Is Rotten Tomatoes trustworthy?

[Jochizyd Republic]

For those of you who don't know, Rotten Tomatoes is a Film Criticism site that hosts critics that through consensus, tell if a movie is Good or not.

As a pretty major hub for Film Criticism online, it's pretty hard to avoid the judgements the Critics at Rotten Tomatoes concede on.

But while a lot of their judgements are sound (it's obvious Citizen Kane and Taxi Driver are going to be ranked high) some of them just seem to clash with what fans think and what common sense should probably dictate.

Do you find it Turstworthy for judging whether movies are Good or Bad?

Personally, I think it can really get ridiculous at times. Signs has a 74% "fresh" rating and Kingdom of Heaven has a 39% for example. Although I do still check out what they have to say.

[Northumbria]

I just watch films I think look good and decide for myself. Sometimes, Rotten Tomatoes gets it right and sometimes it gets it wrong.

Just decide for yourself.

[Reploid Productions]

It's just one more tool in the kit for gathering opinions and info about any given film. Having a group consensus can be a very useful way to gauge the popularity, but like any review you do need to keep the biases in mind of the reviewers and consider it accordingly. There is, after all, a wide gap between a film being popular, and a film being good. It can be very handy as a central location to read a whole lot of Average Joes' opinions, you just need to remember to take the numbers with a grain of salt as needed.

Movies that are way more mainstream are going to have a lot more reviews than niche titles that may be catering to a very specific audience or fandom, and that will reflect in the numbers and the reviews. For instance, compare the ratings for the indie short anime Voices of a Distant Star which has a very positive rating from about 6,600 reviews versus a AAA blockbuster like Civil War, which also has a very positive rating from over 155,000 reviews, or a longtime classic such as Casablanca which has a sky-high positive rating from over 355,000 reviews. The larger the pool of reviews, the more reliable I tend to find the strict numerical rating; the fewer the reviews, the less reliable that rating is and the more I rely on reading through the actual text of people's reviews.

EDIT TO ADD: Most useful are in-depth reviews. If I see multiple reviews with common praises or complaints, that is going to be far more useful than the numerical rating no matter HOW many reviews it has.

[Evilland of Evil Business]

I think that Rotten Tomatoes is good if you're checking to see if the movie isn't going to be a waste of money (basically anything below a 65, personally) but I found that the movies I really enjoyed often had a lukewarm/negative review on RT. For example, Central Intelligence was a comedy movie I found extremely funny and well worth my time, yet it only got a mediocre score on RT. In my opinion, your most trustworthy source would be word-of-mouth or social media.

[Socialist Tera]

It depends on the film, Warcraft was hated by rotten tomato but was a good movie, not great but good.

[Anollasia]

I just watch films I think look good and decide for myself. Sometimes, Rotten Tomatoes gets it right and sometimes it gets it wrong.

Just decide for yourself.

^

For example, A New Hope is at 94%, which is near where I would put it. However, Shark Tale (which I really like) is 35%.