History CriticalDissonance / Film

* This is becoming a trend for the Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse:

** WesternAnimation/Wish2023 received mixed reviews from critics with a score of 49% on Rotten Tomatoes. And while audiences still seem mixed on the film, it's audience score is much more positive, getting an 81%.

* The UsefulNotes/MetroManilaFilmFestival has a number of interesting examples: films which are of mass appeal, e.g. the likes of those starring Philippine box-office figures such as Creator/ViceGanda and Creator/VicSotto, would be grilled by critics for being nothing more than LowestCommonDenominator rubbish, yet audiences flock to it ''en masse'' (especially as entries for the said film festival debut in local theatres every [[ChristmasRushed Christmas]]) looking for a quick laugh or two. Niche entries like ''[[Theatre/APortraitOfTheArtistAsFilipino Ang Larawan]]'' may fare much worse at the box office, and are mostly scoffed off as "boring" or too highbrow for the "masa" to comprehend, but are critically well-received. And it gets interesting when IMDB user ratings for ''[[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt7736488/ratings?ref_=tt_ov_rt Gandarrapiddo]]'' and ''[[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2997004/ratings?ref_=tt_ov_rt My Little Bossings]]'' are contrary to what ''masa''[[note]]A Filipino term for the mainstream, i.e. middle- to lower-class people.[[/note]] moviegoers say, especially in commercials promoting said films.

-->"Many scholarly studies of motion picture comedy have overlooked the Three Stooges entirely -- and not without valid reasoning. Aesthetically, the Stooges violated every rule that constitutes "good" comedic style. Their characters lacked the emotional depth of Creator/CharlieChaplin and Harry Langdon; they were never as witty or subtle as Creator/BusterKeaton. They were not disciplined enough to sustain lengthy comic sequences; far too often, they were willing to suspend what little narrative structure their pictures possessed in order to [[RuleOfFunny insert a number of gratuitous jokes]]. Nearly every premise they have employed (spoofs of westerns, horror films, costume melodramas) has been [[SeinfeldIsUnfunny done to better effect by other comedians]]. And yet, in spite of the overwhelming artistic odds against them, they were responsible for some of the finest comedies ever made. Their humor was the most undistilled form of low comedy; they were not great innovators, but as quick laugh practitioners, they place second to none. If public taste is any criterion, the Stooges have been the reigning kings of comedy for over fifty years."

** WesternAnimation/Wish2023 received mixed reviews from critics with a score of 48% on Rotten Tomatoes. And while audiences still seem mixed on the film, it's audience score is much more positive, getting an 81%.

* While ''Film/Flightplan'' received largely mixed feelings from critics and audiences alike who declared it as a mostly fine, but quite silly film considering the far-fetched scenarios, the general public is ''much'' more harsh on the plot contrivances, factual inaccuracy, and focus on style over substance than critics.

* ''Film/{{Enough}}'' was panned by critics with a 22% on Rotten Tomatoes, but audiences were much more accepting giving it a 67%. A lot of this seems to have to do with viewers prioritizing the "female empowerment/hero prevails" theme, while overlooking the film's flaws, such as obvious cliches and lack of depth and characterization

* ''Film/{{Enough}}'' was panned by critics with a 22% on Rotten Tomatoes, but audiences were much more accepting giving it a 67%.

** Conversely, ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheDialOfDestiny'' had a rough start, as its plan to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival unfortunately backfired as the film was recieved divisively by critics there, despite it recieving a 5 minute standing ovation. This made it start off with a 45% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes. However, once other critics and audiences got their hands on it, the film was recieved much more positively, with both critics and long-time Indy fans agreeing that the film brought back the charm and fun that was lacking from ''Crystal Skull''. The film now sits at a 69% critics score and an even higher 88% audience score.

** A very odd example is ''WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}}''. At the time it was Disney's riskiest project and it failed to appeal to both the general audience as well as art fans. Regular viewers felt the cartoon was pretentious, devoid of a story and didn't like the fact that ClassicalMusic and no dialogue were its prime gimmicks. Fans of ClassicalMusic felt Disney downgraded these artistic masterpieces by adding preposterous cartoonish images to them, with the ''Pastorale'' segment as a prime example. The outbreak of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, which had cut off Disney's very lucrative foreign markets, only made things worse. By the 1960s, however, ''Fantasia'' was VindicatedByHistory as a CultClassic. Many film and animation fans see it now as a highlight of Disney's artistic vision and feel it is his most artistically interesting picture, because of the experimental nature, ArtShift in some sequences and sometimes controversial imagery. Yet, even so, most general audiences prefer Disney features with an actual story and even among the people who recognize the artistic value, there are some who dismiss it as the same old Disney kitsch. Some animation historians say the failure of ''Fantasia'' was responsible for the aforementioned relatively safe, low-risk storytelling approach that would define his works and his studio for the coming decades, as Walt had taken a lot of pride in making ''Fantasia'' with the intent to make more cinema like it, and he suffered a CreatorBreakdown when it bombed in theaters.

** Prior to the 2010s, only two of his star vehicles with an approval rating of at least 50% on Website/RottenTomatoes (''Film/TheWeddingSinger'' and ''Film/HappyGilmore'') made back their budgets, while ''all'' his sub-50% movies were successful with audiences. For example, while most critics panned ''Film/TheWaterboy'', it was one of 1998's highest-grossing movies, while 2002's ''Film/PunchDrunkLove'' ended up being his second most critically acclaimed movie, but also his least financially successful one. In 2019, Sandler received the best reviews of his career with ''Film/UncutGems'', with critics praising his PlayingAgainstType performance in a serious crime thriller and pegging him as an award-season contender, but audiences were much cooler on it, with those expecting Sandler's normal comedic stylings applied to a parody of a crime drama naturally turned off once it became clear that the film was ''not'' a comedy. (No surprise in guessing that Creator/{{A24}} released the film.) [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSvrRLSdho8 This episode]] of ''[[Creator/BobChipman Really That Good]]'' goes into more detail on why audiences (especially kids) in TheNineties clicked with Sandler even as the critics dismissed him.

* And the opposite holds true with ''Film/GhostbustersAfterlife''. On [[https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ghostbusters_afterlife Rotten Tomatoes]] it got a modest but not amazing 62% from critics who generally found it took itself and the previous films too seriously, while it got an overwhelming 95% from audiences who almost universally loved it ''because'' it was so reverent of the previous movies which caused it to go on to be the ''ninth highest grossing film of 2021''.

* Creator/MNightShyamalan could be the trope codifier. Ever since the movie ''Film/TheSixthSense'' put him on the map for being a director who can throw a good PlotTwist into a story, he hasn't had a good relationship with the critics. Almost every film that has come out by him since then, ''Film/TheVillage'', ''Film/LadyInTheWater'', ''Film/TheHappening'', and others have been bashed by the critics. However, this hasn't stopped many of his films from making an average of over 100 million dollars per release.

* ''Film/{{Belle}}'' got good reviews, but the audience was not very excited about it. German critics described the film as good, solid "educational cinema" that "doesn't whip up feelings" … which may explain why it passed into oblivion, with hardly anyone having seen it, or even heard of it, in 2015, one year after release. Telling people that something is educational is a good way to keep them from wanting to see it, after all.

** The original 1954 ''Film/{{Gojira}}'', when it first premiered in Japan just nine years after the UsefulNotes/AtomicBombingsOfHiroshimaAndNagasaki, was utterly hated by critics, who felt that it was exploiting the tragedy in the name of {{spectacle}}. It didn't help that, in March of the year it came out, a Japanese fishing boat was exposed to radiation from the nuclear test at Bikini Atoll, producing history's first victim of the hydrogen bomb. [[VindicatedByHistory Since then, however,]] it has been recognized as a classic sci-fi horror film, in many ways ''because'' of the parallels it draws to the atomic bombings and how it uses the monster as a metaphor for such, and Godzilla and {{kaiju}} in general have become icons of Japanese cinema.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSuperMarioBrosMovie'', a 2023 movie produced by {{Creator/Illumination}} in conjunction with {{Creator/Nintendo}}, received mixed critical reception (currently a barely Rotten 58% on Website/RottenTomatoes), but was massively praised by the majority of audiences who saw it in theaters (95% on Rotten Tomatoes, as well as a [=CinemaScore=] rating of A). The movie has also been extremely successful at the box office so far, as a few days after the movie was released in Korea and Japan, it already cashed in a billion dollars (and later went on to become Illumination's highest-grossing production, overthrowing ''WesternAnimation/{{Minions}}'', and the fifth highest-grossing animated movie, as well the highest-grossing one not made by Disney or Pixar). As of June, it is now the third highest-grossing animated movie, overtaking ''WesternAnimation/{{Frozen|2013}}'', and second behind its sequel if ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing2019'' is not counted as animated movie.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSuperMarioBrosMovie'', a 2023 movie produced by {{Creator/Illumination}} in conjunction with {{Creator/Nintendo}}, received mixed critical reception (currently a barely Rotten 58% on Website/RottenTomatoes), but was massively praised by the majority of audiences who saw it in theaters (95% on Rotten Tomatoes, as well as a [=CinemaScore=] rating of A). The movie has also been extremely successful at the box office so far, as a few days after the movie was released in Korea and Japan, it already cashed in a billion dollars (and later went on to become Illumination's highest-grossing production, overthrowing ''WesternAnimation/{{Minions}}'', and the fifth highest-grossing animated movie, as well the highest-grossing one not made by Disney or Pixar). As of June, it is now the third highest-grossing animated movie, overtaking ''WesternAnimation/{{Frozen|2013}}'', and second behind its sequel if ''WesternAnimation/TheLiongKing2019'' is not counted as animated movie.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSuperMarioBrosMovie'', a 2023 movie produced by {{Creator/Illumination}} in conjunction with {{Creator/Nintendo}}, received mixed critical reception (currently a barely Rotten 58% on Website/RottenTomatoes), but was massively praised by the majority of audiences who saw it in theaters (95% on Rotten Tomatoes, as well as a [=CinemaScore=] rating of A). The movie has also been extremely successful at the box office so far, as a few days after the movie was released in Korea and Japan, it already cashed in a billion dollars (and later went on to become Illumination's highest-grossing production, overthrowing ''WesternAnimation/{{Minions}}'', and the fifth highest-grossing animated movie, as well the highest-grossing one not made by Disney or Pixar). As of June, it is now the third highest-grossing animated movie, overtaking ''WesternAnimation/{{Frozen|2013}}'', and second behind its sequel if the 2019 remake of the Lion King is not counted as animated movie.

** Bay's ''Film/TransformersFilmSeries'' is the exemplar of this trope for him. While the [[Film/{{Transformers}} first one]] has its defenders, the critical reception of the sequels was scathing, and fans of [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformers the original cartoon]] and [[Franchise/{{Transformers}} the broader franchise]] likewise despise them for the [[AdaptationDecay many liberties taken]] with the material. Only with ''Film/{{Bumblebee}}'', which Bay wasn't involved in, did any film in the franchise get positive reviews -- and that was the lowest-grossing film in the series (though its smaller budget helped to soften the blow). They were also among the biggest box-office successes of the 21st century, with the third and fourth films, ''[[Film/TransformersDarkOfTheMoon Dark of the Moon]]'' and ''[[Film/TransformersAgeOfExtinction Age of Extinction]]'', each making over a billion dollars worldwide and the latter being the highest-grossing film of 2014 (the second time a Bay film scored that honor, after ''Armageddon''). However, by the fifth film, ''[[Film/TransformersTheLastKnight The Last Knight]]'', popular opinion fell more in line with that of critics. Although far from a flop, it made the least money of any film in the series, with even the usually lucrative Chinese market drying up unusually quickly. The blame can be pinned on a failed attempt at PanderingToTheBase by including copious ProductPlacement for Chinese products and services that even Chinese audiences knew weren't sold or marketed in the United States.

* ''WesternAnimation/TransformersTheMovie'' was trashed by critics for being [[MerchandiseDriven a 90-minute film about toys]], and was not a big hit due to the mass slaughter [[AnyoneCanDie of beloved characters]] in favor of [[ReplacementScrappy new ones]]. Once the backlash hit Hasbro and they were forced to bring most of the characters back to life, however, it became a [[CultClassic cult favorite]], even among fans who came into the franchise from newer adaptations.

* The entire career of Creator/MichaelBay is built upon this. The only films of his to get any respect from critics are ''Film/TheRock'' and ''Film/{{Ambulance}}'', but even those two get somewhat DamnedByFaintPraise in critical circles. Yet of them, only ''Film/PearlHarbor'' and ''Film/TheIsland'' were considered outright flops, and perhaps not coincidentally, both of them saw Bay venture outside his comfort zone (a UsefulNotes/WorldWarII EpicMovie with ''Pearl Harbor'', a "thinking man's" ScienceFiction film with ''The Island'').

* ''Film/{{Power Rangers|2017}}'' received mixed reviews from critics (47% on Website/RottenTomatoes), but has an audience rating of a whopping ''80%''.

* ''Film/{{Cuties}}'' suffered this big time. It was received very well by most critics with an 87% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but audiences were far harsher, resulting in only 15% on the same metric. This divide is almost entirely to do with the risqué subject matter and [[OvershadowedByControversy the nigh-unavoidable controversy it invites]], that being how it depicts and handles the sexualization of its preteen characters -- critics were more inclined to accept it as part of a challenging ComingOfAgeStory in addressing a taboo, yet poignant challenge faced by its characters (with an understanding that [[FanDisservice the sexual presentation being uncomfortable is itself the point]]; not meant to be seen as an endorsement), but wider audiences were far more merciless, thrashing the presence of sexualizing young girls on principle, as well as [[DontShootTheMessage being far too close to what it criticizes to be acceptable]]. [[TaintedByThePreview Netflix's disastrously bad marketing campaign]] that seemed to [[DoNotDoThisCoolThing present the preteen sexualization at face value as a selling point likely didn't help in preventing audiences from going in with full expectation to be disgusted]].

* ''Film/{{Cuties}}'' suffered this big time. It was received very well by most critics with an 87% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but audiences were far harsher, resulting in only 15% on the same metric. This divide is almost entirely to do with the risqué subject matter and [[OvershadowedByControversy the nigh-unavoidable controversy it invites]], that being how it depicts and handles the sexualization of its preteen characters -- critics were more inclined to accept it as part of a challenging ComingOfAgeStory in addressing a taboo, yet poignant challenge faced by its characters (with an understanding that [[FanDisservice the sexual presentation being uncomfortable is itself the point]]; not meant to be seen as an endorsement), but wider audiences were far more merciless, thrashing the presence of sexualizing young girls on principle, as well as [[DontShootTheMessage being far too close to what it criticizes to be acceptable]]. [[TaintedByThePreview Netflix's disastrously bad marketing campaign]] that seemed to present the preteen sexualization at face value as a selling point likely didn't help in preventing audiences from going in with full expectation to be disgusted.

* ''Film/{{Cuties}}'' suffered this big time. It was received very well by most critics with an 87% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but audiences were far harsher, resulting in only 15% on the same metric. This divide is almost entirely to do with the risqué subject matter and [[OvershadowedByControversy the nigh-unavoidable controversy it invites]], that being how it depicts and handles the sexualization of its preteen characters -- critics were more inclined to accept it as part of a challenging ComingOfAgeStory in addressing a taboo, yet poignant challenge faced by its characters (with an understanding that [[FanDisservice the sexual presentation being uncomfortable is itself the point]]; not meant to be seen as an endorsement), but wider audiences were far more merciless, thrashing the presence of sexualizing young girls on principle, as well as [[DontShootTheMessage being far too close to what it criticizes to be acceptable]]. [[TaintedByThePreview Netflix's disastrously bad marketing campaign]] that seemed to present the preteen sexualization at face value as a selling point likely didn't help in preventing audiences from going in with full expectation to be disgusted. Some people went as far as to state they would never trust Rotten Tomatoes ratings again for giving a high rating to what they felt was the most depraved thing ever put to film.

* Creator/TerrenceMalick's ''Film/TheTreeOfLife''. Although at the time of its premiere critics were divided (receiving both boos and standing ovations at Cannes), it went on to achieve an 85% at Website/RottenTomatoes. Moviegoers hated it, and it has been known that certain cinemas have received complains of people asking for a refund. It's no help that the film may be either the most beautiful examination of life or the biggest example of how TrueArtIsIncomprehensible.

* Creator/DavidLynch is very popular among film critics and intellectuals for making innovative cinema that at least tries to do something different. Other moviegoers ''hate'' his pictures for being [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible bizarre and arty.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSuperMarioBrosMovie'', a 2023 movie produced by {{Creator/Illumination}} in conjunction with {{Creator/Nintendo}}, received mixed critical reception (currently a barely Rotten 59% on Website/RottenTomatoes), but was massively praised by the majority of audiences who saw it in theaters (96% on Rotten Tomatoes, as well as a [=CinemaScore=] rating of A). The movie has also been extremely successful at the box office so far, as a few days after the movie was released in Korea and Japan, it already cashed in a billion dollars (and later went on to become Illumination's highest-grossing production, overthrowing ''WesternAnimation/{{Minions}}'', and the fifth highest-grossing animated movie, as well the highest-grossing one not made by Disney or Pixar). As of June, it is now the third highest-grossing animated movie, overtaking ''WesternAnimation/{{Frozen|2013}}'', and second behind its sequel if the 2019 remake of the Lion King is not counted as animated movie.