Metacritic Useless

[BK007]

Just saw Now You See Me 2's score drop from 60 to 48 with the addition of 2 reviews (1 a 40 from ScreenCrush and 1 a 50 from ReelViews) out of 30 total.

 

So 1 critic from an unknown website can drop the score 12 points from 28/9 other critics. Fucking win.

 

When you don't publicize the weightage of the scores, how can anyone really trust your method? Especially with such egregious changes as such.

 

This is not the first time. I remember a movie having 5 reviews in the 40-50 range, and its MC score was 37. How the fuck do you get 37 when none of the reviews are lower than 40?

 

It was one of the hated movies at the time, Fantastic Four or something else of that sort, but that is just pandering and inane. I don't care how hated a movie is, if you're going to be some sort of website aggregator, then do the bloody math right. 

[Plain Old Tele]

As always, seek out individual reviews, not aggregate averages (weighted or not). IMO.

[AniNate]

I don't know if that's exactly what happened but the median Metacritic rating for NYSM2 is 50 so it's really not that far off. It's possible they just didn't update their posted reviews and their aggregate rating at the same time. And there are quite a few brutal reviews on there.

Edited June 15, 2016 by tribefan695

[Webslinger]

I don't see the big deal... ? 

 

It's true that Metacritic's exact weighting is bizarre; for example, I've also noticed negative scores for films with an early four or five scores set at 40, and it's hard to figure how Boyhood gets a 100 without every single review scoring 100. However, I'll definitely take their pickiness in sources and sometimes-odd weighting system over the snap fresh/rotten judgments from a gazillion sources that Rotten Tomatoes offers. At least Metacritic attempts to give a narrower, more precise snapshot of what the top publications have written about films and the degree to which a reception is positive, mixed, or negative.

 

That being said, I agree with Tele's post. Even though I do check Metacritic regularly, it's always better to read specific, well-thought-out analyses of film instead of just focusing on whatever number and color shows up on its Metacritic/Rotten Tomatoes/etc. page.