Amazon 1-Star Reviews (people who didn't get it)

[Tiplodocus]

some people that go see a film don't always do so by choice.

Well that's their stupid fault. If they are grown-ups then they should be able to make their own decisions. Don't their girlfriends/boyfriends/spouses/civil partners have their own like-minded friends they can see those films with? If they tag along to a film they know in advance they are not going to like, then what value is their opinion of the film?

I don't like opera, but I'm not arrogant or self-important or, yes, stupid enough to go to see an opera and then go online and give it a shit review because "I don't like opera" or "there was too much singing, and who was that fat woman at the end? They should have got a size zero model..." It's just self-evidently ridiculous, or at least it should be.

I don't think there's anything "self-evidently ridiculous" here. Instead of "arrogant", "self-important" or "stupid", the person might just be considerate.

You know, willing to go see the sort of thing their partner likes on the understanding that on occassion, their partner will go see something that they like but their partner isn't fond of?

My wife is perfectly right when she says she didn't like DREDD because it was too violent for her tastes. And that is a helpful review (not a shit review) for people that don't like violence. (Especially given that explicit violence is not something you often see in cinema trailers and TV spots in the UK).

I'd suggest the issue with 1-star reviews is that people are forced to give a star-rating at all. Or marks out of 10.  Ideally, the words should be enough. But there isn't any easy way of filtering all of the "Thought it too violent/scary/obscene" reviews in one place so we may just have to live with people giving it one-star and then reading and understanding why they thought so.

If I see a one-star review that says "Too violent" I will know not to let it influence my judgement but that is helpful for people that don't like violence.

[radiator]

I can see both sides - for instance I will disregard Amazon reviews written by people that have atrocious spelling and grammar, type their review in ALL CAPS, tip the reader off that their taste in films in terrible, seem to be holding some sort of grudge or bias, or otherwise seem to be unhinged in some way - and that immediately nullifies a lot of Amazon reviews. Goes with the territory.

[Link Prime]

I can see both sides - for instance I will disregard Amazon reviews written by people that have atrocious spelling and grammar, type their review in ALL CAPS, tip the reader off that their taste in films in terrible, seem to be holding some sort of grudge or bias, or otherwise seem to be unhinged in some way - and that immediately nullifies a lot of Amazon reviews. Goes with the territory.

YOURRE AN IDJIOT

[CrazyFoxMachine]

My question is - for a film that has four and a half stars on British Amazon, and a solid four on American Amazon. Why go in there and interrogate the bottom ratings? It's generally liked, GOOD.

Why obsess about what people don't like about something you do? That's their own bloody business. I remember doing it for a brief period with Rush albums on Amazon - just out of morbid curiosity. They're my favourite band in existence and I thought "some people hate this I wonder exactly why?"

and I didn't come away with a greater understanding of anything only that I like it because I like it and some people just don't. Frankly we should be grateful that people are rating it at all.

Because negative publicity is still people watching it and hearing of it. I would rather hear someone going "Dredd? I hated that film" than "Dredd? What's that?"

[Muon]

The good (and perhaps bad) thing about something like Amazon is that it empowers inarticulate people who wouldn't normally have a voice to share their feelings on a product. A lot of them seem to approach the task of writing a review as a kind of public service in the way they try to warn others away from something they feel is bad or, conversely, encourage others to experience something they love themselves.

As I shop on Amazon, I often read customer reviews. In my experience, the 1-star reviews of entertainment products, particularly of films, are often by people who are not particularly invested in the thing they're reviewing. To them, it's not so much a work of art as a functional product that either does the job they expect of it or doesn't. There are tons of very superficial, ignorant reviews of all types of films - not just Dredd.

But somehow some of the comments listed here about Dredd seem even more ignorant, damaging and misguided than the usual throwaway discourse I see on the web. I think the reason for this is how much suffering the whole project went through. Badly served by a poor Stallone effort in the 90s, ridiculed since then, and now there actually is a great version of Dredd on screen it gets scuppered by unfair comparisons with other films, lack of marketing budget and the stain of Stallone. For that reason I can't help feeling quite protective toward the film. Even stepping away from my fanboy loyalty, it seems like a film I would champion as a breath of fresh air alternative from the usual CGI crapfests.

But as Joe Soap wrote, the majority of Amazon reviews seem to be really favourable - in fact, surprisingly so given the project's inauspicious beginnings. From what I've seen, the film has well and truly found its audience. Whatever the intelligence levels of the quoted 1-star reviewers, it's important to remember that most of them are approaching the film from a completely different perspective to most film fans. It's not art to them - it's nothing more than a product that either works or doesn't work. And not seeing the hero's face all the way through or not getting to see the cliches they're used to elicits a similar response as when they order a DVD player that doesn't work the way they expected it to.

The influence of the digital age, when people feel cheated even if entertainment content doesn't happen to be free, probably has something to do with it. A lot of people haven't experienced saving their pocket money for months for the new album by their favourite album and then treasuring it and reading the lyrics sheet over and over once they finally get it.

For these reasons, although I admit to feeling the initial pangs of defensiveness I mentioned before, when all's said and done I don't see this kind of review as something to get too upset about. The film has made its mark.

[Jim_Campbell]

YOURRE AN IDJIOT

NO YUOR MOM!

[radiator]

The good (and perhaps bad) thing about something like Amazon is that it empowers inarticulate people who wouldn't normally have a voice to share their feelings on a product. A lot of them seem to approach the task of writing a review as a kind of public service in the way they try to warn others away from something they feel is bad or, conversely, encourage others to experience something they love themselves.

That's just it - people generally only feel compelled to write a review in the first place if they either passionately love or hate something - so a lot of reviews are wildly bipolar. I actually think Amazon should quietly delete or hide the top 10% of the most positive and bottom 10% of the most negative for this reason.

In fact it's often very frustrating trying to buy non-media items, like electrical goods for example, because when you scan through the reviews of any product or item you care to mention there's always one or two scathing one-star reviews saying things like 'broke after a week!' - 'don't listen to the positive reviews - this product is rubbish/useless!'. Ultimately you just have to go with the majority and assume that a lot of those are written by people who broke the item through their own stupidity.

And don't even get me started on people who review the delivery service rather than the product - ie "This product arrived damaged - 1 star", "This dvd never arrived - one star". Those morons should have their fingers cut off so they can never use a keyboard again - along with people who feel compelled to type violent, angry anti-Apple rants whenever anyone, anywhere writes an article about Apple, or mentions an Apple product. 

[von Boom]

Pipp!n.

[Muon]

That's just it - people generally only feel compelled to write a review in the first place if they either passionately love or hate something - so a lot of reviews are wildly bipolar. I actually think Amazon should quietly delete or hide the top 10% of the most positive and bottom 10% of the most negative for this reason.

In fact it's often very frustrating trying to buy non-media items, like electrical goods for example, because when you scan through the reviews of any product or item you care to mention there's always one or two scathing one-star reviews saying things like 'broke after a week!' - 'don't listen to the positive reviews - this product is rubbish/useless!'. Ultimately you just have to go with the majority and assume that a lot of those are written by people who broke the item through their own stupidity.

And don't even get me started on people who review the delivery service rather than the product - ie "This product arrived damaged - 1 star", "This dvd never arrived - one star". Those morons should have their fingers cut off so they can never use a keyboard again - along with people who feel compelled to type violent, angry anti-Apple rants whenever anyone, anywhere writes an article about Apple, or mentions an Apple product. 

Yeah, there are a few regular "Amazon" types that any shopper on the site would be familiar with. Personally, I have come to grief a few times by paying too much attention to self-appointed experts who latch onto a certain aspect of a version of something they know very well without taking into account shoppers who might not be as well-versed as them. An example of this is people who rant about the low quality of an English translation of a work of fiction, which is absolutely no use to me if I can't read the original language anyway. Then I end up getting the "suspect" translation and thoroughly enjoy it.

Regarding Dredd and other films like it, though, I really get the sense that a lot of the unfavourable reviews on something like Amazon are by people who had so little interest in the film in the first place that they just put it on in the background while they ironed some shirts or something. Of course you get the people with axes to grind as you mentioned, but in my experience, unfavourable film reviews I see on Amazon tend to be by people who had so little investment in the film (or most films for that matter) that they were never going to give it the attention it deserves.   

[Richard]

Why obsess about what people don't like about something you do?

To be fair, GrinningChimera started this thread just to give us all a laugh at some of the daft things people were saying, not because he was obsessed with what other people think about a film he happens to like. He even started by acknowledging that different people have different opinions and are entitled to them. The point was that the opinions he selected were so illogical or ill-informed that they barely qualify as opinions, and serve as a source of amusement. But because this is the Internet, somebody took it all a bit seriously and came running to their defence...

[Definitely Not Mister Pops]

Reviewing reviews.

It's turtles all the way down

[Link Prime]

Reviewing reviews.

It's turtles all the way down

1 Star

[GrinningChimera]

To be fair, GrinningChimera started this thread just to give us all a laugh at some of the daft things people were saying, not because he was obsessed with what other people think about a film he happens to like. He even started by acknowledging that different people have different opinions and are entitled to them. The point was that the opinions he selected were so illogical or ill-informed that they barely qualify as opinions, and serve as a source of amusement. But because this is the Internet, somebody took it all a bit seriously and came running to their defence...

This man gets it.

[judgerufian]

Hey, at least they all watched the film, thats got to be a positive out of a negative (review).

[Chrrow]

It's always interesting to see that the more stupid people are the worse their rating gets. Some of those 1-star rating are so stupid I can't help myself but laugh.