Rotten Tomatoes is so broken that until its actual release date, the wretched Wonder Woman 1984 earned an 89 percent fresh score, making it one of the best-reviewed DC films ever. Ah but only after the movie opened and everyone got a chance to see it, the score plummeted to 60 percent.
In fact, things got so bad that, for a time, Wonder Woman 1984 dipped into “rotten” territory with a 59 percent rating.
Over at Metacritic, the audience score currently sits at just a 3.9 out of ten based on 1563 user ratings.
There’s something very wrong at Rotten Tomatoes when we’re not allowed to learn the truth of how truly bad a movie is until after it’s been released.
We’re getting trolled, we’re being played for suckers, and Rotten Tomatoes is allowing it.
It’s simply a fact that Wonder Woman 1984 sucks. To say anything different is anti-science. Wonder Woman 1984 sucks so bad it flopped in China, a country that has salvaged more than one piece of Hollywood garbage.
Wonder Woman 1984 is such a catastrophe, it couldn’t even coast on the goodwill of its predecessor, which is something a lot of terrible sequels do (see: Pirates of the Caribbean and Indiana Jones: Why Is There a Spaceship In This Movie).
Nevertheless, Rotten Tomatoes still told us it was awesome. It even slapped its “Certified Fresh” label on it — an assurance that so many positive reviews were in, the score could never dip into the “rotten” threshold. That designation is a major tool for hype; the fact that WW84 got this honor generated headlines at top geek culture sites, and Warner Bros splashed the graphic all over TV spots:
When “certified fresh” means not actually certified… Yep, Rotten Tomatoes is broken.
Once upon a time, it used to be you couldn’t trust early Twitter reviews. You know what I’m talking about. All those twenty-something “journalists” who act like 12-year-olds exit an early studio screening still excited over the fact they were invited to an early studio screening and then gush on Twitter… You’ve seen the tweets: Okay, okay, okay, like, I just got out of ‘Star Wars: Emasculation’ and while there’s a review embargo, lemme say Star Wars fans are gunna be VERY VERY happy!! :stupid emoji::stupider emoji:
These tweets I can almost forgive. Almost. Believe me, I’ve been to my share of early screenings and studio screenings and junkets filled with swag and the opportunity to meet the stars. It’s all very hypnotic and unhealthy because it’s not easy to turn around and poke someone in the eye after you’ve just met them, after they’ve invited you in and fed you.
It’s also difficult because you know that after you poke them in the eye, you’re not going to be invited back. I don’t blame the studios for this. Their responsibility is to the product they’ve poured tens and sometimes hundreds of millions of dollars into. No one is entitled to early screenings, swag, and studio passes.
Nevertheless, if your job is to review movies, you’re supposed to sit down afterwards and tell the truth about the movie. What you’re not supposed to do is allow your excitement over the junket to seep into anything. And you sure as hell shouldn’t allow your politics to influence your review. One of the hardest reviews I ever wrote was for the Death Wish (2018) remake, which seemed designed to make me fall in love. But that’s the job.
With Wonder Woman 1984, we had a real review breakdown, and not just on the Twitters. These early reviewers scammed us, and I don’t think they did so just to retain their standing with Warner Bros. This was also political. Wonder Woman stars a girl, is directed by a girl, trashes Trump… That’s all it took, and Rotten Tomatoes appears to be okay with what happened, how their site got rigged in this way.
Last year Rotten Tomatoes killed its “Want to See” score because everyday people who do not want to see feminist-woke garbage like Captain Marvel were overwhelming those who do want to see feminist-woke garbage like Captain Marvel.
Removing this feature was obviously an effort by Rotten Tomatoes to protect the powerful studios, which it did by taking away the opportunity for everyday Americans to have a voice. The site also disabled comments prior to the release of a movie because “we have seen an uptick in non-constructive input, sometimes bordering on trolling, which we believe is a disservice to our general readership.”
Well, maybe it’s now time for Rotten Tomatoes to protect its “general readership” by not allowing the suck-up critics to rig its scores with lying reviews.
How can we trust Rotten Tomatoes if we’re only told the truth after we’ve wasted our money and time?
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.