Do We Really Need Movie Critics?

Since movies have been around there have been critic's to state their opinion's and announce it to the public.  Do these people really need to get paid so we can hear what they have to say about the latest film?  It seems as though a good portion of films with bad reviews still get droves of people to see what the big deal is.  Some of the most popular movies of all time have received some very poor reviews, but why do they gross so much money?  The Transformers films all have grossed over a billion dollars domestically, the last one grossed over a billion dollars worldwide, and it had terrible reviews.  Why would a bad movie, based on the critic's opinion, get such a massive audience?  Because we, the public, want to see for ourselves what the big deal is.  Constantly, we hear people say I'm my own critic, and most people are.  We like what we like, not worrying about what a writer says. 
The other funny thing is critic's seem to love movies that flat out do terrible at the box office, for example 2008's The Wrestler.  The Wrestler made twenty-six million dollars domestically; but on Rotten Tomato, a website with critic reviews, it has 98 percent positive feedback.  With such a high percentage, why wasn't The Wrestler a major box office success?  The answer is simple really, most of the movie watching community go out to see a movie, not because its an Oscar worthy film, but because its mindless entertainment.  A lot of those films that are deemed Oscar worth are usually the most boring thing you'll ever watch in a theater, but critic's eat it up leaving a lot of people who watch the Oscars saying to themselves, why did that movie win?  Sometimes we just want to go to the movies to see things that go boom and not listen to dialog for two hours.
Now do critic's ever like what the public likes?  Of course they do and one example was just released this past weekend and even broke the record for biggest opening weekend of all time.  The Avengers made 200 million dollars at the box office, beating out Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 which had $169 million on it opening weekend last year. The Avengers has had some of the best reviews for a super hero movie and seems to be liked by everyone.  Not all movies that the public likes are butchered by the critic's.
Some actor's and director's can been seen in interview's discussing their film and the question that always comes up is either the critic's love this movie or hate this movie, what do you think?  A good portion of them will reply with I try not to follow the critic's opinion.  Why should we follow what they say?  Now I know a good portion of people out their go by what their favorite critic says; if its a bad review they won't go see it, if its good they'll give it a look, and that's okay.  I'm not saying its a bad thing to go by a critic's opinion, but I am saying sometimes what you like will differ from what someone else enjoys.  All I'm saying is be your own critic.