this post was submitted on 30 Apr 2026
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Comic Strips

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[–] cRazi_man@europe.pub 83 points 1 week ago (30 children)

Really? I find the opposite problem. Ratings are inflated and even utter trash on IMDB is 6 or 7 out of 10.

I think part of the problem is that the scale is not used properly. On a scale of 1 to 10, I would consider 5 to be average. Most movies seen are average. Average is well worth watching. 5 is a decent rating as far as I am concerned. I'll even watch a 4 or a 3 if someone tells me that some aspect of the movie was worthwhile. But most people seem to treat the scale as if they only are willing to watch 8 and above, and that anything below a 7 is trash.

It would be much better if there was a site to input your ratings and for it to match you to users and critics similar to your taste. I used to use Last.FM like this for music but haven't found anything similar for movies or TV. Ratings alone are useless because critics and users alike will swing all over the scale for the same movie. Tastes need to match.

[–] Rubanski@discuss.tchncs.de 41 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Same as Google ratings. Like it? 5 stars. Hate it, 1 star. No nuance. If it's below 3.5 stars, absolute garbage. In Japan they somehow treat the rating system as intended. 3 stars is a solid, ok experience. 5 is exceptionally hard to achieve

[–] jif@piefed.ca 6 points 1 week ago

This varies a lot by place. In some countries a 4.0 is an excellent score.

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[–] cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 1 week ago (3 children)

I agree with you, but the problem is, IMDb collates ratings from thousands of people, each of whom have their own scale. I might have the same opinion about a movie, but I rate it as a 5 because it was completely average, and the next person who feels the same gives it a 7.

I would love to use a service that asks you a series of questions about a movie and generates a rating based on that. That way, if you're honest about your answers, the ratings should match. Questions like "was the acting good?" with answers like "the acting was exceptional," "the acting was bad," and "the acting didn't make me think about it at all." But if you ask if the movie was good? If it's a movie about a working man being pushed to the breaking point and he dies, the rich man is going to like that a lot more than a working man.

Then you have review bombing. I think the best example of this is Fullmetal Alchemist. FMA fans believe that no anime should be rated higher than FMA, so if something starts to get popular, they will organise a review bombing of it. Don't get me wrong, Fullmetal Alchmist was a good anime, but it was also kinda trash. The first series in 2003 did 20-odd episodes, caught up with the manga, then they decided to write their own ending/second half. In 2009 after the books were done, they did a remake, but the first episode was original (not in the books), the next nine summed up the first half of the books (because the 2003 series already covered that), and then the next 50-odd episodes cover the second half of the books, so you have one where the pacing is good but the story goes off the rails (IMO, in a good way, I like where they took it), and another one where it's more true to the books (except that random ass first episode) but the pacing sucks. To top it all off, the lead actor was accused of sexual misconduct a few years ago and has basically been cancelled online. It's still an awesome series, but is it so good that nearly 20 years later, nothing can be rated more highly?

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[–] OpenStars@piefed.social 11 points 1 week ago (5 children)

A LONG time ago back when Netflix first started its rating system was its major speak. I recall articles saying that even if you did not pay for the service, you should make an account just simply to use its rating system to decide your next watch (and then go get them at Blockbuster or something:-P). My, how things have changed in the meantime..

[–] johnyreeferseed@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Back when Netflix had anything you wanted to watch instead of the same 100 movies listed in 5 different categories each.

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[–] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I've always found imdb way less inflated than Rotten Tomatoes.

[–] whaleross@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week ago

90% on RT means that 9/10 reviewers didn't hate it but they could all have rated it a 6/10.

The wannabe professional reviewers on RT are the absolute garbage. Anything big and you'll find multiple Nobody McNobodyface from Nowhereton Gazette giving anything top score because they gave a boner for the lead actress.

[–] BryyM@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The scaling on IMDB is bad, 10point scales do not work 5 and below isn't really used, unless they hate it passionately

[–] Zwiebel@feddit.org 6 points 1 week ago

10-7 and 1 are the only options

[–] zr0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I have both problems or I am counter-cyclical to IMDb. Anyways. My algorithm now works like this:

IMDb > 5 = potentially good movie
IMDb <=5 = trash

Rotten Tomatoes > 70% = potentially good movie
Rotten Tomatoes <= 70% = potentially good movie.

Might I add, a 10 scale is too granular for most people. It should be on 5. Most people have their scale start at 5 and go above. The only time they will go below is to give a 1 to a movie they hated.

[–] Lojcs@piefed.social 6 points 1 week ago

I just joined a site called criticker that aims to fix this via data normalization. It can adjust ratings to the way you rate and base them on people who rate like you as well. Although its database is a bit lacking and all ratings are public.

Also FYI on 1 to 10 5.5 is average, 5 is below average.

[–] surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

On a scale from 1-10, the average is 7. That's how humans work. You should probably get used to it.

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[–] Demdaru@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago (9 children)

Ah, people.

5 is avreage? Oh so you mean 5 is absolute baseline? Like, treat 5 as 0 yes? Then anything below is basically how much you shouldn't watch it, no?

My friends balk when I say "Welp, that was 6/10, quite a good movie" xD

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[–] stickly@lemmy.world 39 points 1 week ago

I'll be the contrarian and say IMDb ratings are pretty accurate for me. The two exceptions are super inflated Cinemaβ„’ ratings and middling ratings for comedies. A 9.3/10 silent era movie gets too much credit for having functional lighting while a 6/10 comedy gets panned for its shallow character development.

[–] wopalopa@lemmy.world 20 points 1 week ago (3 children)

i stopped thinking imdb or rating for entertainment as "how good it is" but rather "the odds of me liking it" i've seen plenty 5 or 6 imdb but i absolutely love it. and 9s as meh.

[–] bizarroland@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Exactly. Critics are only useful if your opinions are similar to the critics.

Remember, even in recent years movies have been review-bombed for being "woke", for instance, with hordes of people upset about things that are not important to the movie, attempting to destroy the reputation of the movie rather than evaluate it fairly on its own merits.

I was just watching facts behind "Robin Hood men in tights", and apparently Siskel gave it half a star, which is absolutely insane. It's no blazing saddles, but it's one of the better Mel Brooks movies

So yeah, review scores are basically a good way to decide whether you should go to the theaters and watch it or wait till it's on streaming. But outside of that, it's not a good indicator of whether or not you're going to enjoy the show.

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[–] osanna@lemmy.vg 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

unironically, I loved the mario bros movie from the 90s. It's rated REALLY low on imdb, but I loved that film.

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[–] VitoRobles@lemmy.today 5 points 1 week ago

I think about how I haven't reviewed a movie on imdb/rotten tomatoes in years. If you haven't either, then don't trust the user reviews.

[–] qwestjest78@lemmy.ca 20 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Fuck ratings and reviews. I've watched terribly rated movies that are gold, and award winning films that are absolute dumpster fire.

Too many times other people insist on inserting their opinion when it is not requested. A lot will also just go with the tide as well. If others are giving good reviews, then they will do the same.

I prefer to read a summary of the plot and give it a watch to form my own opinion.

[–] village604@adultswim.fan 17 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (4 children)

Not IMDB, but Rotten Tomatoes is dead to me after their score for Boondock Saints was 26% despite a user rating of 91%.

Maybe it's not a cinematic masterpiece, but it's a solidly fun movie.

I think one of the reasons the critics came at it so harshly was that it was sort of this meme-movie. Lots of quotable lines. Lots of memorable scenes. But the overarching story kinda sucked. The villains were silly and lame. The heroes were uninspired. The movie parked itself on Irish Dude-Bro demographics and just kinda catapulted itself into cult classic material by casting Willem Dafoe a bit before he went mainstream.

I think it's better than a 26%. But not all that much better.

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[–] OldChicoAle@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago

I don't trust IMDB after Amazon bought it. Maybe a company that makes movies shouldn't be in charge of rating them? Conflict of interest maybe?

[–] NaoPb@eviltoast.org 10 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Is it just me, or is IMDB becoming shittier and shittier?

[–] WhatYouNeed@lemmy.world 18 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Well it is owned by Amazon

[–] NaoPb@eviltoast.org 12 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Ah, now it all makes sense to me.

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[–] Aqarius@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago

They recently started demanding an account to read user reviews.

I saw "The Bride" in theaters a few months ago and the fact that that movie ISN'T a 0 on imdb invalidates the whole concept of critic reviews for me. Worst movie I have ever seen (and I've seen "The Room" twice)

[–] Cytobit@piefed.social 8 points 1 week ago (2 children)

A lot of criticism here for numerical scores, but consider the popularity of tier list ranking videos. Maybe we should be ranking movies relative to one another. Not sure how that works as a UI though.

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[–] warm@kbin.earth 7 points 1 week ago (3 children)

We need two ratings, how objectively good the movie is and how much you enjoyed it. Currently most user reviews are a mix of both and critic reviews are often very biased or financially motivated.

[–] devfuuu@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Most people don't have the ability or understand how to separate those 2 concepts. Asking too much from normal people that are just watching some entertainment.

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[–] blacksky@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago

I feel IMDB ratings for new movies are ridiculously gamed / paid-for. Like the amazon reviews scandal all over again.

[–] hakunawazo@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago

Sad that IMDB now hide the user opinions behind their login screen. A score alone isn't helpful at all.

It never affects my enjoyment of a thing. But if I'm already questioning whether or not I want to continue, that rating makes a difference.

[–] Crozekiel@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Do people really trust ratings for things? It seems like we are so far removed from those number meaning anything useful I've long been ignoring them.

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[–] Stalinwolf@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I can't think of many examples so my comment is worthless, but for years I had this experience with Rotten Tomatoes and hated the site/community for it. Some of the most artistic and impactful films I had seen would get a 30% or something, and I'd be like how?!

I guess one more recent example that I do have was The Northman while it was still playing in theatres. It scored well enough on Rotten Tomatoes over time, but initial reviews were trash and I was hard-pressed to find a single person online who enjoyed it. Just endless shitting all over it. Comments sections full of folks calling it the worst/dumbest thing they've ever wasted their money on.

My wife and I went into it blind and were honestly blown away. It was like John Wick with Norse mythology. From the very beginning where Willem Dafoe is howling and going into a crazy shamanistic fire trance to the big otherworldly climax at the end, we were floored by how fucking cool that movie was. A genuine piece of art. Got us both playing Valheim again soon after.

Not sure what changed, but despite the 90% Tomatometer, the 64% Popcornmeter still shows that audiences were fairly divided. But that spread was way worse a few years ago. The part that perplexed me most is that most people's criticisms of the movie could just as easily be applied to Mad Max: Fury Road (which I ironically thought was hot garbage).

[–] jtrek@startrek.website 6 points 1 week ago

I learned in my youth not to read reviews of things I like. It's unpleasant and pointless to read someone savaging your favorite albums or books.

(More critical analysis can be fine, but regular Internet reviews are not so worthwhile)

[–] roserose56@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 week ago

We don't have to agree always. There where movies I liked, and people where saying otherwise.

[–] Hupf@feddit.org 5 points 1 week ago
[–] criticon@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 week ago

I use them by genre. A drama or action movie needs a very high score for my tastes.

Comedies usually a 6 or 7 is going to be good for me and a very high score usually means it's a dramery.

Horror movies with very high scores are usually mainstream over produced like the conjuring. Good horror movies usually are 6-7 like the witch or hededitary

And also, if a movie has a very high meta critic but a very low user rating it usually means the movie will be weird af

[–] eightpix@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Hudson Hawk, widely panned, is fun; just refuses to take itself seriously.

  • iMDB: 5.7/10

  • RT: 30/100

  • Metacritic:17/100

I don't care. That's what I think of any film rating system. It's a report, but not the experience itself.

See also: the Southland Tales, The One (2001), Lost Souls (2000). All are, objectively, bad films. And yet... I remember them to be re-watchable.

This write-up is on a site for and app and ends up shilling for that app, but it makes some useful points, confirmed by my years of poking around:

Trust Metacritic most for prestige drama, arthouse cinema, and Oscar contenders.

Trust IMDb most for genre films.

Use the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer as a quick pass/fail for critical reception.

Use the Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score cautiously.

Full disclosure: I don't have the app, don't want the app, and don't care about the app. Also, I skimmed the article in 2 minutes while watching my kids bounce on a trampoline.

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[–] xylogx@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

IMDB reflects popular opinion. Everyone has unpopular opinions, heck I liked the Emoji movie. Also, for some niche movies the ratings are wildly skewed since only die hard fans are voting on them. And for some movies where there are strongly held opinions, many people will pile-on and vote on them without even having seen the movie.

All that said, IMDB is a useful tool for getting read on popular opinion on movies. Also, IMDB is standing behind me with a gun to my head. Send help, please.

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