Disney's Little Mermaid reboot was critically acclaimed, but Halle Bailey's portrayal of Ariel drew racists and far-right critics. And efforts to undermine the film's success forced the Internet's largest movie site to overhaul its ratings system.
IMDb currently gives the film a rating of 7 out of 10, but out of more than 33,000 user reviews, nearly 13,000 have given the film a star, which seems to overwhelm critics.
“Our scoring system has detected unusual voting activity for this title. "An alternative weighting calculation has been used to maintain the reliability of our rating system," IMDb wrote, referring to the "unusual activity" on the site. In this case, the website says: "Alternative weighting may be applied to maintain the reliability of our system."
To prevent the spread of this system, IMDb has not published its alternative method of generating reviews.
Bomb reviews are a growing problem for review sites. Activists opposed to certain elements of the film, or groups seeking to promote the film, flood review websites with positive and negative comments, often based on bots to distort the media, hoping to discourage or encourage others to watch the film.
Bailey's performance as Ariel has been praised by many, including Jody Benson, the original voice of the cartoon character (who has a cameo appearance with Bailey in the new film). However, the self-proclaimed culture cop has vocally challenged the cast, saying the character is a Caucasian redhead.
But the attempt to bomb the film did not stop the people from visiting it. The Little Mermaid topped the box office last week with $95.5 million, the fifth-biggest opening of all Memorial Day weekend.