This past year my wife and I had a pact, no Christmas presents for each other. We had done some renovations to the house in November and we decided that would be our present to each other. Great, check that one off the shopping list – done.
I was wrong. Apparently when we said “no presents for each other,” it was only me that thought we actually meant no presents. So, I wake up on Christmas morning and my wife pulls out this nicely wrapped present!!
“What is this?” I say with much guilt in my voice…
Turns out my wife thought it necessary to surprise me with an Apple TV – the new sleek, black one (I had been “um’ing” and “ah’ing” about it for the last couple of months)!! Fantastic little device and a great addition to any man cave. 
It allows you to stream content to it from anywhere in the house from your Mac, iPad, iTouch, and iPhone – movies, pictures & music of course. It works great in SA – no issues. The only thing you can not do is access Netfilx.
So what does this have to do with critics and social media ?
While I was “surfing / browsing” through the movies on the Apple TV, I found myself reading the write-ups about the movies and TV series, and came across the movie “Grown Ups” (starring Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade & of course, Rob Schneider). It sounded like fun, light-hearted entertainment, plus a couple of people I knew said it was a great movie. After reading the summary of the movie I started reading some of the ‘Top Critics Reviews’, and I quote;
“It’s total garbage.” – Tom Long, Detroit News, June 25, 2010
“Feels like the work of people who sat around a table for an hour or so tossing around hackneyed comic notions, then decided to slap them onto the screen and hope for the best.” – Stephen Holden, New York Times, Jul 7, 2010
Source – Movie Reviews from Rotten Tomatoes
The reviews from the other Top Critics pretty much followed a similar theme. Out of a total of 154 reviews by the critics ,15 said the movie was “fresh”. The other 139 said it was “rotten”. It’s average rating was 3.31/10. I therefore started to wonder whether or not it was worth the watch – these guys pretty much tore into this flick and had absoutely nothing good to say about it.
At this point I was about to “switch” channels and happened to glance at the customer reviews….
After 1615 customer ratings it scored the following as per iTunes on the 25 Jan 2011:
5 stars: 1025
4 stars: 164
3 stars: 88
2 stars: 65
1 star: 273
That’s an average of 4 stars!
So I started to ask the question, if I were to solely base my decision on whether or not to watch this movie based on the Top Critics reviews, would I even give it a second look? That being said, the customer reviews totally contradict the Top Critics’.
My next question is this – do we need the views of a supposed “expert” to tell us whether or not something is rubbish? I know the ‘Adam Sandler & Rob Schneider’ combo is not everyone’s cup of tea – either you love them or hate them – but how can these ‘Top Critics’ be so far off the mark?
In my view, the advent of the Social Web / Social Service that gives the public a voice, is starting to cloud the expert/s. Who are they to decide whether or not I should go see a movie? For all I know the expert in question could be a stuck-up, old foggy, longing for the glory days of Charlton Heston, or he could be some young upstart trying to make a name for himself, and impress his critic friends.
We live in a world in which you are able to crowd source pretty much any outcome that you desire. In other words, if you want to be told to go and watch “Grown Ups”, you will find sufficient “advice” telling you go watch it. However if you need sufficient ammo telling you not to watch it, guess what you will find?
SO, does that mean that “Social Media” or “Crowd Sourcing” should not play a part in our decision making? Nope. The beauty about the world that we live in is that there is a place for all personality types, and opinions (not always tolerated, it must be said). But the web and social media tools – like the one used in iTunes, which allows customers to review movies, songs, TV shows, etc. – will give you a nice cross-section of “real public opinion”. It gives a voice to the ‘average Joe’. A voice that in the past only a few GATE-KEEPERS had access to, and so they determined what was said.
I believe that in no other time in history has the “general” public had so much power to influence, or to be influenced, by public opinion.
Ask yourself…
Do we need “Expert Critics”? No
Do I listen to “Expert Critics”? No
Personally, the more I think about it, the more I realise that friends, family & acquaintances are my “Expert Critics” – they are people I personally know and trust.
So did I download and watch “Grown Ups”? Nope, my three year old convinced me to watch the “Incredibles” with her instead!
I loved it by the way, worth the watch! – Wayne Howcroft, Afridesign, Jan 25, 2011
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