Suicide Squad Fans Are Actually Trying to Shut Down Rotten Tomatoes
At the time of writing, this petition has 17,614 signatures protesting against the site.
We've all been there: you're interested in a movie, check Rotten Tomatoes to see what the critics thought, and disagree with the consensus. That's exactly what Suicide Squad fans are going through at the moment. Unhappy at the far-from-positive word the comic book adaptation has been receiving (especially on the popular online review aggregator), these fans don't just want to get on a soapbox — they want to shut down the whole site.
In fact, Suicide Squad defender Abdullah Coldwater was so angry that took to Change.org to mobilise his fellow aficionados. Yes, really. At the time of writing, that petition had 17,614 signatures protesting against the site, motivated by the film's paltry 31 percent Tomatometer rating and the large number of negative reviews.
Anyone who has caught a glimpse of similar backlash in recent times — take, for example, the huge response when reviewers dared to like the female-focused take on Ghostbusters — won't be surprised, because this type of behaviour is becoming all-too-familiar. A highly anticipated movie comes out, critics reveal their thoughts, and the online masses react. The next big title comes out, and the cycle repeats. But there's excitement about an upcoming movie, and then there's this.
We see it all the time. Just read the Facebook comments on Concrete Playground's own take on Suicide Squad — many readers voiced their displeasure at our negative review, which is how it should be. Our critic didn't love, or even like, or find much of merit in the film. Scrolling through the responses provides just a glimpse of the general social media outrage swirling around the David Ayer-directed, Margot Robbie, Will Smith and Jared Leto-starring entry in the DC Comics movie.
Sure, this might just be a storm in a teacup. But the worrying part of this move isn't just the instantly-attacking mindset of fans upset that someone — or more than a few someones — doesn't think the flick they've been counting down the days to watch isn't the best film ever made. Agreeing to disagree doesn't always happen on the internet, we know, but there's also the matter of timing. Given that Suicide Squad didn't start releasing around the world until today, most of those in the distressed camp — like Coldwater — haven't seen the film yet.
Coldwater has since changed his tune, with the last post on the petition page noting that it was supposed to be "just for fun". After grabbing plenty of headlines with his action — something that he calls a victory in an earlier post — he has now deemed it pointless. "The only thing that it does is spreading a speech of hate and online fighting among the supporters and objectors," he writes. He's right.
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