As transient as the internet might be, it is also engraved in stone. Anything that has ever been online is traceable, if a user is willing to look hard enough. Every past mistake or indiscretion, ever ill-advised opinion or awkward hat take, is stored for posterity. The internet might move quickly, but it remembers. In particular, it remembers its opinion about films.
Many classic films landed with a dull thud at the box office and with active hostility from film critics. It’s a Wonderful Life was only rehabilitated as a Christmas classic through constant seasonal airings on television, becoming as much a fixture of the festive season as mulled wine and mince pies. Blade Runner and The Thing slowly developed into cult classics after being dismissed by critics and ground beneath the all-conquering heel of E.T.
Time has allowed perceived failures to be revaluated and reassessed, allowing younger audiences to discover films on their own terms and to assess them as part of their own cinematic canon. Critical rehabilitation has long been an essential part of the process, often allowing for belated recognition of genius and insight. However, rehabilitation is dependent upon rediscovery. On the internet, no film is ever forgotten long enough that it might be properly reassessed.
The age of instant responses and twenty-four-hour production news has created an atmosphere of rapid-fire judgment. There is little room for revision or reconfiguration once the writer has hit “publish” on their piece. After all, any critical rehabilitation would have to come with a concession, an acknowledgement that the critic’s original assessment was misguided or incorrect. More than that, it is impossible for audiences to approach films blind, without their perspective being informed by aggregates and ratings and scores.
It is interesting to wonder whether it is even possible for a contemporary film to undergo the same critical rehabilitation that turned disliked movies like The Shining into modern classics. Once a film is classified as “fresh” or “rotten”, and once the IMDb and MetaCritic grades are firmly established, these metrics become an instant frame of reference that informs every discussion and debate about the work in question. This might explain why these scores have become so contentious.
Engaging with certain modes of film fans on the internet is to explore how much an individual’s self-worthy is tied into the perceived worth of a piece of pop culture, as graded on a 0-100% scale. Accepting the Rotten Tomatoes score as an objectively verifiable measure of a movie’s worth means that there is emotional investment in seeing that score line up with the audience’s expected results. When the final score does not line up with the perceived quality, tensions simmer to the surface.
The release of films like The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises saw internet commentators caught up in vicious arguments and discussions. In 2012, Comic Book Resources reviewer Amy Nicholson found herself the target of misogynistic rage for
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