Note on Ratings/Scores

I have a somewhat unique rating scale that may need to be addressed.

Since I’ve been reviewing films, long before even setting out to seriously write them down, I’ve been using a ten-point scale, allowing increments of .5.

All of my reviews will follow this, so you’ll see ratings such as 5.5/10, 7/10, 9.5/10, 3.5/10, and so on.

What is more important is this:

My 7/10 indicates an average score.

Many would look at that and perhaps be confused. Growing up in the public school system, it was natural to me that an average grade would be around 70% (technically, 75%, but I wanted to simplify things). And that belief crossed over into movies.

Basically, my 7/10 is an average/neutral score. Any movie that I rate 7.5/10 – 10/10 is above average, in my opinion, and 0/10 – 6.5/10 are below average.

When asked about this on a forum I’m a member of, I explained it this way:

Long story short, my rating system is basically this:

10/10 – Perfect
9.5/10 – Close to perfection, a flaw or two holding it back
9/10 – Pretty damn good.
8.5/10 – Pretty damn good, but missing an oopmf factor.
8/10 – Great film, but bordering on just above average.
7.5/10 – Good film, but nothing extraordinary spectacular.
7/10 – Average – could be enjoyable, maybe sometimes not, but not really either great or terrible.
6.5/10 – So close to liking it, but it just doesn’t quite make it due to a variety of flaws.
6/10 – Has potential, but fails to live up to it.
5.5/10 – Getting down to a flick I don’t enjoy. Perhaps some good scenes and ideas throughout, but fails.
5/10 – Thoroughly below average, and not something I’d care to rewatch.

And honestly, while there are some distinctions, 4.5/10 – .5/10 (I don’t believe I have ever rated a movie 0/10) are almost interchangeable. The “better” bad movies get a 4.5/10 or a 4/10, and the worst get a .5/10 through maybe 2.5/10.

I get it, it’s confusing. But I’ve used this scale for as long as I can really remember, and it would be a very hard habit to break.

And a side-note – even movies I didn’t necessarily like, let’s say between a 5/10 and 6.5/10, I would probably not be against re-watching, because there are elements I certainly liked from the flicks. When it gets to 5/10 and lower is when those elements I like become less and less.

I know this may very well bother some people, but you can’t teach an old dog new tricks (despite the fact I’m moderately young).