Review: Metacritic.com/film

The first thing I thought of when I started viewing the site of Metacritic's film page, is "how is it different from the more popular movie review site Rotten Tomatoes?" Both have an overall rating of every movie, which is compiled from critics from around the country, and both let users give the movie their own rating as well. The big difference between the two is that Rotten Tomatoes has moved beyond just rating movies and compiling critics reviews, but has moved into more of an overall movie site. With articles about movies, trailers, photos, etc. Where as Metacritic is strictly a review site. The other large difference is Metacritics grading scale. Metacritic has a weighted system of reviewing. For example if Roger Ebert gave a film a 10/10 review, and someone from lets say the Philadelphia Reader gave that same film a 5/10, it is weighted more towards the more distinguished reviewer. It is much like a grading curve is many schools/colleges. If you are interested in more of the specifics of their grading they have a large page discussing it here.


Metacritic's main purpose is to calculate the overall average of reviews for a film. Both by critics and by the users. Which I think is always handy because there is usually a gap between critics and audiences. For example, Transformers 2 was nearly hated by every movie critic (getting a 35 out of 100 on Metacritic), but still made just over $400 million at the box office. That is why I like the idea of having a user rating for each film.

What does the site allow you to do?
For the users, the only two things you can do on the site are post your own rating on the film (only out of 10, not 100), and read critics reviews for the film. And this is possible for any film that is on the site, old & new. You can search through their critiques from Best & Worst of the Decade, All Time High Scores, to searching a specific critic and checking out all their reviews. But beyond rating and critiquing film, the only other thing for users to participate on the site is the user forum. There you can discuss the top film of the year, Oscar choices for 201o, or the worst films of the year.

Overall I really love the site. I find it less flashy and catch-phrasey then Rotten Tomatoes. It is more to the point, and I like their grading scale. More prominent film reviewers should have precedent over others who are unknown. This keeps the difference between professionals and users. Much like what we discussed earlier in the semester with Andrew Keen. My other favorite part of the site is that it is not as black and white as other review sites. It is not "this film is bad" or "this film is great!" it lets you go into the grey area and see how the film is actually reviewed. You can do this by either reading the review, or more quickly seeing the overall score the film, which is based out of 100. This allows more breathing room for the reviewer and the reader to get a more detailed review about a film. This is the best thing they ahve going for them. Because whenever I am reading a review and it says that it's bad or good, I always want to know at what degree is it awful or amazing? Metacritic.com gives you that grey area with an easy to read site that is great for any film lover.