I like to read movie reviews/criticism, so I’ve usually read at least one review of any movie I see in the theater. Heck, I read reviews even for movies I have no intention of ever seeing.
If there’s a movie coming out by a director or screenwriter or to a much lesser extent an actor I like then that’s going to make me inclined to see this new movie, but I’d probably read a review first anyway.
Trailers and ads are useful for finding out that an upcoming movie exists, and can indicate whether it’s something I might be interested in. I don’t think I’ve ever decided to see a movie based on the trailer alone, though. A few times a good trailer plus decent reviews has gotten me into a movie I disliked, but far more often the trailer makes it clear to me that the movie in question is one I don’t want to see.
I can think of two cases where a movie ad initially kept me away from a movie I wound up seeing and liking later. The ads for My Cousin Vinnie made it look like a slapstick comedy involving a lot of falling around in the mud. The ads for Velvet Goldmine inexplicably portrayed it as a whodunnit murder mystery (no one is murdered in the movie!) and I didn’t see it in the theater for that reason. I had been interested when I’d heard there was a glam rock movie coming out, but the ads let me to assume that the movie was primarily a mystery set in a rock and roll milieu. Nothing against murder mysteries really, but I didn’t care to watch one at the time.
I know what you mean. I’ve sometimes had people pull the old “How do you know you won’t like it if you haven’t seen it” line on me, but I know.
I am rather particular and opinionated about what I like. It is rare that my tastes coincide with either popular opinion or the reviewers. Still, a lot of my decisions about what movies I want to see come from reading the reviews. I have little to no interest in the reviewers’ opinions, whether they liked the movie or not, but I’m very interested in their description of the movie. Most reviews do a pretty good job of laying out the basics of what kind of movie it is, what it’s about, a little of what happens, etc. That almost always tells me whether it’s something I’d like or not, independent of and unrelated to the reviewer’s opinion. There are plenty of examples of reviews where the reviewer loved the movie, but from the description I could tell I’d never want to see it. Let’s see, recent example . . . “Benjamin Buttons”. Popular; hailed by reviewers and critics. Read enough to know you couldn’t drag me to it. “Quantum of Solace”. I’ve been a huge Bond fan all my life, critics say it’s a great movie. Sadly, I know from what I’ve read that I’d hate it.
No system of choosing is perfect, though. None of the reviews of “The Dark Knight” mentioned any of the things that caused me to despise that movie after seeing it.