"Suicide Squad" fans launch online petition to shut down Rotten Tomatoes
Some fans are so upset about the spate negative "Suicide Squad" reviews that they want movie review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes shut down completely.
Reviews for the latest DC Comics film started popping up online Tuesday, and the early responses were less than glowing. The film had earned a 32 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes by Wednesday afternoon, with 102 reviews tallied.
Those negative reviews prompted one industrious fan to mount a petition on Change.org to have the site itself -- which collects reviews from professional movie critics to form a critical consensus -- shut down for good. The petition, by a user identified as Abdullah Coldwater in Alexandria, Egypt, complained of an apparent bias against films based on DC Comics properties.
"We need this site to be shut down because It's Critics always give The DC Extended Universe movies unjust Bad Reviews," the petition read, citing "Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice" as well as "Suicide Squad."
"And that Affects people's opinion even if it's a really great movies."
By Wednesday afternoon, the petition was on the brink of reaching the necessary 15,000 signatures for it to be sent to Rotten Tomatoes for consideration.
March's "Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice" eventually settled at a Rotten Tomatoes score of 27 percent based on 344 reviews. Rotten Tomatoes is owned by Fandango, of which Warner Bros. owns a minority stake. Warner Bros. also produces the DC Comics films.