Sorry for the bad joke - the following meditation is about every movie-buffs Bible, the
Internet Movie Database, and its recent problems, how I see them.
For me imdb represents the dreamjob (pity that I'm not a
software developer), and was always my most visited site, long time it appeared as a home page when I started my internet browser. A perfect origo, an authentic guideline. But these good, reliable times seems to disappear. Imdb becomes the tool of advertising a movie, to build a hype, to encourage fight between fans and trolls, to ... to earn more money.
This entry was almost necessary, since I complained enough for example
here,
here,
here and
here about losing faith in the database's informations. And then came Chris Nolan's
The Dark Knight (my opinion is
here) which made unavoidable to talk about the recent problems of the site, namely how hype kills the very meaning of its rating system. It's not a question that recent movies are way too over-rated. Just look at my examples. You might explain with this a lot of ways (economically: extremising marketing strategies, sociologically: changing internet audience, plus there are conspiracy-theories about paying for / hacking the numbers), I accept those, but not to react on these changes is the site's fault (except the conspiracy theorists have right: in 1998 Amazon bought the imdb to improve its selling numbers. Do you need a perfect thesis topic: "
How changed the Amazon's selling features according to the rates on the imdb?"). Here is a chart about the ratings on imdb by release year of the rated films:
Let's look at the TDK's example. After its appearing in the cinemas it jumped immediately to the first position in the famous imdb 250 list, topple down classics like
The Godfather or the - other over-rated -
The Shawshank Redemption. And it stays there (at least until today (9.5/10 after 124.766 votes)). What does it mean? Everybody shouts that we have a new all time best movie ever made. No, it doesn't mean this at all. It means that we have a movie which has the most votes approaching the highest available score. I gave several 10 out of 10s before too, but for example I still like Fellini's
Otto e mezzo far better than Preminger's
Anatomy of a Murder.
So, there are people who gave 10 for TDK, because it's one of their favourite movies. Not the best, but which deserves a 10 among others. This would be the ideal case. But.
The reality says something different. If we don't believe in the above mentioned conspiracy theories we have still a problematic explanation, namely most people gives 10 for the TDK, because they are hypnotised by the unbelievable marketing mechanism of Nolan's otherwise good movie, and last but not least because they are touched by Heath Ledger's sorrowful death (it was funny to see how people cries for an Oscar to Ledger before the premier, which means before they actually seen the film..). Of course there are other people who driven by some inexplicable nostalgy for the(ir) classics vote with a ridiculous 1 for TDK. I suppose they would have vote with 1 for The Godfather in 1972 just to save their precious Citizen Kane's first spot in the non-existing imdb list in the seventies:) (imdb launched on October 17, 1990). Another funny fact that the blind TDK fans - driven by a revenge - started now to vote with 1 for The Godfather and The Shawshank Redemption - to make themselves more pathetic and to spoil our interest in the imdb forever.
That was the cry-part, let's see some hope, a solution if there are at all. What you need is only a reliable source to choose a good movie for the evening (cos' you're supposedly not interested in the fight between the hypnotized fans). Then, sadly I have to say forget the imdb and go for
Metacritic.com, the site, where professional (?) film critics' average opinions decide about the films. They have their all time list too, here
the 200 best with a rather
complicated rating system than the imdb uses (note that TDK isn't among the best 200 (yet), and look, who is on the 2nd spot? Superman II., another superhero!). I almost forget to tell the imdb's formula, here it is, the True Bayesian Estimate:
Ok, we have a reliable source, what is the problem then? The problem is that the Metacritic's database is far from being full. There are several important movies which are missing from the site and among the ratings (after quick try for example
Taxidermia /
Hawaii, Oslo, /
Aaltra / or even as big classics as the cited
Otto e mezzo / etc.). That's too bad, go back to the imdb and search for solution there. There is an ingenious idea - not surprisingly emerged after TDK's obscure success.
Dalton 1962's idea (appeared among the imdb's message boards on TDK (should I mention that the numbers of messages about TDK beated all the previous records as well?)) is interesting enough to take into consideration: he suggest a double rating system which could "filter our irrational enthusiasm or hate", which would divide the hype from the "real" rating of a certain film. There would be a so called Short Term Voting which would measure the level of a hype (
hype-meter?), and on the other hand there would be a Long Term Voting, which would be available approximately 2-3 months after the premier of a movie, and which would tell much soberly about the "real" qualities of the given film. Ok, I see the limits of this idea (a lot of valid votes would disappear in the STV), but I believe it is a good path to approach the solutions for the existing - and growing - problems of reliability of the imdb (more about its history, rating system, and business background see the good ol'
wiki).
There isn't any moral at the end of this post since it's long enough already:) Maybe you'll make one point in the comments? Welcome!
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