The Trouble with IMDb

Newsday Tuesday

The Trouble with IMDb

The Look:

I mean is there any real point continuing with this post. All you have to look at is their current homepage to  realise the extent of which they’ve ruined what was a perfectly useful, information-filled site. Just from glancing at this screenshot (right top) you have to question whether you’re even on IMDb. The Amazon Prime Instant Video (could they not think of a catchier name?) logo is so f*cking humungous, and yet they still felt the need for another squeezed in over on the right there. 

 Then there’s all the filler images that take away any clean space that used to make the site relatively neat.  Countless pictures of the titles that Prime offers, and often not even good ones, I mean Taken 2?, christ sign me up! 

 I’ve thrown in this older screenshot of the site for comparison. I will agree that, although heavily nostalgic, the 2007 screenshot (below) really does look like it could have been 1997 instead. On the other hand I think they did lose a lot of that initial identity as the site drastically modernised. It didn't need tonnes of pictures and adverts to make it interesting, it was just a Database after all. 

The Ratings:

Now this is a tricky one because you can easily be held up to the argument of differing taste when it comes to disagreeing with certain movies’ ratings on IMDb. Having said that, there is a fundamental problem with the system and as I’ve watched the site’s popularity grow over the years I’ve been finding the ratings less and less useful. 

 To start with, there is a huge rating bias to the newer releases. In just the few years since 2010 there have been 30 films that have made the Top 250 of All Time. That seems incredibly high and it’s a shame because the Top 250 was, for a long period of my early film watching life at least, that staple go-to when wanting to find something that I was confident would be a great picture and one which had earned its place in this hall of fame. Now though it seems that any popular new release will just jump straight in there regardless of its comparable merit. I didn't really want to name any specific releases but Interstellar being the 21st greatest film of all time really proves the point here. And if the reason for that is purely the recent hype factor and that it's rating will likely decrease over time, unfortunately Avengers Assemble is still 201st on the list. 

 For me I’ve had to move on from IMDb ratings. The older films and lesser-known indie releases I do find have a moderately greater accuracy but the skewed system of people seemingly voting only 1 or 10 for new & popular titles has unfortunately tarnished my adulation of the top 250 and their entire rating setup. If you're after suggestions all I can recommend is to look around. Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic are much more honed than this mess. 

Message Boards:

Having avoided them for years and years I was going to give the Message Boards a real new look when I decided to do this post. However, the first one I came across, for Whiplash, I was faced staring at “Maybe Hitler would like Jazz after this…”. Naturally curious I delved in to find the first line heralding: ‘Whiplash represents exactly today's dominant neoliberal ideology’. I really think that says everything you need to know about the state of IMDb’s Message Boards. If you're interested in a chuckle and reading on about what would have been Hitler’s passion for Whiplash, and believe me you’ve been warned, this is the link here. 

So What Is It Good For?

 - Trivia - There is always some great things you can learn in here about the film’s production, inspirations, actors who were in the mix, etc. Great section if you have some time on your hands and/or are particularly interested in a title. 

 - Filmographies - Has to be the first site you go to when you can’t quite recall the film that actor/actress has also been in. Also great to discover the bodies of work from directors you’ve liked. 

 - Release Dates & Trailers - I do think the specific trailer section of IMDb could be improved, but it rarely doesn't have the trailer for a film you might be considering. 

 - Plot Synopses - Speaks for itself.

 - Lists - An underrated section of the site I think. If you can wade through the “My Top 1000 Favs” and “Every film I’ve ever seen ever” trash then you can actually get some top recommendations. 

 - Personal Ratings - The truth is once you’ve been a part of the site long enough you amass such a large quantity of Rated Films that you can't let that go. I do wish they’d add a feature that allowed them to at least estimate what you might think of titles you haven't watched based on an analysis of your current ratings though. Something similar to Netflix which I’ve found surprisingly accurate so far, apart from the odd few shockers.  

 Overall it's a shame that this site has turned into what it is. The look and feel of it has descended to one big Amazon advert. The public rating factor is what used to make it brilliantly unique. However, with the increase in non-dedicated/one-time users, what has developed is a large majority creating accounts, voting 1 or 10 (and likely on films they might not have even seen yet), to go along with the crowds or in an attempt to push a title further up or down and not reflecting what they actually would score a film out of 10. The Trouble with IMDb seems to be that currently, the Bad outweighs the Good. 

Tomorrow’s Where-in-the-World-Wednesday will take a look at the Russian Oscar-Nominated (/loser) ‘Leviathan’, the Danish triumph ‘The Hunt’, as well as German epic ‘Downfall’.