Do movie reviews really matter anymore?

I have thought about this for quite some time now. Don’t know why. But every other week, whenever a movie releases and its reviews are written by well-known critics in the entertainment business, I always feel that the ratings given by them rarely equals the movie’s quality.

Movie’s which are given higher ratings generally do not deserve it and vice-versa. It seems as if the critics are giving the ratings to determine their self-worthiness. All they want to see is whether they can play a role in forecasting a movies fate well in advance. This reminds me of the well-known book Fountainhead written by Ayn Rand, wherein the desire of the critics to swing a plays fate is written very nicely about.

I guess they all reach a stage, wherein they gather a pretty good following and fall prey to the entertainment industry’s famous personalities. Or maybe in the hope of not spoiling their relationships with the industry’s rich and famous, they try to write reviews which might please them. But, whatever the reason maybe, unless the critics continue to write reviews from a neutral point of view, their followers will slowly start reducing. People may no longer believe in these reviews, preferring to judge the movies only after watching it themselves. Another possibility is to rely on the recommendations of their friends or the general users (through sites like IMDB and others). But even then, reviews from the users may not be available for a new movie which has released recently.

So unless there is a medium from where the reviews can be obtained in a neutral manner quickly, it is better to ignore the reviews and judge the movie ourselves after watching it.