12 Common Movie Criticisms That Make No Sense

10. "The Characters Are Too Unlikeable"

One of the most obnoxious complaints you'll hear about a movie is "the characters were too unlikeable", as though that really means anything.

Sure, it can be a problem if a movie wants you to like its characters and doesn't realise how detestable they are, but there are literally hundreds of fascinating movies centred on awful, morally bankrupt human beings with full knowledge of that fact.

Unfortunately some audiences approach cinema from a narcissistic point of view, that a movie isn't worthwhile if there's no character to relate to and liken to themselves.

But that's not how human experience works, and a lot can be learned from observing characters like American Psycho's Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) who, let's face it, the average person will neither relate to nor find remotely likeable.

Character studies of flawed, prickly characters can be enormously dramatically rewarding if you ditch this hang up that movie protagonists need to pass a certain standard of charm or likeability.