Friday, March 5, 2010

Astroboy's Rating System - A Rebuttal

Sorry Astroboy I don't agree with this system. In fact I hate it. : ) I also hate Netflix’s 5 stars system and I’ve considered contacting them to tell me how obtuse they are being.

Here are some reasons why I don't like it.

When you rate a movie on a scale that uses less numbers like three out of four or four out of five you can't be held accountable for which movies are better or worse. Let me try to explain that statement. Take ‘Star Trek: II Wrath of Khan’ and the newest Star Trek Movie ‘Star Trek’ both are great movies but on your scale they both would receive a 4 out 4’s (at least according to me). So which movie is the better movie? You would never know according to your scale but on my 10 point scale you would know the slight advantage goes to ‘Star Trek: II Wrath of Khan’ at a 9.5 (Oh yeah, I give half points now). It also works in reverse for bad or horrible movies. Take the latest Indiana Jones movie and ‘Bulletproof Monk’. On your scale, both movies would receive a one but on my scale you would know ‘Indiana Jones and the kingdom of the Crystal Skull’ is a two and the lousier movie ‘Bulletproof Monk’ begets a true one score. See how this works?

There’s a show that I watch called X-Play and they rate video games. They use a 1 to 5 star system. They say that the viewer or player shouldn’t worry about the rating of a game and to read or listen to the full review to get a complete understanding. I think it’s a cop out and maybe a political thing. Possibly X-Play doesn’t want to offend the game manufacturers and not get future interviews or future information about upcoming games. So they have this pointless 5 scale system that means nothing to me except they don’t have to compare games and actually say which game is the better game Halo III or Call of Duty II (both received five stars). Is a three star a good game or an average game? Who the frak knows!

For me it’s the comparisons between the games or in our case movies to be able to tell. I know that my top twenty movies all have a score of nines and that my dream movie or perfect movie has a ten. Of course giving a movie a rating is always an opinion of the reviewer and my opinion may be different but at least I can see what he rated Forrest Gump and Aliens maybe an 8 and an 7 and find out according to him which is the better movie But again on your scale they are both probably fours.

Maybe the only true scale (yet impossible) would be your favorite movie at the top #1 (Matrix) and your least favorite movie of all time all the way at the bottom #6427 (A Passage to India). One can dream.

P.S. Here’s a key to my 1 to 10 scale.

10. Your all time favorite movie or dream movie (maybe you don’t have a ten)
9. Top twenty movies.
8. Excellent movie that I would recommend to all of my friends.
7. You really liked the movie but maybe it’s wasn’t your favorite style (i.e. Sci-Fi or Gore)
6. Above average
5. Average
4. Below Average
3. Horrible film
2. Excruciating painful movie you want to leave but it might be fun to stay and make fun of the film
1. Never talk about the movie again. (Leave early or turn off)
0. Something Kevin puts on Youtube

Ask yourself this question. Would you rate women, foods, cars, music or anything else using this 4 point scale? I know I wouldn’t.

2 comments:

  1. I agree 100%, you would think if someone has enough brains to put a sight like this together, they'd know that it should be a minimum of 10 points. I really like the idea of 1/2 point increments. Someone is going to probably say why not make it a scale of 1-100 then, but the half’s points condense it to a degree. If they don't seriously consider these changes, several of us may take our business elswhere.

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  2. There is always some moderator on a power trip trying to make you play by his rules. I swear these sloppy geeks love to dictate from behind their computers, and feel powerful by stepping on their users backs.

    Blair

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