Who Knew They Could Count This High??

The rating is at 42% now, with 31 critics counted.

I only have seen the first two Saw movies. Therefore I might not see Saw VI in a theatre; but when it plays on TV, maybe I'll give it a chance.

But it won't hurt to highlight the first failed Oscar baiter this year on these forums, right?

Originally posted by moviewizguy Wait, wait, wait, wait. Saw VI has a 44% on RT and Amelia has a 17% on RT?! Am I just seeing things or is Saw VI the highest rated movie since the first?! Your thoughts? http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/saw_VI/ RESPONSE from Head RAZZberry: I have recently begun to suspect there may be deliberate "skewing" going on with RT Ratings numbers. While both RT and MetaCritic concur that AMELIA has some of the year's least favorable reviews (RT LINK / METACRITIC LINK) the reviews for SAW VI at RT appear to be unexpectedly high (LINK) while those for SAW VI at Meta Critic ((currently 27 out of a possible 100 points) are among 2009's lowest -ranked (LINK). Since MetaCritic prides itself on contacting the critics themselves to rank & rate their own reviews, I can only assume that RT is losing its edge as a reliable source of critical consensus. If this keeps up, MetaCritic may have to replace RT as our "go to source" for how crix are ranking mainstream movies...

I just checked the MetaCritic site.

Nicely presented; but mostly, the scores aren't that far away from RottenTomatoes.

Not with Saw VI however.

Saw VI is at 27 at MetaCritic, but it's still rated better than Saw V.
Saw VI is currently at 44% at RottenTomatoes.

The number of critics however is more in favor of RottenTomatoes. 34 versus 9 at MetaCritic.
So who is more reliable? I guess it's up to the viewers to decide.

Well, since the two sites are sometimes polar opposites of each other, perhaps we should take BOTH of them into account.

PS: I so love the fact that "Paranormal Activity" is kicking the ever loving crap out of "Saw 6" at the box office (according to Friday and Saturday grossings)!

RESPONSE from Head RAZZberry: I have recently begun to suspect there may be deliberate "skewing" going on with RT Ratings numbers. While both RT and MetaCritic concur that AMELIA has some of the year's least favorable reviews (RT LINK / METACRITIC LINK) the reviews for SAW VI at RT appear to be unexpectedly high (LINK) while those for SAW VI at Meta Critic ((currently 27 out of a possible 100 points) are among 2009's lowest -ranked (LINK).

Since MetaCritic prides itself on contacting the critics themselves to rank & rate their own reviews, I can only assume that RT is losing its edge as a reliable source of critical consensus. If this keeps up, MetaCritic may have to replace RT as our "go to source" for how crix are ranking mainstream movies...

Saw 6 has 35 total reviews from RT while it only has 9 from MC. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't it be easier to skew the rating number if there were less reviews? (albeit, it would be more obvious). But you can't say that RT has some hidden agenda when you could easily make the same case against MC, it just doesn't make any sense. This is just a knee jerk reaction because we all wanted to see this movie get hammered, and it didn't.

That being said with only 35 reviews it's hard to gauge a movie,(although curiously enough, The Stepfather has the same number of reviews and is at 11% which I think, and I'm sure a lot of people on this site think, is a fair number for that POS of a movie). But I think the point made by Saturnwatcher is probably the best one:

I find it rather curious that as of late Sunday morning as I write, only 34 reviews have been presented for Saw VI. Either RT has been amazingly slow in collecting them or they just haven't been published. The latter is a rather telling suggestion that the bulk of critics out there just don't want to review this movie...that would be a pretty serious indictment of the series.

The latter is probably more accurate, I think the reviews are coming in slowly because critics by and large are just tired of watching and reviewing this series, and want to see it bomb, or at least underwhelm. (Sidenote: PA beat out Saw by about 8 million this weekend... Justice!). So even though the rating might be a little high for Razzie standards, this movie should not be ignored come award season. We can think of it as a cumulative type thing.

But it hasn't been a decade...

Here are some interesting stats that may prove Saw VI to be one of the less awful movies of the year:

Eric D. Snider gave Saw V a "D" and gave Saw VI a "C".
Wesley Morris hasn't given a single Saw film more than two stars, yet he gave VI two and a half stars.
James Rocchi gave V one star, and gave VI two stars.
Rossiter Drake gave V one star and gave VI two.
Dustin Putman gave both IV and V one and a half star gave
VI two.

This is just a sample, and yeah, there are still a fair number of critics who are bashing this movie just as badly as its predecessors. But the overall consensus suggests that VI is better than what most critics were expecting it to be. 

 

Special Agent Strahm is dead, and Detective Hoffman has emerged as the unchallenged successor to Jigsaw's legacy. However, when the FBI draws closer to Hoffman, he is forced to set a game into motion, and Jigsaw's grand scheme is finally understood.

SAW VI is the point in the series where I'm starting to second think myself if I should continue with the series anymore. I have to admit, the movie is better than SAW V, but the set up in here is oh-so-familiar: A guy wakes up and finds himself in a grimmy old room where he has however many minutes to complete however many tasks to survive or whatnot. I've never been bothered by this set up until now.

While watching the film, I found myself bored and slightly uninterested in what's going on on screen. The funny thing is that the film is less about the infamous traps and more about attacking on the issues of the health care and economy, which makes SAW VI the most relevant in its series. And yes, I think the addition of these issues puts a fresh spin to the series, along with the fact that I find these issues interesting.

But what I hope for SAW VII is for it to do something different than a person awaking in a room to do a series of tasks. Saying that, I do like that this film did tie a lot of the plot lines made since the third film. I also liked seeing the returning of some old faces. However, the best thing of all is the last ten minutes of the film. It's truly jaw dropping and the ending is one of the best cliffhangers I've ever seen in this series in a long time.

So yes, I probably will be seeing SAW VII next year not only because of the cliffhanger ending but because the filmmakers fixed their mistakes since the fifth film. The series is headed toward the right direction yet this is me being completely generous because I wasn't all "wow'ed" by it until the last ten minutes of the film. It's a decent addition to the series and the fans of the series will definitely like it. 6/10