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Jack Baty writes

Here’s my star rating system for everything:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Loved it!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ It was good
⭐️⭐️⭐️ It was OK
⭐️⭐️ I didn’t like it
⭐️ Hated it

With me, everything gets 3 stars by default. Books, movies, photographs, everything: 3 stars right off the bat. I always assume that this new thing or person or conversation will be OK at the very least. This applies to more than just media. It applies to people, too. Sometimes I’m disappointed and end up with 1 or 2 stars, but more often than not I’m surprised and delighted and my opinion of something or someone goes up rather than down.

This is how I approach something new as well. I go into a movie or TV show expecting to enjoy it. If it’s a mindless action movie, then I expect explosions, poor plot development and a mountain of spent bullet cases.

I’ve seen a ton of terrible science fiction movies, but they’re mostly what I expected from them. I joke that I would make a terrible movie reviewer because most of my reviews would be “it is what I expected it to be. ★★★”