It’s the middle of summer. That means that Hollywood movie makers are doing their best to get you to go to the movies. You see movie trailer after movie trailer on the television and all throughout your social media feeds. You finally decide that you want to venture out to the theater to see the next great summer movie. The only problem is you have no idea what movie you want to see. If you do have an idea, you want to know beforehand if the film is worth your hard-earned money. That’s when you turn to the best movie review website: Rotten Tomatoes.
The Tomatometer™
What makes Rotten Tomatoes the best movie review website? Well, it’s the Tomatometer™ of course! Not sure what the Tomatometer™ is? No worries. The Tomatometer™ is simply the rating representing the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show.Rotten Tomatoes
So why name the rating after a tomato? Here is how Rotten Tomatoes explains their thinking behind their Tomatometer™.
“Back in the days of the open theaters, when a play was particularly atrocious, the audience expressed their dissatisfaction by not only booing and hissing at the stage, but throwing whatever was at hand — vegetables and fruits included.”
The Tomatometer™ is broken down into three different ratings. A fresh red tomato shows a good review. To meet a rating of Fresh, the movie must be at least 60% rating on the Tomatometer™.
If the review is 59% or below, then that is denoted by a rotten green tomato splat.
That leaves us with the Certified Fresh rating. To be rated as Certified Fresh the movie needs to have a steady Tomatometer™ rating of 75% or better. This rating is shown as a Certified Fresh Seal. Take a look at the rating criteria and their respective images below.
The easy to use Tomatometer™ rating system is what many people rely on when choosing a film. Audiences interested in a movie get quick feedback by a simple picture. This one feature alone could make Rotten Tomatoes the best movie review website.
Who is doing the reviewing?
You now know the Tomatometer™ is a great tool to use. The ratings give you a quick look at how a movie is faring with reviewers. But you now may wonder, who gets to do the reviewing?
Reviews for the Tomatometer™ come from publications or individual critics selected by the Rotten Tomatoes staff. The staff uses certain criteria for publications and critics. These criteria are then separated into three divisions; print broadcast, and online.Rotten Tomatoes
What about the rest of us?
Are you looking for ratings from people who don’t review films for a living? The best movie review website has you covered. I introduce to you the Audience Score.
The Audience rating, denoted by a popcorn bucket, is the percentage of all Flixster.com (a variant of Rotten Tomatoes) and RottenTomatoes.com users who have rated the movie or TV show positively.
Just as the Tomatometer™ is broken down into three different easy to use scores so is the Audience Score. This time, the Audience score is broken down by popcorn buckets! First is a full popcorn bucket denoting the movie received 3.5 stars or higher. Next, is a tipped over popcorn bucket which means the movie received less than 3.5 stars. Lastly, if you see the plus sign this signifies no audience rating exist. Rather, the plus sign shows you the percentage of users who have added the movie to their Want-To-See list.
Wait. There’s more.
Not one, but two types of movie reviews solidifies Rotten Tomatoes as the best movie review website. If you want to go deeper and learn more about the movies available for you to watch Rotten Tomatoes has tons of content covering movie news and opinion. Be ready to spend time reading and watching all the content available!
TV Too
Oh yeah. The best movie review website has another treat in store for you at RottenTomatoes.com. Remember all of that great stuff I just told you about the Tomatometer™and the Audience Score? Well, Rotten Tomatoes also reviews TV shows! If you have binged on your favorite shows and are looking for something new give the Tomatometer™and Audience Score a chance at helping you find a new show to watch.
Best Movie Review Website Critiques
So what is wrong with the best movie review website? When you are offering a score or percentage on something as subjective as a movie, critiques are bound to happen. Some people will complain that the Tomatometer™ and Audience Score are not an accurate representation of if a movie is “good” or “bad.” Others will say Ipeople just don’t know how to understand the Tomatometer™and the Audience Score now in place.
My advice for you is to visit RottenTomatoes.com yourself and see what they have to offer. Even if you do not agree with their Tomatometer™and Audience Score, it will give you more of an idea of what’s in store when you go to see your next summer blockbuster.
