2 Messages
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90 Points
Ratings: The system does not help users determine good films from bad ones
Ratings given by users for films generally are either very low or very high and do not reflect the quality of the film when taken as a whole and therefore are not helpful when deciding to spend good money going to the cinema to see a film. Whilst I appreciate it is a good idea to quickly rate by allowing them to choose a number between 1-10 or 1-5, but this does allow this problem occur more readily than if a breakdown of important aspects of the film that could make a rating system more "accurate" is offered. I have thought this for a very long time, and I can see that many others feel the same way but nothing has changed.
The latest example is Alien Covenant which had scores of 1 and scores of 10. For my own part I have liked the Alien franchise and, since I was born in the era when the original film was a big sensation, I have been around when the only advice that you could get before seeing movies was the film critics in the newspapers, on the radio or on TV. Whilst I find film critics to be biased towards their own preferred genres, at least back then they were someone who was a professional and gives you a better indication of how good a movie actually is and whether or not its worth your money at the the box office. Having said that, when imdb.com and rottentomatoes.com became available to the masses via the internet, users reviews were often more accurate than those of the professional critics who, IMO, by the late 90's had become entrenched in their search for the most technically well written script to be of any use when reviewing what they now call "popcorn movies" or "blockbusters". Indeed, the award ceremonies do concentrate on films which are more specialised than general for the best film, best director, actor, etc, leaving the only source of a reasonable review of a film to the internet sources.
As blockbusters are the mainstay of cinema offerings, it isn't really helpful to totally trash them for lack of perfectly written scripts or oscar winning acting no matter if you are a top film critic or a imdb user. If this continues and people actually pay attention to the extreme votes, then it could seriously affect the future of theatre cinema as there already is options for home cinema soon there will be more immersive methods of viewing new films which could further strain the availability of the theatre experience. There has to be a better way of quickly rating a film using a few rating points rather than just one to give a mark that better describes the movie - perhaps one point might be "my opinion" in which case you can put your score of 1 there.
The latest example is Alien Covenant which had scores of 1 and scores of 10. For my own part I have liked the Alien franchise and, since I was born in the era when the original film was a big sensation, I have been around when the only advice that you could get before seeing movies was the film critics in the newspapers, on the radio or on TV. Whilst I find film critics to be biased towards their own preferred genres, at least back then they were someone who was a professional and gives you a better indication of how good a movie actually is and whether or not its worth your money at the the box office. Having said that, when imdb.com and rottentomatoes.com became available to the masses via the internet, users reviews were often more accurate than those of the professional critics who, IMO, by the late 90's had become entrenched in their search for the most technically well written script to be of any use when reviewing what they now call "popcorn movies" or "blockbusters". Indeed, the award ceremonies do concentrate on films which are more specialised than general for the best film, best director, actor, etc, leaving the only source of a reasonable review of a film to the internet sources.
As blockbusters are the mainstay of cinema offerings, it isn't really helpful to totally trash them for lack of perfectly written scripts or oscar winning acting no matter if you are a top film critic or a imdb user. If this continues and people actually pay attention to the extreme votes, then it could seriously affect the future of theatre cinema as there already is options for home cinema soon there will be more immersive methods of viewing new films which could further strain the availability of the theatre experience. There has to be a better way of quickly rating a film using a few rating points rather than just one to give a mark that better describes the movie - perhaps one point might be "my opinion" in which case you can put your score of 1 there.
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