Film PR Company Caught Manipulating Rotten Tomatoes Scores

[Tsing]

Vulture has published an article that alleges Bunker 15, a movie-publicity company, has been manipulating Rotten Tomatoes and some of its Tomatometer scores for the last few years by paying off reviewers for positive reviews. The idea of this is nothing new and has been speculated by many for quite some time, but according to some of the critics that Vulture spoke with, some "reviewers" are doing this for as low as $50 a review. Ophelia, a feminist retelling of Hamlet that stars Daisy Ridley, is one of the movies that benefited from this arrangement, Vulture reported. (Rotten Tomatoes appears to be have scrubbed its page and reviews for Ophelia completely.)

See full article...

 

[Dan_D]

Many good films have scores that are far lower than they should be while some absolute garbage has scores much higher than what would seem reasonable. Of course, most would argue that films are entirely subjective (though I disagree with that thinking to some degree), though many revered films don't necessarily score as they should and vice versa.

This should really surprise no one.

 

[Niner51]

This should really surprise no one.

It's been going on for years I'm sure.

 

[MadMummy76]

The only score I believe is the one I gave. Regardless if it is a movie or a game.

They always make a fuss about negative review bombing, but we knew the opposite has been going on for just as long if not longer.

 

[MadMummy76]

most would argue that films are entirely subjective (though I disagree with that thinking to some degree),

How much you enjoy something is entirely subjective. But you can also make objective observations about some specific parts, like VFX quality, cinematography, story details, realism, historical accuracy, etc.

 

[Dan_D]

How much you enjoy something is entirely subjective. But you can also make objective observations about some specific parts, like VFX quality, cinematography, story details, realism, historical accuracy, etc.

That's exactly my point. You can like The Last Jedi. However, I think I can make a good case for the film being objectively bad from a writing standpoint. I think there are also valid critiques for how many scenes were shot and the choreography in the lightsaber fight scenes is abysmal. While Star Wars has always gone for the WWII in space style with the physics, TLJ is completely farcical on a level that should never have happened on a movie with that kind of budget and history.