Do or Don’t: Reading Reviews Before a Movie

“Good thinking, Brad”
You’re genius. What would I do without you

Cant help myself, i always take a peek. Most of the time i take the reviews with a grain of salt, even if there seems to be a common theme spread throughout i still tend to give the film its impressionable moment its entitled to. Most of the time i find myself to not be a tough critic & find some kind of shining light within any film i watch. It’s neat to see how others process the happenings of a movie though!

I try not to look at the reviews but my husband is obsessed with looking at Rotten Tomatoes! I went on a girls night recently to see “Home Again” and wow. I wish I had looked at the reviews because the reviews were right, it was so bad I was cringing!

Never read a review first! Your own opinion is the one that should matter most when it comes to films, books, paintings, etc. Don’t let someone else rob you of making the decision on how to feel about a piece of art.

I have a friend who reads not only reviews but entire plot synopses before seeing a film. He wants to know how it’s going to end before he even begins it. He’s clearly insane, but he’s so fun to be around, so our friendship continues.

My husband is stuck on how many stars or what rating a movie has received on Netflix or rotten tomatoes etc. But I am always finding movies I looove that have poor ratings. My theory is that people with my personality type and interests aren’t the kind of people who generally take the time to rate movies online. (I’ve never done it!)

Sure but sometimes you really need reviews to be emotionally prepared for a movie. Years ago a friend invited me to see “Amores Perros” saying it is a romantic comedy about dogs. I almost walked out. I was so upset and shocked. Recently, I dragged my husband to “Manchester By the Sea” saying its a romantic drama with Michelle Williams. She’s so fun! He still hasn’t forgiven me. :)

I only read reviews beforehand for content…we really don’t watch most new films and are picky about a good story without anything explicit. Unfortunately that means almost everything, and the trailer usually tells me enough. But I LOVE movies and it takes a really bad movie for me to not enjoy it…so I’m often shocked at negative opinions I read later, haha!

I definitely read reviews except for things I am going to see no matter what (like all the Star Wars movies). I do not have enough time or money to see bad movies or movies I am definitely not going to like.

Too many movies and not enough time to go see bad ones. I definitely read reviews, but stick to ones I trust.

I almost always either read a review or at least check the rotten tomatoes rating. I find RT to be right on par with my own taste and I honestly feel like life is too short to watch bad movies.

I like reading the reviews after and if they match my opinion I always feel a little validated like, “I was right about this! told you so!” even if there is no one around!

I don’t read reviews and am surprised at this popularity. Maybe sometimes I’ll read a summary of it after I’ve seen it if I fell asleep or didn’t understand something. My daughter and I want to see Wonder in November.

I usually like watching trailers, but not reading reviews. I do check the Rotten Tomatoes score pretty often, but try not to dive any deeper than that. And sometimes I love movies that Rotten Tomatoes hates – you need a silly movie every now and again! (Step Up 2: The Streets, anyone?!?!) I also get frustrated when the trailer gives up a plot twist, which this one for Downsizing did for me :( :( Definitely want to see it in December, though!

I prefer watching a movie when I know almost nothing about it. Unless it’s scary! For suspenseful movies, I can’t watch unless I know beforehand when to close my eyes. My stepson recently told me about this website, which explains exactly where all the jumps are in a huge database of movies, and it has saved my life https://wheresthejump.com

If a movie trailer leaves me scratching my head, I definitely read reviews. I recently did that for “mother!” and I’m so glad I did, because it saved me from wasting my time, $$, and mental energy on a movie I know I wouldn’t like.

I recently saw The Big Sick in the theater, knowing absolutely nothing about it beforehand. When the movie started, it was such a fun surprise! It was truly the most enjoyable movie experience I’ve had in so long. (I realize, though, that this was a pretty great movie. It could’ve been a real bummer to spend $12 on a terrible movie!)

One of the most “romantic” parts of my relationship with my boyfriend is the ten minute car ride from the theater to the house. We see at least two or three movies a month and we always break it down on the way home, the conversation always starts with me saying “I have thoughts on thoughts.” Those ten minutes are always a stark reminder of just how much I love him and how much I like just knowing what he thinks about a two hour movie. Our latest one, Logan Lucky, started a debate on Channing Tatum’s merit as a comedy actor, Soderbergh’s casting, and why accent coaches are always an asset.

Are there any other women out there who like horror films? Reading the comments, it seems my affinity for having the crap scared out of me at the cineplex is shared by very few. Horror films tend to get terrible reviews, especially from aggregator sites like Rotten Tomatoes or the old Netflix star system, because people don’t like being frightened and downgrade the movies accordingly, or justifiably because a lot of scary flicks are terrible. Word-of-mouth has brought me to more enjoyable cinematic experiences than reviews or trailers.

When my husband and I watch movies – or start into a new TV series on Netflix – at home, I can’t help but to Google the film and scroll through Wikipedia as we watch. I know it’s the worst (so distracting!), but I feel like I need to know the story in order to understand it as it unfolds. Strangely, this doesn’t happen with books…maybe because I can always re-read a passage?

Trailers and reviews give away so much of the plot that it usually spoils my experience of watching a movie really unfold the way it was meant to. I’ll watch the first 20 or 30 seconds of a trailer to see if I like the general vibe. And I will see something if it gets better than a 50% rating, but I don’t read reviews. I’ve liked lots of movies where the ratings were not the best.

I don’t read reviews before movies, but I DO read the synopsis (generally from Wikipedia) of a scary or anxiety inducing movie before or during watching. For example, I got home one day from work and my husband was watching “World War Z” at FULL VOLUME (two kids napping in the next room, how you wizard??), and I came in at the point when the zombies are climbing over the wall in Jerusalem. I lost my mind and hid in the kitchen while I read EXACTLY what happens throughout the whole film. Knowing what will happen helps me get through that adrenaline-pumping feeling that makes me want to vomit.

Seeing a movie in the theater involves time and money- and since there are so many that I often want to see, looking at reviews or rotten tomatoes %s helps me narrow it down to the ones I should definitely see in theaters and the ones I can wait to watch or rent later. For example- I really wanted to see Passengers before it came out (Jennifer Lawrence in an epic romantic space movie? amazing!), but I’m glad I looked at reviews beforehand and prevented myself from wasting $30.

Ideally, I prefer reading reviews after watching the film. I probably only do so when I had a strong reaction to it (whether positive or negative).

My boyfriend and I get into a discussion about this pretty much every time we see a movie, check out a new band, try a new restaurant, watch a television show etc. Essentially, he loves reviews and stands behind his point of view that they don’t hinder his ability to form his own opinion. Personally, I take it more on a case-by-case basis but I prefer to avoid reviews of most things so I can have a fuller experience knowing that whatever thoughts I have are completely my own. One of the things that we do sync up on is on the financial side; if something has a majority of positive feedback you may have a better shot at feeling like your money was well spent. When things are a bit tight and we want to go out to a new place for dinner, we like to check out what others are saying about the restaurants we’re considering. However, If budget isn’t the top priority I find that I enjoy discovering things all on my own much more.

I don’t like to see other people’s reviews either! It ruins the film for me. I did see the trailer another blogger posted about it. I’m intrigued to see the issues that will arise once they shrink. So weird and interesting at the same time.

I definitely do NOT read reviews before I see movies. Not only do I want to avoid knowing if it’s critically “bad” in case – who knows – I love it anyway, but even moreso, I also don’t want to know if something is critically “good” because I want to form my OWN opinion.

I have noticed lately that we all seem to be such suckers for HYPE these days, and I’m not sure that we always watch things with our own critical eyes. A couple recent examples that come to mind for me personally are La La Land and S-Town – so much hype, and I just did not think either were as great as so many people were saying. But it felt almost controversial to express that opinion to certain friends!

So along those lines, I don’t want the influence of things like Rotten Tomatoes to shape how I take in and assess movies. But I do love to read the reviews afterwards once I have taken a moment to ask myself what I thought.

Let’s not be sheep!

This movie looks so cute and interesting! The negative reviews definitely won’t stop me from seeing it. Kristen Wiig and Matt Damon get tiny!? Sign me up.

Loved Lost in Translation. What did he say to her at the end?

I don’t really care what anyone else thinks about a movie I see. The only opinion that matters is mine (because I am the one watching it or not) Someone else may hate or love a movie that I feel the opposite about. Other people’s opinions on movies are not something that I have brain space for or care about. :P
PS: the Downsizing preview looks silly, but entertaining.

I don’t watch reviews, but I do watch trailers before deciding to see a movie. For books I’m even more careful with what I know before reading. I do not read the summary on the back. I decide by book cover, author, and friends’ recommendations. Very rarely when I’m on the fence about a book, I will take super quick peek at the first sentence of the summary :)

My normal MO is to read movie reviews like crazy before I see something, but last week I went to see “mother!” and managed not only to avoid seeing a single trailer for the film but also read only the first line of a review, which said, “If you haven’t seen ‘mother!’ DO NOT CONTINUE READING THIS REVIEW.” It felt kind of wild to be watching something with essentially zero preconceptions, (except you know, everything everyone already knows/thinks about Aronofsky…)

It seemed a good number of our fellow movie-goers were equally in the dark about what would be in store and wound up walking out before it was over. It was exciting/dramatic to be in a theater with walk-outs! While I’m still not sure what I think about “mother!” My approach + that crazy-ass movie made for a really memorable experience at the cinema.

OMG I DO THE SAME THING. Everyone thinks I’m a weirdo for reading the ends of books sometimes but I can’t help it