Opinion Myopia/Headscratchers


 * One thing that bugs me about the concept of opinion myopia is the hypocrisy of the people who value the opinions of critics so much. On one hand, they deride people who like what's considered trendy as being "sheep" - but, on the same token, they're criticizing those same people for not caring about what critics think. Really, what's the difference between liking something just because it's trendy - and liking something just because it's critically acclaimed? Both go against the very concept of individuality. While some people's preferences may just so coincide with what's critically acclaimed, other people's preferences may just so coincide with what's trendy. Others still may have some preferences that so happens to falls in with the former, and others that so happens fall in with the latter. It's always baffled me.
 * Combining all the Natter: Because critics generally have a certain level of expertise in the area that the average fan doesn't. Even if they don't, they're more likely to analyze it and break down its specific merits and flaws, so they can explain to you why a certain movie is or is not enjoyable. Box office numbers don't do that necessarily.
 * "enjoyable" is a matter of taste, technically anything can be enjoyable. I understand where he is going, it's the matter of taking someone else's opinion instead of your own. You liked it because it was trendy, you didn't like it because the reviewer you follow said so, it's the same thing, not to mention that even critics have to be picked with a grain of sand.
 * Not all critics are bad. Ideally a critic should not tell people what they should or should not enjoy; a critic should instead be someone who merely analyses a work, points out details (merits, flaws or otherwise) that people might not have noticed beforehand, and then gives their subjective opinion on the work while letting the person reading or watching the review make up their own mind about the work. Besides, there are some works that are not meant to be enjoyed on an intellectual level, so even if they don't go down very well with critics, it's still possible to enjoy those works anyway. Michael Bay's Transformers is a prime example. It fares poorly with critics because it's such a shallow work, but those movies are not meant to be enjoyed aesthetically and critically speaking.