Update: The petition has been been withdrawn.
If you haven’t been following the most recent case of DC Fanboys having a problem with critics, let me fill you in. The embargo for Suicide Squad reviews ended on Tuesday, August 2, at 9am PST. The reviews then proceeded to be published minute by minute, and within the hour, the Rotten Tomatoes score for the film was under 20%. That’s a really, really bad score. From then on, the percentage started to go up, and as of this writing is sitting at a measly 35%. It’s an improvement from 20%, but nowhere near the score hoped for by Warner Bros. or fans. After the movie had gotten the negative reviews, anger from DC fans was everywhere online; reddit, Facebook, Twitter, you name it. Following the general hatred of these “bias, Marvel loving critics”, an actual petition was created in attempt to get Rotten Tomatoes off the internet. Yeah, that happened.
Alright, now with that out of the way, let’s get to the purpose of this article; DC die-hards, listen up.
Don’t attack Rotten Tomatoes.
The site doesn’t review movies, they simply compile hundreds of reviews from certified critics all around the web in attempt to give the most accurate consensus on the quality of each and every movie released. Now of course I’m not talking about all DC fans. In fact, I’m solely going after the people that signed this petition to get Rotten Tomatoes taken off the internet, because that’s just ridiculous.
Like I said before, it’s understood that you want DC films to be good, as do I and every rational film fan on this earth. With this is mind, however, the signing of this petition gives no logical reasons as to why they should actually be shut down. You don’t really think people should be laid off because reviewers around the web “always give The DC Extended Universe movies unjust Bad Reviews”, do you? And what’s to say the review is “unjust”? Considering that the film’s first official screenings begin Thursday, August 4, and that 99.9% of the moviegoing population doesn’t have access to press screenings, it appears as though these petition signers are angry at bad reviews for a movie they haven’t seen yet which, quite frankly, is just ignorant.
Nobody wants DC movies to be bad. And if you find a case of someone wanting a certain film to be bad, DC or not, they’re an outlier. Believe me when I say that we cinephiles and comic book fans want these films to be amazing, but sometimes they don’t end up hitting the quality level we’d hoped.
Bottom line: it’s okay to not listen to critics. What isn’t acceptable, however, is the attempt at censoring people that disagree with you.
There is no reason to attack Rotten Tomatoes for the Suicide Squad score. There is also no reason to be discouraged by bad reviews. Go see Suicide Squad with an open mind and hope it’s good; and on the same note, don’t attack film critics for doing their job.
