is said. “Why did the critics give it this score? Why did fans give it that one? What are they actually saying?”

Critics seemed to like what TLJ did with the story, the cinematography, and other elements, while general audience was divided, a lot based on what people were wanting to happen, or the image of characters people held.

Neither is truly right or wrong compared to the other, as they both typically evaluate on separate things. Subjective Enjoyment value and objective filmmaking quality are not mutually exclusive, but they also are not always tied together.

 

The scores make perfect sense to me and I see this with a lot of hero flicks too. Critics have to keep up appearances with their scores; they vote based on what they think will reflect well on them and their reputation. The audience, on the other hand, can just be completely honest. This is why I always go with the audience score.

But it is important to keep in mind that the critic score and the audience score ultimately pale in comparison to the score we should be most concerned with: our personal score. If you like something, like it. If you don't like something, that's fine too. We are allowed to be individuals.

 

Count me on the audience side of the force.

 

There is no “right” or “wrong” when it comes to opinions on films. I don’t know why everything has to be so black-and-white these days.

 

There is no right answer. Whether a movie is good or bad is a individual determination. If I like something then it is good. If I don’t then it is bad. Same with your preferences