https://g.co/kgs/8HGSHG
Filter to 1-star and note how many reviews are direct copies of each other - many referencing that the Obamas are executive producers.
from the copy and pasted review:
Situations like these would bring you together, not force you apart.
Did any of these assholes pay attention to their own behavior during the pandemic?
People's behavior during the pandemic is why I'm absolutely sure there will never be another civil war.
What are these idiots going to do when they find their first empty grocery store?
They think they're going to go hunting in the woods. But they forget that even if they do manage to catch something they don't have any way of preparing it or cooking it without taking it back to civilization. They think gas just turns up in stoves and electricity in wires.
They would probably fall apart long before that though, all national guard would need to do would be to turn off the internet in that area, and they'd be stuck. They have no way of organizing themselves except on social media less than one in 100 of them will own and know how to operate a AM radio.
Not to mention due to ecosystem collapse, most wild game you hunt these days is now full of chemicals, parasites, and plastic.
Not even knowing that the Obamas had anything to do with it (like it matters at all?), I thought I was a refreshingly well-done movie in a genre I enjoy. Haters gonna hate.
I never heard about this movie before. Now I know it's a post-apocalyptic movie (love those) made by Sam Esmail (he did Mr. Robot, which was terrific). I guess it also happened to be produced by the Obamas.
So congratulations, reviewers. You got me interested in seeing a movie I didn't even know existed.
i don't like that a former president is producing a postapoc movie with the way the world is going right now. does he know something we don't.
I saw it, didn't know who produced or directed it
Don't watch it, It had potential, I loved the main actors, but it sucked badly. Fair warning: possible spoilers below.
The music score is way too loud, and annoyingly weird. For example, rap music in a supposed suspense thriller movie at points that made no sense, then some romantic "there's about to be sweet sex" music while somebody walks through a house, exploring it. It was annoying when I watched it, we then had it on as background noise to hide sex sounds and had to turn it off because it was so damned annoying.
The story literally goes nowhere, yet is all over the place. The ending leaves loads of opened threads unfinished, and it's quite obvious that the writer(s) heard "cool" things yet failed to grasp the basics.
The microwave emitters they were talking about have ranges up to hundreds of meters, not the hundreds of square kilometers required to reach them in the middle of nowhere.
The airplane crashing was supposed to be cool but one had already crashed many hours before, why was this one still in the air? Also, you can't really "hack" airplanes to go down, pilots can easily take over.
The Tesla's famously can't drive themselves like they do in the movie
The kid would get acute radiation sickness from those microwave attacks? Oh come on. And then the rest of them are unaffected, somehow? And then they go get medicine? What medicine? The kid as shown is dying an agonizing death within two weeks, you can get him painkillers, perhaps.
What the fuck was up with the deer? What was that supposed to do? You could cut all the scenes and nothing would change.
What's up with the girls addiction to friends? It literally ends the movie somewhere in the middle or something because so many questions are left, so many threads opened that aren't brought to a satisfying conclusion.
The writers had a cool idea yet had no idea what to do with it. 1.5 stars out of 5, it was a waste of my time
Yeah keep an open mind but not so open that your brain falls out.
I have no issues with suspension of disbelief, I watch star trek (only the non trash classic ones from 20-30 years ago) and it sets up it's rules within that universe and tries following them. This movie just went all over the place without any rules, it made no sense and then at one point you simply can't suspend disbelief anymore.
What the hell was it with the deer?
The ending was shit, whatever you want to call it. Half the plot threads were still open, but now the girl finally gets to watch her friends episode which she wanted and that somehow is an ending? Wtf?
What was with the different flyers being thrown around? Like they opened threads left and right and then... Did nothing with it.
All that together still would have made a mediocre movie that had so much more potential, but the music, dear god, it was invasive and intrusive and even an annoyance when it was on in the background.
I actually liked it. it's a really cool / scary atmosphere. I was surprised by how much i liked it as it's been ages since i even dared to watch a Netflix-produced movie.
I usually enjoy them. I've been watching them since all the way back to my childhood in the 80s when I spent my life terrified of nuclear war and yet still fascinated by the post-apocalyptic.
For a few years now, I've purposely sought out movies and TV shows on RT and Metacritic with very high critic ratings, and super low user ratings.
The only time this really happens is if reviews are brigaded. If the user reviews were honest, it's pretty rare that you'd see more than 20-30% difference between critic and user score (MAX). So when you see a critic score of 95%, and user score of 1.8/10, then I know I'm in for a good time. Same with games to a lesser degree.
I'm not even kidding, this is almost always a sure way to find a film or show I enjoy. In fact, I wish they'd introduce a "Controversial" category with things that have a big gap between critic and user scores (though when it goes the other way, that is high user score to super poor critic reviews, it's almost always PureFlix-style Christian propaganda garbage).
I've had the opposite experience. I often find that studio cash grabs that rely on nostalgia or low-effort pandering get high critic reviews (which makes me feel like they were paid to do so) and only the user ratings rightfully trash it. Movie reviews seem to be getting a lot more like video games reviews, where a AAA studio shits out a piece of crap, but it's proclaimed a 8-9 out of 10 by big review companies (looking right at you IGN). Only by listening to the fans or less mainstream reviewers do you get the real picture.
Only if it's done right. If it's done as merely a cash grab, most people can tell pretty quick. The new Super Mario Bros., or anything by Disney in the last 4 years are great examples. If you take out nostalgia, they're pretty poor to mediocre movies. And I think most people are able to notice that.
Yes, and those movies end up with a reasonable gap between the two scores. It will have a lower user score than critic score, but it's only ever below 2 or 3 if it's been brigaded. This can be easily confirmed by just reading a few of the user reviews.
Can you give some examples? I'd love to discover some gems.
Word of warning - I usually find that movies on rotten tomatoes with low critic scores and high audience scores are hitting the midweek sweet spot for me. Low cerebral requirement, high distraction. If you get me.
I've found the same thing, critic scores are harder to use as predictors because there is too much variance between their individual special opinions about the importance of character development vs the average user enjoying a movie for what it is. Obviously crap is crap, but a 56% critic and 82% user score is usually more appealing than vice versa
Rotten tomatoes doesn't get the average of all critics scores, they only look whether or not the review was positive or negative. It doesn't look at their individual special opinions.
Yea I’m still surprised that people don’t understand this. The most mediocre film of all time can get a 100%.
Their individual special opinions tip their score from 'good' to 'bad' for reasons that other people probably wouldn't care about, is my point.
Literally anything critical of Christianity (or anything that could even be perceived as critical of Christianity, we can't actually expect them to watch it first).
I guess I should have kept better track over the years... Let me see if I can find a few.
An obvious one (video game though) that I can think of off hand is The Last of Us 2. Fantastic game, user scores brigaded everywhere "because gay/trans."
In fact, I think The Last of US TV show was review bombed after episode 3. Again, "because gay."
The TV show "The Watchmen" was brigaded by users (not sure if they've filtered those out, or if the score has been adjusted since, but when it originally aired, user scores were very very low due to review bombing). Anyone who's seen the show could tell you exactly why that happened.
Here is an article about it happening to a film about the Armenian Genocide (I haven't seen the film so I can't say if it's good, but I'm sure it doesn't deserve 1-star)
I will have to try to keep track from now on. Sometimes it becomes a cultural moment, like with TLOU, but lots of times it goes under the radar, and a show/movie/game gets quietly fucked over by idiots on the internet who have no interest in even trying the media first.
Another example of a movie where the audience score is higher than the critic score is Tommy Wiseau's The Room. Not sure if this applies in general to movies "so bad they are good" (though personally, at this point I believe Tommy knew what he was doing because he's been able to repeat that "so bad it's good" despite knowing how they are received, whereas if it was really driven by his ego, I'm sure that same ego would have forced him to change it up to get the critical acclaim the was supposedly chasing.)
I'm not really of the mind that a piece of media can be "so bad it's good."
I understand the sentiment, but I generally do not agree. Maybe "so bad that it's fun to laugh at with friends," but "good"? Nah.
To be honest, I agree with this. It would be more accurate to say, "so bad it's entertaining", but it's generally laughs at the media rather than with it.
Though since I think Tommy did that deliberately, I would argue that "so bad it's good" does apply to The Room. Though the ethics are a bit questionable because I don't think he let any of his staff or cast in on the joke. I also suspect those sex scenes were real sex and one of the big motivators for the movie.
Sound of Freedom Comes to mind as a recently brigaded film. Trailer came up for me on Prime and I didn’t realize what it was. I don’t care how embellished the story is, what based on a true story isn’t? But Jim Caviezel‘s acting in the trailer is so bad I can’t imagine sitting through it.
Just to prove you wrong: 32% difference, and yes it's objectively terrible. Even higher differences can easily occur organically without review bombing when critics happen to be smelling their own farts -- which yes is what a definite 100% of those 37% critics who reviewed it positively were doing. I'm seriously worried about their mental state.
Ok... Finding one exception doesn't really disprove anything. I don't think I ever claimed that it was a hard rule that every movie fits into. Just a rule a thumb I use to find media that I otherwise might have missed.
Velma was absolutely review bombed. 39% is on par for what it is considering TV has on average higher rankings than movies do.
Be that as it may it's still objectively terrible and has more than 30% difference, which was my actual point.
As to review bombing: It would likely not have caught so much flak if it was stand-alone and not a Scooby Doo reboot -- then it would simply vanish alongside other terrible shows that few people ever saw and even fewer rated, with middling score because of course there's always some people who like something for inexplicable reasons, and without attracting a larger audience those are pretty much the only people who vote because they're the only ones who care.
But it had a brand name, it walks all over the original (and I don't mean race swapping who gives a fuck, I mean thematically), is neither witty nor funny nor insightful so... yeah. No need for an organised campaign to draw ire, and if some racists spent time review-bombing it over the race swap then all the better: They wasted their time as noone likes it anyway.
I don’t buy that argument at all. It was entirely about changing the race of the characters and going after white men. Scooby Doo has been rebooted dozens of times and they just exist, they don’t make the originals worse. This new series is not a betrayal to the source material without Scooby anymore than the first time they had a real ghost. I don’t think I finished it, but it is not nearly as bad as people make it out to be. The Pilot is, but that’s pretty typical especially with a cast full of non-voice actors recording during Covid. By episode two and three everything is better put together. I found it similar to a lot of current high school shows. Mindy received a ton of hate over it too, and she’s neither the show runner or writer of it. She was running two other shows at the same time so it’s hilarious how many idiots claimed she’s a no talent hack over it.
I don't think Netflix cares if you're watching it, as long as you pay your subscription they are happy, and if you don't watch anything it's even better!
I'm missing something here, if they produce it and stream it, who would pay those royalties?
They would pay the "royalties". It's actually residuals, and it's usually paid to the actors and senior crew (director, producers, etc), from what i understand.
Royalties are paid to, potentially, a lot of people. Most a-list actors will get royalties with every dvd sold (and increasingly views on streaming services,) and such like.
for netflix, yes. I assume Obamas and others make more with every view. maybe a few cents...but still.
Holy deranged
Don't even consider watching this movie!!!!! Horrible movie. If I could leave zero stars I would. I would say the Obama’s should stick to politics but unfortunately I can’t say that either. Regardless, this review sums it up very well: Zero stars needs to be an option. One reviewer posted an excellent review of this movie, so I had to copy and paste. "If you care about using your time wisely, then avoid this film like the plague. But if you like watching terribly written media, then by all means grab a snack and relax. Because this film is the embodiment of utter garbage. The first, and to me, the greatest red flag is seeing the Obamas as executive producers. The movie just changed far too many times, giving you more questions than answers. Family on the beach, a supposed home invasion, planes crashing, a brat obsessed with Friends, hackers start the end of the world, animals migrate for no apparent reason, son is poisoned by radiation yet no one else is and not to mention the blatant racial themes etc. Just a heaping mess of a pile. None of the characters are developed and slowly turn against each other. Situations like these would bring you together, not force you apart. You’d come to hate a few others, such as the daughter who treats Friends like a god and the other daughter, Ruth, who not only has a spoiled attitude but she assumes things on everyone and also believes you should never trust white people. I wish I were joking. And I quote: "I'm asking for you to remember that if the world falls apart, trust should not be doled out easily to anyone, especially white people." This had no relevance to the film at all! If this statement was flipped around, watch how things would go. I guess her name “Ruth” is short for ruthless. Because she did not act nice to anyone, not even her own father at times. If they removed her from the script, it would have made this film somewhat better. But not enough to save it. But the fact this made it through production baffles me. Then again, remind yourself of who the executive producers were. As for the “terrorist” act itself, it just isn’t clear which nation is the main driving force of it all. First some Arabic country to then either Korea or China. No idea because this is never answered. Nor were a lot of things. Where was the military? The actual forces of the nation. Apparently they do not exist, so everyone has to fend for themselves. Granted we do live in a technological world, but planes wouldn’t be crashing nor boats intentionally grounding themselves if everything was hacked. Analog exists. Pilots can still operate a plane without working apparatus etc. I’d go on but other reviews capture the level of frustration this “movie” brings the table. It’s bad. At least the daughter got to watch the last episode of Friends, after running off with neither brains nor brawn. Ate a large supply of food and somehow, found a VHS tape that oh so conveniently had Friends. Leaving her family to die. I wonder what she’ll think after the episode is over. Probably happiness, not a care for her family, as a show takes more priority than the end of the world." If I could give this movie a rating less than one star I would!!!
This is a perfect simulation of unhinged 90s/00s chain emails your aunt would forward you. All it’s missing is a title like “FW: FW: FW: FW: OPEN, very important!!!!!” and instructions to forward it to more people.
Maybe I should quit hanging around the internet now. I'd rather hang out with humans than bots.
Wow that review is being copy/pasted everywhere and reposted to multiple review sites under many usernames. I thought the movie was pretty good and it’s based on a book that doesn’t answer the questions that the viewer is asking. That is part of the story l, not REALLY knowing what is going on. It’s like the whole theme, not to know for sure. It mentions the military in the final scenes so we have a guess on what they are up to.
It feels like somebody get a printout of the events of the story without any context or meaning. Like the last comment says the girl left her family to die. No. The entire family is meeting her at the bunker.
I guess that factual correctness is not the goal. If one reads a "review" and decides not to watch, they win; if one decides to watch, they lose. Doesn't matter if the "review" contradicts the reality.
Well the same is accurate for many things said nowadays, unfortunately
It's not great. Definitely more than 1 star but I watched it the other day and couldn't remember a thing about it until looking up the plot summary just now. It's one of those movies that could be amazing if it stuck the landing but I personally don't feel like it did. I voted for Obama twice so my opinion is not politically motivated.
It seems extremely trivial for Google to automatically delete all those identical reviews. Why they aren't doing this? On play store many times they delete my reviews because they think it's irrelevant to the product, here where they're all identical?
Name a product Google has that isn’t half assed? They were letting YouTube accounts impersonate account owners in comments at least as recently as last summer.
Excellent movie. I only watched it because a friend referred to it as “that Obama movie that says don’t trust whitey” I figured that’s gotta be a must watch lol
My local trump trump supporter LOVED it and recommended I watch it. Despite the Obamas involvement (his words more or less).
He has the whole survivalist kink thing though.
The interesting part of your comment is missing. You've set up "a deplorable watched and liked it - even knowing the Obamas produced it" and it was recommended to you, by him.
So, did you watch it? Did you like it?
I have read that it somehow symbolizes nature trying to warn us about climate change or something but that doesn't make sense to me.
I liked it, but I didn't know it was produced by Obama when I watched it, so didn't have any preconceptions.
If I was going to leave a review (which I'm not), it would be one star because the ending sucked out loud, not because of any politics.
