After 'Little Mermaid' remake endures harsh reviews, IMDb steps in, alters review system for movie

The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) activated an "alternate weighting calculation" in order to compensate for alleged "unusual activity" among audiences reviewing the new "Little Mermaid" remake.

"The Little Mermaid" is one of many live-action remakes of iconic, animated Disney films from the late 1980s to the 1990s.

The new film has been criticized from a variety of perspectives, ranging from the racial recasting of what was originally a White character to criticism of Asian actress Awkwafina’s rap song "The Scuttlebutt" and Wesley Morris lamenting in The New York Times that the children’s film lacked "kink."

The movie's mixed reflection appears to have extended to its reviews, to the point IMDb has stepped in.

The live-action "Little Mermaid" adaptation’s page on IMDb has a warning label declaring, "Our rating mechanism has detected unusual voting activity on this title. To preserve the reliability of our rating system, an alternate weighting calculation has been applied."

IMDb described these "weighted average ratings" as a process where "we accept and consider all votes received by users, not all votes have the same impact (or ‘weight’) on the final rating. When unusual voting activity is detected, an alternate weighting calculation may be applied in order to preserve the reliability of our system."

The process does not appear to be transparent, however. The site explained: "To ensure that our rating mechanism remains effective, we do not disclose the exact method used to generate the rating."

The weighted average rating system makes a massive difference, raising a 4.7/10 original "unweighted" average up to 7/10.

One notable factor is that reviewers across multiple countries and continents panned the film, possibly implying that this was not entirely caused by one centralized campaign. Thousands of collective users from the U. K., Brazil, Canada and Mexico have given the 1/10 score.... (Read more)

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