Star Wars: The Last Jedi Is the Best-Reviewed Science Fiction Film of 2017

Rotten Tomatoes recently released their annual Golden Tomato Awards, which are based on the site’s often controversial Tomatometer rankings. In addition to listing out the best-reviewed films by genre and scope of release, they also scored their  Top 100 Movies for 2017, the top ten of which are listed below.

1. Get Out
2. The Big Sick
3. Dunkirk
4. Lady Bird
5. Coco
6. Wonder Woman
7. Logan
8. Star Wars: The Last Jedi
9. Baby Driver
10. Thor: Ragnarok

Once these numbers are broken out into genre, the winners get divvied up. Star Wars: The Last Jedi landed in first place on the list of best-reviewed science fiction and fantasy movies in 2017, with an adjusted score of 106.601%. The Last Jedi was followed by War for the Planet of the Apes in second place with an adjusted score of 105.882%. Blade Runner 2049 came in third place with an adjusted score of 102.124%, and Okja took fourth with 94.016%. Marjorie Prime finished up the top five with 92.673%.

As I mentioned above, the Rotten Tomatoes Adjusted Score is a source of some controversy. The Score is drawn from critics’ reviews (and is not an average review score, instead based on a binary total of “good” and “bad” reviews), and it can often stand in strong contrast to the Audience Score, which is based on the opinions of average moviegoers. We saw this contrast with Suicide Squad, Justice League, Netflix’s Bright, and The Last Jedi itself.

In addition, the Adjusted Score is based on a weighted formula, which is why some scores exceeded 100%. As Rotten Tomatoes describes on their site, “each critic from our discrete list gets one vote, weighted equally. A movie must have 40 or more rated reviews to be considered. The ‘Adjusted Score’ comes from a weighted formula (Bayesian) that we use that accounts for variation in the number of reviews per movie.”

In addition, these categories are a touch arbitrary. The Shape of Water (103.258%), for example, was ranked on the list for best-reviewed romance, rather than in science fiction/fantasy. Get Out (112.168%) was ranked among the year’s best-reviewed horror films. Wonder Woman (108.317%), Logan (107.552%), and Thor: Ragnarok (106.17%) were all ranked in the list of best-reviewed comic book/graphic novel movies 2017. If these categories had fallen out differently, the films in question would have landed differently in their respective rankings.

But what do you think about the Golden Tomato rankings?

(Via ScreenRant; image: Lucasfilm/Walt Disney Studios)

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