• Pop Culture
    • Movies
    • Television
    • Comic Books
    • Video Games
    • Toys & Collectibles
  • Features
    • News
    • Reviews
    • Articles and Opinions
    • Interviews
    • Exclusives
    • FMTV
  • Socials
    • YouTube
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram
    • Flipboard
  • About
    • About Flickering Myth
    • Write for Flickering Myth
    • Advertise on Flickering Myth
  • Terms
    • Terms of Use
    • Privacy Policy

Flickering Myth

Geek Culture | Movies, TV, Comic Books & Video Games

  • TRENDING TOPICS:
  • Star Wars
  • Marvel
  • DC
  • Physical Media
  • Write for Us

Introducing Flickering Myth’s new movie review ratings system…

February 29, 2012 by admin

An explanation of our new ratings system here at Flickering Myth…

The New York Latino Film Festival ran a humorous, albeit snarky, advertising campaign a couple of months back. Its posters featured graphical representations comparing the clichés found in two types of narrative cinema: FILMS, those done for flash, and MOVIES, those done for cash.

“Watch films, not movies. There is a difference,” runs each posters tagline, the festival’s motto. It’s a refreshing proposal – don’t clutter your mind with special effects laden blockbusters, or overly sentimental romantic comedies; watch a film instead, something that will engage the mind.

But a pretension hides beneath. Films, as they’re described here, are presumed as inherently superior to their movie counterparts.

Take an extreme example, with The Tree of Life representing films, and X-Men Origins: Wolverine encapsulating movies. The former is a majestic, director-driven musing on, amongst other things, the development of morality; the latter details a man with Adam-Ant-ium claws ripping apart helicopters, people and other various objects. There is little contest, like a mentally impaired shrew being punted into oblivion by the gigantic, steel-capped boot of philosophy.

But then consider another pairing, of last year’s slow-paced, Mexican cannibal horror We Are What We Are for films against Top Gun for movies. The film drags and occasionally buckles under the weight of the social message it attempts to address. The movie, however, strives for nothing of the sort, and succeeds tremendously in character, narrative and moustaches. The film is not always mightier than the movie, and such a dynamic should never be assumed in the first place.

Here at Flickering Myth, we value movies as much as we do films. We’re the product of Ghostbusters double bills and academic Film Studies. We believe it possible to enjoy both Star Wars and La Règle du Jeu equally, though maybe in different capacities. Simply put, we love cinema, in both its commercial and intellectual pursuits.

So that’s why we’re instilling a standardised reviewing system for the site. Currently, we’re a bit all over the place. Some out of five, some out of ten, some choose to abstain altogether. But now we’re daring to try something unique: two ratings for any film reviewed, both out of five, one for film, for how it works as intellectual fare, and one for movie, surmising how it performs on narrative, enjoyment levels.

If that’s confusing, here are a few examples:

Transformers: Dark of the Moon – Film * / Movie ***

The Tree of Life – Film **** / Movie *

Rocky – Film **** / Movie *****

Although these scores should not be considered as an overall ‘out-of-ten’, you’ll notice how Rocky is close to a perfect score. If the cinema is our new church, then a work achieving the full ten could indeed be considered our Holy Grail (as unfortunately demonstrated by the popcorn sign on another New York Latino Film Festival poster below).

There is, of course, neither a right nor wrong answer, but Flickering Myth offers itself to you as a forum to state your case, and debate those of others…

FacebookTwitterFlipboardRedditPinterestWhatsApp

Filed Under: Uncategorized

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE:

The Essential Cannon Films Scores

Ranking Marvel’s Phase Four Movies From Worst to Best

The Best Super Mario Ball Bearing Games

How Netflix exclusivity killed Glass Onion

The Essential 90s Action Movies

The 1990s in Comic Book Movies

Robin of Sherwood: Still the quintessential take on the Robin Hood legend

Dust in the Eye: Ten Tear-Jerking Moments in Action Movies

Bad Video Game Movies You Probably Forgot Existed

The Film Feud of the 90s: Steven Seagal vs Jean-Claude Van Damme

FEATURED POSTS:

The Top Ten Best Community Episodes of All Time

Forgotten Horror Movie Sequels You Never Need to See

The Most Incredibly Annoying Movie Characters

Trending Now

  1. Syfy shares the first 5 minutes of sci-fi series The Ark
  2. Movie Review – Fear (2023)
  3. Video Review – Infinity Pool is the first WTF movie experience of 2023
  4. Party Down with the trailer for Lionsgate+ and Starz’s revival
  5. Movie Review – Candy Land (2022)
  6. Barbarian’s Zach Cregger to direct multi-story horror epic Weapons
  • Pop Culture
    • Movies
    • Television
    • Comic Books
    • Video Games
    • Toys & Collectibles
  • Features
    • News
    • Reviews
    • Articles and Opinions
    • Interviews
    • Exclusives
    • FMTV
  • Socials
    • YouTube
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram
    • Flipboard
  • About
    • About Flickering Myth
    • Write for Flickering Myth
    • Advertise on Flickering Myth
  • Terms
    • Terms of Use
    • Privacy Policy

© 2009-2022 Flickering Myth Limited. All rights reserved. The reproduction, modification, distribution, or republication of the content without permission is strictly prohibited. Movie titles, images, etc. are registered trademarks / copyright their respective rights holders. Read our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. If you can read this, you don't need glasses.