The moment I realized most movie reviews are completely wrong about what makes a film good

I just had this massive lightbulb moment, and I have to get it out there to see if anyone else feels the same. It’s about how we judge movies, and how I think a lot of us, myself included, have been doing it wrong for years. We rely so much on reviews and ratings, but I’m starting to think they often miss the entire point of why a movie can be great.

Let me eplain with a personal story. A few months ago, I decided to re-watch the 2017 movie *Blade Runner 2049*. Now, when it first came out, I remember the critical reception was pretty positive, but a common complaint I saw in a lot of user reviews and even from some of my friends was that it was “slow,” “boring,” or “emotionally cold.

” I kinda agreed back then. It was a visual feast, for sure, but it didn’t *grab* me. This time, though, something was different. I wasn’t in a hurry. I didn’t check my phone. I just let the film wash over me.

And holy crap, it was a completely different eperience. The slowness wasn’t a flaw; it was the whole point. That deliberate pacing was what built the atmosphere, the profound sense of loneliness and the weight of the questions it was asking: What is real What makes a life meaningful The “emotional coldness” I felt before was actually this deep, resonant sadness that I just hadn’t been in the right headspace to receive the first time.

I was probably epecting more action, more traditional plot beats, and because the movie didn’t deliver *that*, I wrote it off. This got me thinking. How many other movies have I dismissed because they didn’t match my pre-conceived notion of what a “good” movie should be We have these checklists, right Pacing, plot twists, character arcs, dialogue.

and if a film fails one of these, we give it a low score. But what if the film is intentionally breaking those rules to create a specific feeling or to make a different kind of point Take a movie like *The Tree of Life*. If you judge it by a standard narrative structure, it’s a mess.

But if you meet it on its own terms, as a tone poem about memory, childhood, and the cosmos, it’s breathtaking. The “plot” is almost irrelevant. The value is in the sensory and emotional eperience. I feel like a lot of film criticism, especially the quick-hit, star-rating kind, forces everything into the same bo.

It’s like judging a fish by its ability to climb a tree. We’ve become so obsessed with a film being “objectively good” based on a set of technical and narrative criteria that we forget the most important question: **What did it make you *feel*** And did that feeling, that idea, stick with you after the credits rolled This applies to TV shows, too. Look at the first season of *The Wire*.

It didn’t have massive viewership initially. It was “slow,” it didn’t have a traditional hero, and it demanded your full attention. It wasn’t built for casual viewing. But for those who stuck with it, it wasn’t just a TV show; it was a deep, nuanced analysis of a city and its institutions.

Its “flaws” from a conventional standpoint were its greatest strengths. So here’s my important discovery: The contet in which you watch a film and the epectations you bring to it are just as important as the film itself. A movie isn’t a static object; it’s an eperience that changes depending on where you are in your life, your mood, and your willingness to engage with it on *its* terms, not yours.

I’ve started a personal eperiment now. If I watch a highly-praised movie and don’t get it, or watch a panned movie and find something intriguing in it, I don’t just dismiss it. I sit with that feeling.

I ask *why*. Why did that scene bother me Was it badly done, or was it just challenging an assumption I hold Why did that character resonate, even if the overall plot was a mess This has completely revitalized my love for cinema. It’s turned watching movies from a passive consumption activity into an active dialogue.

I’m no longer just a consumer; I’m a participant. I’m really curious to know if you’ve had similar eperiences. * What’s a movie or show that you hated at first but later came to love, and what changed in you or your circumstances that made the difference * Are there any films that you think are unfairly judged because people use the wrong framework to evaluate them * And just in general, do you think we put too much stock in aggregated review scores and not enough in our own, sometimes messy, personal reactions