Film criticism is important because films are important. If films are not important, the criticism wouldn't matter so much. Films are important because they are the art form of the 20th century. They are the most serious of the mass arts, because even theatre is not a mass art. They affect the way people think and feel and behave and they can be both a good influence on society and a negative influence. To the degree that they glorify mindlessness and short attention spans, I think they're bad; to the degree that they encourage empathy with people not like ourselves and encourage us to think about life and issues, they can be good. They can also of course simply be purely entertaining, and there's nothing wrong with that." (Roger Ebert, 2005)