There are two pitfalls:
- Picking a reviewer who uncritically loves and worships the genre of movie being reviewed, and who will gush unseemly over how wonderful this particular film is.
- Picking a reviewer who hates that genre, thinks that it’s stupid, thinks you’re stupid for liking it, and wants to tell you how stupid people like you are for not liking this other genre instead, which isn’t stupid like the stupid genre that you stupid-heads stupidly like.
If you have to choose between one of those pitfalls, though: pick the first one. It’s relatively benign. The second one will cost you more credibility and eyeballs over the long run.
Here endeth the lesson.
Moe Lane
PS: Nope! If I was gonna say, I’d say.
Too much praise for a movie/game I am prone to like can sometimes feel both fake and patronizing.
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The second should be the cardinal rule for someone trying to sell any product: Do not be hostile to the people who give you money, either directly or indirectly- and make no mistake, a movie reviewer is trying to sell a product just as much as the maker of the movie. A LOT of people seem to have forgotten this rule lately and seem to believe the money just rains down from the sky.
Back in the ’80s, a fella I was in a play with said to me, “I really hate the LA Times movie reviewer! He always hates the movies I like and likes the movies I hate!”
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I replied, “Then you’ve got yourself an infallible guide to the movies.”
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He was brought up short. “I never thought about it that way…,” he said.
This applies to every Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Comic Book movie/tv series ever.