A New Approach To Rating Films

- and what's wrong with the systems we have today.

Sep 19, 2022

Film Ratings Are Broken

The rating of a film today has become irrelevant to people who actually care about film. Rating a film X out of Five-Stars or Something on a scale of One-To-Ten. What does that really tell us?

If we look at a recent film, Brahmastra’s ratings, for example, it’s hard to understand what to make of it.

Okay, so from this first image we can see that the film has a possibly weighted-average of 3.3⭐ out of a possible 5⭐.

More than that what we can gauge is that the bulk of the ratings occur at the two ends of the spectrum 1⭐ and 5⭐. The image below from IMDBs breakdown helps us see this better…

While we may be able to see the data there’s absolutely nothing that we can gain from this by way of understanding. What do people think of Brahmastra? How is it possible that most people love it and hate it at the same time? What does that mean?

Of course, like most people on the internet today, for more clarity we simply look to the comments for answers. However, that’s when a whole new can of worms opens up…

Film Reviews Are Irrelevant

I’ve got some images here from both the 5⭐ raters as well as the 1⭐ brigade and the results are… Well, see for yourself.

The 5⭐ lovers :

The 1⭐ not-so-lovers:

To the discerning reader, much like yourself, it’s no surprise that some reviews appear more than once, from seemingly different people, who share not only the same opinion but syntax as well.

Now, it would be telling if this behavior was found only on the 5⭐ reviews, that would help us understand that the producers of the movie have bought and paid for good reviews. However, the same behavior seen on the 1⭐ reviews brings us all back to square one.

It’s a game, and a stupid one at that. A non-zero sum infinite game where the winner will be declared only after one side stops spending money to mobilize their online zombie horde.

Opinion, in the case of film ratings and reviews, is broken.

Why?

Because the people that produce and detract films believe that ratings and reviews are important. So they try to pay to win.

They believe that a good rating and review makes people want to watch a film and a bad rating and review makes people not want to. It isn’t rocket science but just like Goodhart’s Law tells us, the second you start to target a measure, it ceases to be a good measure.

What Is The Truth About Films Anymore?

The truth is that bought and paid for media and algorithm hyped platforms have taken away any semblance of sense from the way we express our opinions about films today.

The fact that all these platforms that collect, aggregate and display film opinions from all over the internet are so easily manipulated with so few repercussions cheapens the ways we have left to engage with the things we love.

Films are cultural artifacts that shape our lives, our communities, our beliefs. We need ways that allow our opinions to be expressed and not just for the sake of some manufactured bottom line.

How much you like Brahmastra or The Avengers isn’t the question. How much like a certain film versus all the other ones you’ve seen, now that’s a question worth asking.

And to that end…

Is There Another Way?

I’ve recently made a small platform. It’s a prototype, an MVP, really. But it’s an attempt to bring a new approach to how we rate films and express our emotions regarding them.

It’s called FilmX and it’s a platform where you can make a list of your most intensely liked films. It’s dead simple when you get into it but the mechanism that underpins how you make a list really makes you consider how you feel about films and the films that you truly care about and that have affected you as opposed to some hype-train that’s easy to get lost in.

I hope you’ll check out FilmX, sign up and start making your list. If you do, share it with your friends! And me. I’d love to know you through your list. I’m sure when you start build your list and see someone elses you’ll understand why I’m saying that.

My FilmX List: https://filmx.lekhhaq.com/terencehf

Also, FilmX is an early-stage prototype. If you encounter any bugs or silly crashes feel free to reach out to me and I’ll push a fix as soon as possible!