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kleinbl00  ·  2699 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: How important is crowdsourced feedback to you?

Play this game for me:

1) List, oh, five movies you know really well. Like, don't like, doesn't matter. If you're really into it, list ten. Doesn't matter though.

2) Next to each one, write down what you think of that movie out of ten. Good, bad, indifferent, write it down.

3) Go look those movies up on Netflix. What does Netflix predict you'll think of those films? How's the correlation?

4) Go look those movies up on Rotten Tomatoes. How's the correlation now?

See, I'm educated about film. I'm a film professional. I'm surrounded by film professionals. And if you think you and your friends have differing views about films... I mean, my best friend since 8th grade has opinions so different than mine that I deliberately avoid any movie he likes. He's got an MFA in this shit. I've gotten into flame wars over Network and Crash. I know the guy who passed on Being John Malkovich for HBO... and we nearly came to blows over Children of Men (and I happen to hate BJM). And everybody on all sides can make erudite, intelligent arguments about why they're objectively right and why you're objectively wrong and neither one of us has a leg to stand on because at the end of the day, it's art.

Ever looked up the contemporary reviews of, say, Empire Strikes Back? Blade Runner is just as bad. How 'bout A Christmas Story? Even individual reviewers often restate their opinions. And while I usually agreed with Roger Ebert, he was offensively, stupidly wrong so often that even a reviewer you trust can often be completely full of shit.

So. There's probably no correlation between what you think and what any one reviewer thinks. There's demonstrably no correlation between what you think and what every reviewer thinks. So why give the mantrolls of Rotten Tomatoes the power to tell you that Ghostbusters sucks because it's full of GURLZ? I mean, if you care, see it for yourself and determine for yourself why it sucks (or not).