MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - The Uglier Truth--Critics

Katsunami · 02-26-2013, 02:15 PM

IMHO, there is a big difference between a reviewer and a critic.

Reviewers look at a product, and try do determine the good things, average things, and the bad things. Then they'll try to weigh them against each other, and decide if the product is good, average, or bad.

A critic most often just tries to find as many flaws as possible. They often don't even mention good sides of a product, or just in passing.

To be honest, I find critics to be very.... useless most of the time.

Read some reviews/critics about The Hobbit. You can *immediately* see who:

1. Only read The Hobbit
2. Read The Hobbit AND Lord of the Rings
3. Read The Hobbit AND Lord of the Rings AND the appendices
4. Read everything including the Silmarillion and maybe even The History of Middle Earth.
5. Read nothing.

The more people read, the better the reviews were, EXCEPT for people who didn't read anything and just commented on the movie without making parallells with the book(s); those were basically all over the place as is the case with many movies.

And of course you have the die-hard "The movie must follow the book to the letter or it's crap"-people, but they know nothing, IMHO. Many things that work in books don't work in movies, and the other way around.

02-26-2013, 02:15 PM	#12
Katsunami Grand Sorcerer Posts: 6,111 Karma: 34000001 Join Date: Mar 2008 Device: KPW1, KA1	IMHO, there is a big difference between a reviewer and a critic. Reviewers look at a product, and try do determine the good things, average things, and the bad things. Then they'll try to weigh them against each other, and decide if the product is good, average, or bad. A critic most often just tries to find as many flaws as possible. They often don't even mention good sides of a product, or just in passing. To be honest, I find critics to be very.... useless most of the time. Read some reviews/critics about The Hobbit. You can immediately see who: 1. Only read The Hobbit 2. Read The Hobbit AND Lord of the Rings 3. Read The Hobbit AND Lord of the Rings AND the appendices 4. Read everything including the Silmarillion and maybe even The History of Middle Earth. 5. Read nothing. The more people read, the better the reviews were, EXCEPT for people who didn't read anything and just commented on the movie without making parallells with the book(s); those were basically all over the place as is the case with many movies. And of course you have the die-hard "The movie must follow the book to the letter or it's crap"-people, but they know nothing, IMHO. Many things that work in books don't work in movies, and the other way around. Last edited by Katsunami; 02-26-2013 at 02:23 PM.