Back in April at FanX, I attended a very similar panel called “So You Want to Be A Movie Critic?” that hosted many of the same people that the one here did. Due to this, people might be wondering why I would revisit the issue so quickly, and that’s simply because there was a lot of new and relevant material that was presented this time around. It would behoove anyone who wants to look into a career as a critic to pay attention.
The biggest point of discussion was what is the difference between a movie review blogger and a legitimate film critic? It’s a rather valid question as pretty much any idiot with a computer can throw their opinions out into the wilds of the internet and say they are a “critic.” It could also be argued that a lot of critics started out this way and only became well known once their writing style improved and they became more educated in film theory.
And that right there — education — is the key difference between the two.
A real film critic will have taken the time and invested the energy into being a true student of film. Whether that means they have a degree, are a creator or have slogged through hundreds upon hundreds (thousands, even) of movies to learn how to dissect and analyze one through its script, directing, lighting, etc. This isn’t something you can just pick up; it takes years of dedication, study and watching truly horrendous (and great) movies to learn how to do this. Basically, if the first time you had ever heard of Georges Méliès was in the movie “Hugo”, then you have a lot more homework to do.
It’s also a common misconception that everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and while it’s true that anyone is allowed one, it doesn’t mean that theirs is as valid as someone who is an expert in the topic at hand. A person can have the opinion all they want that the latest “Transformers” movie was a fantastic example of what quality cinema should look like, and they would be wrong. Movies need to meet certain standards to say they are of a high quality, and “Transformers” misses on almost every level (writing, acting, directing, editing … the list goes on).
To be clear, this doesn’t mean that people shouldn’t be allowed to love and be fans of anything they want; by all means, think that “Transformers” was the best action movie ever made and “Scream 4” was a horror gem, but that doesn’t mean they’re good . Even the most cynical movie critic has a movie that is near and dear to them that is absolute garbage; the difference there is that they are aware enough to know that it’s bad but love it anyway.
So if you truly want to be a critic and learn about film, you’ve got some work ahead of you. In the meantime, why don’t you listen to the panel and hear for yourself what everyone had to say.