RottenTomatoes.com is a movie-themed website which, among other features, primarily offers comprehensive collections of as many reviews as possible for as many movies as possible. These reviews are compiled and averaged out based on their individual grades (whether stars, letter grades, numbers, etc). Determining the average "freshness" rating of a movie, the hopeful viewer can make an educated decision on whether they want to spend their time and money on the movie. The makers of RT.com say:
"Why should we rely on a single critic who may have a particular taste in film different from ours? Couldn't we organize and collect all of the reviews from a variety of sources (newspaper, online, magazines) and average them into a single score? We could and did.
Over 7 million readers each month use RT globally as a dependable, objective resource for coverage of movies and DVD. With more than 250,000 titles and 850,000 review links in its ever-growing database, RT offers a fun and informative way to discover the critical reaction on movies neatly summarized via the Tomatometer." (from the ABOUT US page)
On top of this main focus, the website now offers just about everything movie-related - news, gossip, celebrity news, trailers, interviews, blogs, rumors, photos, and even an interactive message board where guests and registered users can interact publicly and discuss everything movie-related (and all else).
Trustworthy - The website is certainly trustworthy as its data is compiled by movie with each individual review sourced directly. The fresh/rotten reviews are based on the average ratings per movie of all the compiled reviews.
Appropriate - The website compiles reviews for foreign films, as well as North American ones, and thus provides a valuable service to every culture and country. The website also breaks the limitations of critical reviews through newspapers, TV and magazines - providing those sources and more so the viewer can get the most comprehensive and well-rounded idea of whether or not the film is suited to their own tastes.
Smart - It does all the math so you don't have to average out all the reviews on your own!
Responsive - No problems here, aside from full page advertisements that you are forced to watch unless you click "continue to..." They recently added a very clear link to the site header where you can report a bug in the site by clicking. This is a smart idea to help improve the smoothness of the site and maintaining that each page works well.
Clever - The whole idea behind the website is clever and within the basic idea that carries the website, there are other fun features, including a "cream of the crop" section of reviews for each movie, where they gather together the reviews of the high-profile critics and provide a separate average rating. A Rotten Tomatoes message board also gives readers a chance to interact with one another to discuss movies, critic reviews, Hollywood news and gossip, as well as TV, DVD, and gaming. This elevates the website from a movie review site to an all-encompassing media site.
Ludic and Pleasurable- The fun theme of fresh vs. rotten fruit to rate the movies, combined with a corresponding color scheme, allows readers to get into the spirit of the website easily. When probed enough, the reader can uncover fun hidden gems, such as lists about the worst movies of the year (or all-time), movie and celebrity photos, trailers, critic profiles, and more. Each page offers up unique information and access to an endless supply of it through links to more pages.
One thing that I think would improve the Cream of the Crop reviews idea is to feature streaming videos from shows such Ebert & Roeper or Gene Shalit's reviews. If a deal were struck between TV critics and the website, there are many opportunities for cross-promotion.
Source: www.rottentomatoes.com
-Jonah
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