Rotten Tomatoes has never been as top of mind as it is this week. The early critic reviews of Batman v Superman came pouring in Tuesday, and the Tomatometer for Zack Syder’s DCEU kickoff picture has been in a free fall ever since. It’s somewhere in the 30s right now, and there’s no certainty it won’t drop even further.
That happens, sure, but here’s the incredibly uncomfortable part: Zack Snyder and his cast are right in the thick of a press tour surrounding the film, and a “brave” Tom Butler with Yahoo! decided to broach the subject with the director, Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Gal Gadot, and Jesse Eisenberg. The result is hard to watch for the most part. Cavill, being super British and all, handled the question with aplomb, while Affleck sat quietly, just short of steam escaping his ears. Even though he isn’t any stranger to these sorts of reviews.
“The interesting thing is that we get the critics who have their personal opinions. And the thing about personal opinions is that they always come from a place. And there’s a preconceived idea which you have to get past a critic before you start writing your article or your review, and that affects everything,” said Cavill.
“What is really going to matter, I believe, is what the audience says. Because they’re the ones who are buying tickets, they’re the ones who want to see more of this kind of story or not and so the audience’s voice is loudest and after this weekend the audience, at least partly, will have spoken,” said Cavill.
Snyder tried to dance around the subject, and Adams threw out the “we made this for the fans” narrative. What else is she supposed to do? Here’s a link to the interviews. Cringe away:
Batman v Superman: Do Reviews Matter?
Posted by Monkeys Fighting Robots on Thursday, March 24, 2016
You gotta hand it to Tom Butler for having the nerve to confront these typically defensive megastars with so much on the line in Batman v Superman. And the thing about fans liking it, that sounds good. But the Tomatometer isn’t the only thing steadily falling over at RT. Fan response is wobbling as well.
Whatever the case, expect Batman v Superman to earn all the money. At least, this weekend, as word of mouth might put a dent in the chase to $1 billion plus…
