Im sure the answer for most, if not all of you, will be no but hear me out!  The points Im going to make Ive already seemed to answer myself and making this thread seems sort of pointless now but I'll still do it as it could spark debate.

I dont care what they say, if I like a film, I like it and I dont care what anyone else says, but of course, when it comes to Nicolas Cage I think differently about it.

Not quite sure how to start this. This thread was sparked when I watched Seeking Justice again last night, after something bad that happened to my friend and my thread with all the SJ covers on it http://www.cagealotcastle.com/t54787752/the-many-front-covers-of-seeking-justice, I just had to watch it.

I guess I really started to notice critics' opinions when l started visiting Rotten Tomatoes regularly in mid 2012 the reason I was there is because I just watched Seeking Justice for the first time and was blown away by it. I eagerly went to the website to write my review and thought the critics consensus would be no less than 80% I was shocked to the point of disbelief that it was as low as 25% and what they had to say about it 'a phoned in Nicolas Cage performance' (or words to that effect) I say Im not biased towards Nicolas Cage but the truth is I probably am and give Cage the benefit of the doubt sometimes and Im sure the critics look for different things in a film but Im sorry, there was nothing phoned in, in Seeking Justice. Nicolas Cage was quite great in that movie, wasn't he? He had a wide array of emotions and played the normal everyman with ease, ranging from his happiness at the start and his desperation at the end. 

The thing that bugs me about reviewers on big websites like this are how they come across to people. I dont care what critics say but someone else might, it depends on how easily influenced that person is. It just annoys me that someone might be swayed away from a movie because some movie snob didn't like it.

Some reviews I think make sense, like for Trespass, it currently holds 10% and I think thats justified (maybe not that low) but watching that movie was brutal  Nicolas gave a unique performance with a different voice to his character but otherwise... 

Im also not too sure why so many reviewers are making a fuss about Nicolas' performance in The Frozen Ground. Critics and audiences too, actually, keep saying 'oh finally Nicolas playing a normal guy in a subtle role'  Of course its good that its getting positive attention. But really? Besides SJ, Nicolas has played many subtle small character driven roles, the best examples have to be the weather man and World Trade Center!  The weather man because he is literally a normal gloomy guy trying to make things right and 90% of WTC is just Nicolas' head. Only a truly brilliant actor could pull that off, and he did. Perhaps its just because this film is new... 

It just surprises me, I know Cages films seem to not be as varied as they once were but some of the reviews I read make me laugh. Take Knowing for example, I watched it and thought it was brilliant, I didnt want the movie to end. I go to RT and whats the score? 33% because apparently it was 'too serious' Well, the movie does deal with the end of the world, so Im sorry if it wasn't a happy-go-lucky musical.  

One example I use quite a lot is comparing Nicolas Cage to Sonic The Hedgehog, I know it sounds odd but these two seem the same. They both had one of their best products in 2002 (Adaptation/ Sonic Adventure 2) and after that they both seemed to change up the formula of their products, you have Sonic being in an Arabian Nights setting and you have Nicolas Cage being an assassin in Bangkok. And as of 2013 both seem to have come back to their roots. However, both of their products seem to get average reviews, and whys that? Because they're trying something new? Thats a bit weak. And you have other actors (Brad Pitt comes to mind for some reason) and other gaming characters (Mario) doing the same thing every time and getting amazing reviews.

Overall, I feel that opinions are opinions, its the critics job and they'll do it to get paid and hopefully have fun doing it but I wish people could atop being so easily swayed by others. But, you take whatever conclusion you want from this. As usual, my thoughts in my head dont properly come out in the way I wish they would as this article sounded much better in my head, but I spent an hour doing this, so I'll post it to get other NICsters opinions!