The Live-Action Remake of the 1989 classic The Little Mermaid was finally released in theaters this past week. The film, starring Halle Bailey as the titular mermaid, is a retelling of the classic story of a young mermaid who falls in love with a human and is willing to give up her voice and risk her life to be with the one she loves.



As of right now on the popular review site, Rotten Tomatoes, the film’s critical and audience scores seem rather high, with a 67% Critical and 95% Audience rating.



However, upon further inspection the scores are “Top Critics” and “Verified Audience”. While it is true that just about anyone can make a review on Rotten Tomatoes many people are unable to personally verify ticket purchases but have indeed seen the film. It is mostly a case-by-case basis.

If you were to change the scores to “All Critics” and “All Audience” then you will see that the numbers are much lower. The Critical score being a 46% and the Audience score being 54%. Far below the scores, the site would lead you to believe. 

**Editors note**  Even stranger, the 95% “Verified Audience” Score never changes. It has stayed the same since the first reviews started to come in, as if it is locked. The “All Audiences”, “Top Critics” and “All Critics” scores fluctuate up and down, but the “Verified Audiences” score does not seem to move at all. While it’s true that the more reviews you have, the harder it is to change a number, it has been that same number since Thursday. Early on it should have changed a lot, but it has stayed at 95%, which is not normal. 

It should be noted that Rotten Tomatoes does indeed have a history with Disney as their current CEO Patrick Lee is a former Disney employee. 

The film has seen some controversy surrounding the casting, poor special effects, plot changes, omissions, and odd additions. Many critics of the remake see this film as unnecessary, similar to many of Disney’s other past remakes.

While many others say, this film is the best of the live-action remakes.



Regardless, the current scores are most likely to fluctuate as the film has only recently released, thus leading to more people eventually sharing their opinions. 

The overall box office for the film is doing well in North America so far, but appears to be underperforming in foreign markets; Specifically in China. The film has quite the amount of money to earn if it wants to break even. 

What do you think of the Rotten Tomatoes scores? Are the higher reviews more reflective of the product? Or are the lower-range reviews more accurate?