For my Media Literacy class, I wrote the following review of a review website. At the end is my personal review on the movie Divergent.
On metacritic.com, I looked at the differences between the critic and user reviews for the movie Divergent. Divergent received mixed reviews both from users and critics. There were a lot of positive user reviews, a few mixed user reviews, and a good amount of negative user reviews. Critics on the other hand had a good amount of positive reviews, a lot of mixed reviews, and two negative reviews. These numbers make since because users tend to love something or hate it while critics analyze the work more for its merits.
The user reviews of this movie were mostly supportive of the work. A lot of the first reviews were from individuals who had not read the book prior to watching the movie, so it was nice that they pointed this fact out in addition to their opinion. The less-supportive reviews point out that it is just another Young Adult novel turned into a movie or particular characters in the film are not as they should have been.
The critics of this movie wrote more about the plot relation in the movie and I found these the most helpful of reviews. There were a lot of mixed reviews from the critics, pointing out that it was a long movie or that it had a repetitive storyline. The positive critic reviews were either compliments of directing or summaries of the work. As a whole, the critics’ reviews were more about the movie and not about specifics. This was appreciated because the users definitely filled these gaps.
Some of the positive user reviews note that the other critics should have done their “research” and read the books first. I disagree with this notion. I believe that books and movies are two different forms of entertainment with different ways to share a common goal of telling a specific story. And I doubt that these individuals have read all the book of all the movies that they have ever seen and enjoyed. I found it interesting that people whose entire post was a complaint about the lost scenes from book to movie were still giving it a good score. In this aspect, the critics reviews, though way shorter of reviews, were more helpful.
Personally, I do not listen to critics reviews until after I have seen the subject of their review. My personal preferences are different from them and I will not have the same movie experiences as they did. For example, I hated Captain America: Winter Soldier (despite Captain America being my favorite Superhero) but I adored Godzilla, but based on public opinion, Captain America was a great movie and Godzilla was just another large monster movie. My own likes in movies are not going to be the same amongst friends, let alone strangers, so I will choose my movies, tv shows, or music based on my own preferences. Occasionally I will watch or read a review afterwards to see what the reviewer noticed that I did not. Typically this is through a YouTube station that I already watch material of and I am watching it just as much for the reviewers as for what is being reviewed. Through this, I will remember instances from the subject again and I might or might not share their opinions.
When I watched Divergent, I loved it. And since I had various groups of friends who wanted to see it, I went back and watched it a second and third time and still loved it. I thought that this dystopian movie was paced enough that though I knew that two hours had passed, the movie was still keeping me entertained. As a college student who has taken several personality assessment tests, I had something to relate to in this movie. Watching the characters develop, I was getting a desire to do something brave. Though I have read the book as well, but I enjoyed the movie more. Most of all, this movie offered a principle idea that just because all signs point one way, you still have the freewill to go the other direction.
On metacritic.com, I looked at the differences between the critic and user reviews for the movie Divergent. Divergent received mixed reviews both from users and critics. There were a lot of positive user reviews, a few mixed user reviews, and a good amount of negative user reviews. Critics on the other hand had a good amount of positive reviews, a lot of mixed reviews, and two negative reviews. These numbers make since because users tend to love something or hate it while critics analyze the work more for its merits.
The user reviews of this movie were mostly supportive of the work. A lot of the first reviews were from individuals who had not read the book prior to watching the movie, so it was nice that they pointed this fact out in addition to their opinion. The less-supportive reviews point out that it is just another Young Adult novel turned into a movie or particular characters in the film are not as they should have been.
The critics of this movie wrote more about the plot relation in the movie and I found these the most helpful of reviews. There were a lot of mixed reviews from the critics, pointing out that it was a long movie or that it had a repetitive storyline. The positive critic reviews were either compliments of directing or summaries of the work. As a whole, the critics’ reviews were more about the movie and not about specifics. This was appreciated because the users definitely filled these gaps.
Some of the positive user reviews note that the other critics should have done their “research” and read the books first. I disagree with this notion. I believe that books and movies are two different forms of entertainment with different ways to share a common goal of telling a specific story. And I doubt that these individuals have read all the book of all the movies that they have ever seen and enjoyed. I found it interesting that people whose entire post was a complaint about the lost scenes from book to movie were still giving it a good score. In this aspect, the critics reviews, though way shorter of reviews, were more helpful.
Personally, I do not listen to critics reviews until after I have seen the subject of their review. My personal preferences are different from them and I will not have the same movie experiences as they did. For example, I hated Captain America: Winter Soldier (despite Captain America being my favorite Superhero) but I adored Godzilla, but based on public opinion, Captain America was a great movie and Godzilla was just another large monster movie. My own likes in movies are not going to be the same amongst friends, let alone strangers, so I will choose my movies, tv shows, or music based on my own preferences. Occasionally I will watch or read a review afterwards to see what the reviewer noticed that I did not. Typically this is through a YouTube station that I already watch material of and I am watching it just as much for the reviewers as for what is being reviewed. Through this, I will remember instances from the subject again and I might or might not share their opinions.
When I watched Divergent, I loved it. And since I had various groups of friends who wanted to see it, I went back and watched it a second and third time and still loved it. I thought that this dystopian movie was paced enough that though I knew that two hours had passed, the movie was still keeping me entertained. As a college student who has taken several personality assessment tests, I had something to relate to in this movie. Watching the characters develop, I was getting a desire to do something brave. Though I have read the book as well, but I enjoyed the movie more. Most of all, this movie offered a principle idea that just because all signs point one way, you still have the freewill to go the other direction.