The Rotten Tomatoes scores aren't a measure of quality, they're the percentage of critics who rated the movie at least "good" (with "good" defined rather lenien

The Rotten Tomatoes scores aren't a measure of quality, they're the percentage of critics who rated the movie at least "good" (with "good" defined rather leniently). The risk-less movies will get the best scores, because everybody agrees they're adequate by the standards of the genre. Great movies often get more polarized reviews, which means a lower score. Although they don't make it obvious, Rotten Tomatoes also reports "Average Rating", which I think is a more useful measure for people not interested in watching merely adequate movies.