Reviews can be for a range of different things even for those outside the creative industry. Reviews essentially are to help consumers decide if they want to buy the game, movie or music etc that you have created, to help determine if it’s worth their time. I deem that most often reviews don’t usually give away the ending or key storyline events. Criticism, however, I see to be a deeper analysis and therefore will have to discuss the story itself. It is also usually done by someone with expertise in that field, they have status and or knowledge and experience to behind them.
Reviews can be written by anyone, but those that are more trusted are by those who are from the same industry/discipline that is being reviewed. The personality/taste of the person that is doing reviewing is also important, as everyone has different opinions, likes and dislikes etc. So if you share personality traits and or similarities of interests with the reviewer than you are more likely to connect to their reviews and trust them. Reviews of a single piece of media will often be very different, as everyone has a different opinion. This doesn’t make anyone person right, it just means you should look at a range of reviews. So that means it can take time to have a review that you trust and follow, otherwise if you’re like me you take reviews with a grain of salt.
Critics usually look past the personal tastes of the critic to an extent as I feel like their is more distance with what they are reviewing and their personal taste in that area. As they are looking at it deeper than a review. They often look at things more critically like they look at how well a film is edited or its lighting more than a typical review.
Reference:
Week 11: Critics, Reviewers, and Journalists. (2019). Retrieved from https://medium.com/self-directed-practitioners/week-4-critics-reviewers-and-journalists-8bd8666d2f3
My Journey of Animation & Design 