Shame on IMDb

Rating: 1/10 (23 October 2009)

I'm a long time user of IMDb, and I use it frequently to inform my decision making. It's not perfect, but I know how to interpret the ratings so I can use them to anticipate how I'm likely to respond to a movie. However, I've just read the first ten pages of comments for Cloverfield, and they were with few exceptions, almost universally negative. Not just negative, but some of the worst comments and ratings I've ever seen on a film. For any long time user, it is obvious... without any doubt... that someone associated with this film has figured out a way to dramatically manipulate the rating.
Based on the comments alone, this movie should be rated below a 3. For it to ever be above 7 (7.4 at the time of this comment) is harder to believe than any of the ridiculous things thrown at us in the film itself. Given the clever marketing campaign that duped so many people prior to this film's release, I have no doubt whatsoever that manipulating it's IMDb rating was one of the primary tactics planned well in advance.
I ask any frequent user of IMDb who has seen this film to spend 5 minutes perusing the overwhelming number of negative comments, and tell me what you think. 7.4? How?