I haven't kept up with what recent film critics are like, but man, that stuff can be infuriating. It used to be the other way around, where critics are supposed to be uncompromising and purely about the quality (although I would say there's always been a huge chasm between them, and I liked it that way) and the audiences were more fickle about their agendas/ulterior factors.
Now neither party is really worth listening to, I find. Casual word of mouth comes from people with terrible impatience, have low standards, and are amused by the dumbest things, and critics aren't as authentic as they used to be.