As I am sure you all know, CyniCritic, Silver, and I are Reviewers of various subjects from comics to videogames. We all have our differences, yes, but there is one thing we all agree on. You see, the philosophy behind criticism is very...misrepresented. Misunderstood, even. Some people believe that the job of a Reviewer is to persuade or dissuade a person into or from doing something. This is a terrible inaccuracy and one we feel the need to correct. A reviewer is nothing more than one of the many professions that warrants criticism. A critic, you see, is simply a person with an opinion. There for the 'profession' of Reviewer is simply people voicing their opinion. That is the very base line of the job. If our ravings were to influence your decision to do something, then I do believe that you are going about this the wrong way. A reviewer should never dissuade a person from experiencing something, even if they think it's awful. A person who sees the work of a reviewer should not let the reviewer's opinion weigh too heavily on their own. The job of a critic is to simply put their opinion out there so people will consider those opinions and determine their own by weighing their opinion against the reviewer's.
If a critic completely demolishes a movie, then good. Your hopes and expectations are now lower and you can feel perfectly free to go and see the movie with those lowered expectations. Who knows? Maybe the movie will surpass that expectation for you. Then you won't be as upset about the movie as a critic. That's a reviewer's job. To assure that his or her followers walk away from the theater content with what they saw.
As a polar opposite to that example, if a reviewer praises a movie, then good. You know what to look forward to. A reviewer won't spoil anything and you can still enjoy your time at the movies while pointing out and celebrating over what the reviewer did.
Do you have to agree with a Reviewer? No, of course not. The three of us hardly every agree with one another. A Reviewer isn't there to create a legion of like-minded people. Reviewers are there to create a legion of individuals.
Now for the other 'profession' in Criticism we all hold. Comedic Criticism. These are cases where the critic is simply picking apart the movie scene by scene and using points in the movie to produce jokes and the like for entertainment. A perfect example of this is the Nostalgia Critic of ThatGuyWithTheGlasses.com. We do these as well.
Subject: Our Thoughts On Being A Critic