By Joseph Hernandez
The release of “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” is an eye-opener to how unimportant critic ratings are and the importance of a critic’s credibility.
A critic reviews and judges many forms of art such as movies, video games, music, theater and paintings.
The critic’s job is to give pointers on what’s wrong or what’s right with art.
These reviews can sometimes be helpful for the everyday consumer because they help the consumer decide what to spend their money on.
They could also help the artist change their art.
Last month, Illumination Entertainment in collaboration with Nintendo, released “The Super Mario Bros Movie.”
Fans of the game series and casual moviegoers were initially worried about the film’s quality due to its mediocre ratings from critic reviews.
The movie scored 58% on Rotten Tomatoes from a total of 122 critic reviews; Metactitic gave it a score of 46.
The rating scores were met with mixed feelings from people, but the main take away from the film’s fans is that critics aren’t reliable.
Fans quickly pointed out that many popular films have received low ratings while less audience-loved films have received high critical praise.
A week later the websites updated the scores to feature the audience rating of the film.
The audience rating is 96% on Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic has a user rating of 8.7 out of 10.
The importance of the critic rating got put into question, as fans wondered why critics gave such a low score for a great movie.
In the reviews that made the 58% on Rotten Tomatoes, it showed why many critics disliked the film; they don’t get Mario and they don’t understand the film.
“The film absolutely works as a vehicle to deliver slapstick silliness and Easter eggs for the Nintendo fanatic, but for anyone else, this adventure is in desperate need of a power-up,” said Patrick Cavanaugh, media commentator at ComicBook.
The complaints are all the same, they don’t like the story, fan service, voice actors or the pacing of the film.
There are some fair criticisms made by critics, but also some complaints that feel out of touch.
“It’s pitched to die-hard fans, but one shouldn’t need the Nintendo cheat book to know what’s going on here.
“The movie has eye-popping production values, a genuinely compelling narrative, this adaptation feels wholly off its game,” said Jeff York of The Establishing Shot.
Critics also left positive reviews for films released a week later that ended up getting low ratings by audiences.
The perfect example of this is the movie “Cuties” released in 2020. “Cuties” is about an 11-year-old girl who joins a twerking dance squad made up of other girls her young age.
The film received an 87% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 15% from the audience.
The film was heavily criticized and pulled off Netflix for its sexual portrayal of the girls.
Surprisingly, the strongest praise came from a professional critic.
“Cuties is a powerful statement about letting kids be kids,” Jill Wilson of Winnipeg free press said.
A critic score isn’t reliable, but the reviews that make up that score are.
Don’t judge a film by its Rotten Tomato score, but instead by the content of the critics’ reviews.
By reading the reviews, audiences can learn which reviews are credible.
To determine whether a film is good or bad, look for the critiques that aren’t biased, pushing an agenda, making ridiculous claims or out of touch.