Ten vs Five

Most film sites score out of five. We score out of ten. Here’s why.

Genre fans are a nerdy bunch, and we mean that as the highest compliment. Like videogame players, we like a bit more detail. We’ll happily argue about whether one slasher sequel is a notch better than another, or exactly how far an ambitious sci-fi epic falls short of greatness.

Five stars doesn’t leave much room for that. When two films in the same genre both “deserve three stars”, one of them is usually better than the other, and a ten-point scale lets us say so.

What the numbers mean

Our review scale is inspired by Edge magazine’s unofficial 1-10 “word based ranking.” Every number has a specific meaning, so a 7 here isn’t just “quite good”. It’s distinguished.

10. 10Revolutionary
9. 9Astounding
8. 8Excellent
7. 7Distinguished
6. 6Competent
5. 5Average
4. 4Disappointing
3. 3Severely flawed
2. 2Appalling
1. 1Disastrous

Five means average

That’s the bit people tend to forget. A 5 isn’t a failure: it’s a film that does what it sets out to do, no better and no worse than you’d expect. Or it’s an ambitious mess with great highs but significant lows. A 7 or 8 is a strong recommendation, a 9 is rare, and a 10 is kept for the very few films that change the genre itself.