A few weeks ago now the latest additions to the Rotten Tomatoes critics were revealed and I applied again after applying many years ago now and never getting a reply. This year though I got a rejection, which I felt was better than nothing. My feedback wasn't great and was directed at my reviews (or some of them anyway) not having enough substance to them and errors. I was a little bit gutted about it to be honest when I first read it.
But.
It then reminded me of something, I do Let's Go To The Movies as a hobby and started because I was going to the cinema so often and wanted to use this blog as a place to review the films I was watching. I never ever thought twelve years ago when starting it that it would still be going strong now and that I would have been in a list four years in row of Top 10 UK Film Blogs, something I have fallen out of the past two years. I don't get paid for reviewing films, I actually pay quite a bit myself for the domain and upgrades to have more photo and video space. I do get the occasional screeners but it's not a source of income and never will be.
I love watching films.
I have obsessions with different actors and actresses.
I have met so many fantastic people through WordPress blogs and then on Twitter who also love films, actors and actresses. Also theatre too! My love for film then transferred to loving more theatre as I never realised just how many of my favourite film stars still did stints on stage! So another amazing thing to come from my love for film, seeing some amazing actors on stage (and often meeting them at the stage door).
So what point am I actually trying to make with this blog post? Well, that really being approved as a critic on Rotten Tomatoes doesn't really make much of a difference to me does it. I am not a critic I have never studied film and work totally in a different field. I am a film fan and enjoy (most of the time) putting my reviews together. I don't really need to conform to forcing myself to like and enjoy certain films either as I am not really going to fully influence anyone to watch or not watch a film, I know people with similar tastes in film I can then help if they would possibly like or dislike a film though. As I do the same with people who I know tend to like certain genres or films.
I am very proud to be a member of The Online Association of Female Film Critics and that is something else I see as a massive achievement for my little self run blog! It is a true honour to be in that group with amazing female writers and video bloggers, all who have an intense love of film.
Back to Rotten Tomatoes as it is always something I look at to try and gage a little bit how I may find a film, but like anything film is subjective and I love and adore so many films that have been given rotten ratings in the past. I still go with an attitude of "surely it can't be that bad" something I have found is that if its less than 20% it usually is bad! Other than that though everything else around the ratings can truly vary as we all see films in a slightly different way and certain ones strike a cord with one person yet not with another person.
This is truly something I love about watching and then discussing films (as long as people don't cause arguments just because you don't agree with them). If I have really disliked a film I love finding an opposite review to see how another person saw that film and fully respect how different it can be. That also works the other way round if I have loved a film and someone else hates it I can usually understand why they have felt like that when reading reasons around it. Something I do hate is someone just saying "you are wrong" or "I don't agree with you" without then actually telling you why, discuss don't snap!
Rotten Tomatoes said I could reapply in September 2022, something I probably won't bother with. I know some of my early reviews are truly terrible and I had spent a little bit of time doing some updates and changes but I really don't think I will have time to go through a lot of them considering I am now up to 1727 film reviews on the site with more TV series reviews and theatre reviews as well.
What are your thoughts on Rotten Tomatoes, discussing films, reviewing films and quite frankly anything else I have mentioned?