If you've been following the movie news cycle for the last few hours then you're probably aware that the first wave of reviews for Suicide Squad have hit the web, and most of them are pretty negative. The film currently holds a 35% rating on Rotten Tomatoes - which means it's certified rotten - and DC movie fans are not happy.
In addition to the now disturbingly commonplace vitriol being directed at critics on social media, one particular fan has taken it upon himself to create a petition on Change.org demanding that Rotten Tomatoes be shut down over these poor reviews. Here's how it reads:
"We need this site to be shut down because It's Critics always give The DC Extended Universe movies unjust Bad Reviews, Like
1- Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice 2016
2- Suicide Squad 2016
and that Affects people's opinion even if it's a really great movies".
The problems with this petition go far beyond the poor grammar. It reveals a complete misunderstanding of how Rotten Tomatoes actually works - it's simply a review aggregator, and the reviews would still exist even if it was shut down - and it's also based on the false assumptions that critics give DC movies unjustly bad reviews when it suits them, and that critics can influence box office numbers (Transformers franchise, anyone?). This is not to mention the fact that given Suicide Squad isn't out in cinemas until Friday, many of these angry fans have not even seen the movie yet.
It's absolutely OK to disagree with a critic about a film, but needing there to be another reason besides that is both silly and sad. Unfortunately, this sort of thinking is becoming predictable; We've been in situations similar to this on two occasions earlier this year with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Ghostbusters, and now it seems we're in for more cries of conspiracy with Suicide Squad in the coming weeks. It's laughable, it's nonsensical, and it needs to stop.
Directed by David Ayer and starring Will Smith, Margot Robbie, Jared Leto, Viola Davis, Jai Courtney, and Joel Kinnaman, Suicide Squad will open in the UK and US on August 5, 2016.
Images: Warner Bros.
