So, Brett Ratner recently posted about how the famed website Rotten Tomatoes is destroying the filmgoing community as we know it. Being a fan of the site myself and seeing it as a tool if used correctly, I thought I'd throw my hat in the ring on this matter.
For those who don't know, Rotten Tomatoes is a website that gathers up an enormous amount of online reviews from famed critics and gives a percentage of how many of those reviews are positive. So, films like Schindler's List, The Godfather, Jurassic Park, and Pulp Fiction range from 90-100%, while films like The Last Airbender, Pixels, and Movie 43 range from 0-20%.
For some, it's a nifty tool in helping figure out whether or not they should see a movie, but for others, it's a pretentious representation of how big of snobs critics can be. Brett Ratner's argument in particular for this deals with Batman v. Superman and Suicide Squad, which, if you've seen my reviews of those, you know I personally did not like either. But it's not just a case of critics not liking something he liked; he feels the ratings for both ended up affecting the box office numbers.... which, considering how many bombs we had last year, they both stood out as the more financially successful. Just sayin.
Regardless, I can understand where he's coming from. There was one point where I looked at the percentages for every movie coming out, and after a while, I couldn't help but feel like my opinion was affected by that percentage. Now that I'm doing movie reviews on my own blog, I can't always look at the percentages for that reason.
I won't speak too much on how to look at critics in general, as the Nostalgia Critic made a great video on that here, but if you're like me and you let the Tomatometer mold your opinion, here are a few things I do to avoid that and form my own opinion.
1.If a trailer alone intrigues me, I see it and avoid (or at least ignore) the ratings
Suicide Squad has one of the best trailers I have ever seen. Hands down. When I went to see it, I was expecting it to be this insanely fun anti-hero movie with witty lines, wild action, and breathtaking performances, even with critics ultimately giving it 20-30% on Rotten Tomatoes. I entered in with a clean slate, and my review of it was based off of my personal experience with a jumbled, incoherent, and often times boring flick.
Regardless, I ignored the reviews, went in based off of my anticipation from the trailer, and ended up leaving disappointed. Sometimes, though, that's not always the case. I personally enjoyed the Hotel Transylvania movies, despite those getting poor reviews. The two G.I. Joe movies are enjoyable in their own rights, despite their reviews. My point is that film is a personal experience and should be left at that.
2.If I'm not sure if a film looks good, I'll look up the ratings and see if they're good
Most of the time, this tactic doesn't surprise me. I wasn't sure if the new CHiPS movie looked good, and the film ended up getting a low percentage. Sometimes, however, there can be a few surprises. Last year's Central Intelligence, for instance, had a horrible trailer (I swear, when I saw Dwayne Johnson as a fat man, I had nightmares for a week!), but when I saw that it had a fairly high percentage, I gave it a watch and ended up having a fun time!
This is why I say that Rotten Tomatoes is a good tool. If the trailer alone intrigues me, I see the film regardless of ratings, but if the trailer alone doesn't intrigue me, then I wait for reviews to come out to see if critics can persuade me to see it. (Many people went to see Paul Feig's Ghostbusters for that reason.)
3.After seeing the movie, I go onto Flixster and compare my opinion with others
Having a free form opinion is one of the greatest feelings in the world while also being one of the worst. Trying to understand why so many people loved the live-action Beauty and the Beast when I thought it was sub-par at best is both intriguing and confusing. But let me tell you: As confusing as that is, it's nowhere near as empty or soulless feeling as conforming to the norm.
But back to Ratner's point: Is the Tomatometer affecting box office numbers? Not likely. If that were the case, Paul Feig's Ghostbusters should have been a smash hit. Viewers are most likely just seeing what they want to see, and seeing as how ratings and reviews haven't affected the box office numbers for Grown-Ups, the Smurfs movies, the Transformers movies, or again, the Hotel Transylvania movies, I doubt they're affecting them now. Suicide Squad and Batman v Superman most likely got the numbers they got more because of word of mouth; as much as the DCEU still holds a large fan base, there's also a large amount of people freaking out over the misrepresentations of Doomsday, Lex Luthor, and the Joker.
If you are one of those people using the Tomatometer to automatically say whether or not a film was good rather than basing it off of your own personal experience.... Stop that. Just.... Stop that. However, I don't think such an epidemic is so bad that the entire site should be shut down, and I certainly don't think it's destroying the business. If anything, it's enhancing the business. As mentioned in the source article, Erza Miller mentioned that the bad ratings for the DCEU are only making the cast and crew more determined to make Justice League a success, and that's exactly what the Tomatometer should do: encourage filmmakers to make their projects better, and encourage filmgoers to see projects that have challenged even the most astute critics.... or at the very least, amused them. Just remember, a filmgoer's experience is not based on a percentage, but their own personal, emotional experience.
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