In the wake of some less than flattering reviews for the new Suicide Squad movie, fans have now fought back and launched a petition to shut down the aggregate movie review site Rotten Tomatoes. Talk about shooting the messenger!
The petition was started by a disgruntled DC Comics fan, Abdullah Coldwater, who said "We need this site to be shut down because It’s [sic] Critics always give The DC Extended Universe movies unjust Bad Reviews...". Suicide Squad currently has a score of just 27% on Rotten Tomatoes.
So far almost 20,000 people have backed the petition though it now has changed it's title to - 'Don't listen to film criticism' after the original wording came in for plenty of flak i.e it got a bad review.
She now says that she started the petition to gather DC fans to "gather their anger just for fun. I didn't mean it to be taken so serious" before adding that she realised the petition to be a bit "pointless".
At the European premiere in London on Wednesday the cast themselves were forced to respond to the damning verdicts of film critics
Jay Hernandez, who plays pyromaniac El Diablo, said that he was "bothered" about the criticism.
"I think it sucks, obviously we worked hard and tried to give the fans what they wanted. It's weird that some of the criticism I heard was that it was 'too much like a comic book'.
"In terms of you have these characters being objectified like Harley Quinn, there are just certain elements that are just part of being a comic book."
Joel Kinnaman, who plays Suicide Squad's leader Rick Flag, felt the film was really for the comic book's fans.
"You know, of course you want critical acclaim, of course, but what matters is what the fans think", he said.
"We're really proud of this film, we loved making it, everybody on the film has become really close friends and this is like a work of love and I hope the fans like it."
Check out our interview with Will Smith, Joel Kinnaman and Jai Courtney:
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And our chat with Margot Robbie and Jay Hernandez:
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RTÉ Entertainment gave the movie three stars in its review saying that when "when you look past the tenuous plot, Suicide Squad is still very much worth the watch, but it's been over-hyped to the point that expectations might be a bit too hard to reach."
Others though had a much less-favourable opinion. Here's a selection:
The Guardian
"It's a clotted and delirious film with flashes of preposterous, operatic silliness. But it doesn’t have much room to breathe; there are some dull bits, and Leto’s Joker suffers in comparison with the late Heath Ledger."
Empire
"Like Avengers Assemble forced through a Deadpool mangle, Suicide Squad gives new life to DC’s big screen universe. So bad to the bone it’s good . . . David Ayer pulls it off with gritty-flashy aplomb."
Vanity Fair
"Suicide Squad is ultimately too shoddy and forgettable to even register as revolting. At least revolting would have been something . . . If you can believe it, Suicide Squad is even worse than Fantastic Four. At least that mess of a movie had some shimmer of an idea to it."
Time
"Loaded with jokes but devoid of wit, Suicide Squad is dead on arrival."
Screen Crush
"The opening sequence has all the excitement of a mildly contentious HR meeting and the movie gets no better from there. Bland, boring and sometimes borderline incoherent, Suicide Squad is a disappointing disaster."
Buzzfeed
"Harley is a tricky character, but she’s been shaped into an intensely sexualised mascot for a film that yearns for edginess but can’t get over the rounded curves of its female lead."
The Hollywood Reporter
"A puzzlingly confused undertaking that never becomes as cool as it thinks it is . . . all flash, no fun."
Chicago Tribune
"This is a lousy script, blobby like the endlessly beheaded minions of the squad's chief adversary. It's not satisfying storytelling; the flashbacks roll in and out, explaining either too much or too little, and the action may be violent but it's not interesting."
Suicide Squad is on general release from Friday August 5.
