A Critique Review

David Denby, writing in The New Yorker, after declaring that the movie is not “just bad,” but “dreadful,” goes on to report himself “deeply embarrassed because all around me … people were sitting rapt, awed, absolutely silent, only to burst into applause after some of the numbers.” What embarrasses Denby is the decline in “the taste of my countrymen” in the face of something that is to him so obviously “overbearing, pretentious, madly repetitive”; and he seconds the judgment of Anthony Lane, also a New Yorker reviewer, who dismisses the film as “inflationary bombast.” (Something a bit inflationary about that phrase, perhaps.)    ‘Les Miserables’ and Irony by Stanley Fish of the New York Times

Even though I've never seen "Les Miserables"    although I want to    I can still relate to this passage. Fish is analyzing the reviews of a few critics whom very much disliked the film, although he himself loved it, in order to figure out what their conclusions are based upon. Ultimately, his intellectual excursion leads him to the concept of irony and the article continues. But I find his disagreement with the critics of most interest. I don't read movie reviews at all, but I do take reviews into consideration before purchasing a video game. Sometimes I'll even read or watch a review of a game which I already have in order to gain their perspective. Many times I'm not surprised by their verdict or I begin to notice attributes which I had not necessarily noticed previously. But other times I find myself utterly confused or even defensive in response to their verdict; I feel that the game deserves better. Yet, I sometimes find myself becoming borderline obsessive over negatively critiquing something simply because I don't like the premise of that particular game. Such an attitude has affected my opinion of everything from music to television to food or even motor vehicles. Do I necessarily understand what I am critiquing? Probably not; yet, I do it anyway. Therefore, I can't help but wonder how they formulate their conclusions. Are they influenced by perceived notions? Do they establish preferences simply do to perhaps a single element? Obviously, every individual is subjected to bias, and, therefore, they perceive the world differently. Although the purpose of a review is to help an individual decide upon the value of a decision, sometimes it is better to merely decide for yourself. Otherwise, you may be missing out.