Comics Fans Want to Shut Down Rotten Tomatoes

Batman v Superman has a Tomatometer score of just 27%, and there are people out there who believe that is the result of a Rotten Tomatoes conspiracy, not the result of the superhero flick being what Chris Klimek at NPR calls a "ponderous, smothering, over-pixelated zeppelin crash of a movie." A Change.org petition with 9,000 supporters and counting calls for Rotten Tomatoes to be shut down for giving "unjust reviews" to movies set in the DC Comics universe, including upcoming release Suicide Squad, which has a Tomatometer score of 35%, reports ComicBook.com. The post notes that some petition supporters appear not to understand that Rotten Tomatoes collects reviews instead of creating them, while others are accuse the site of ignoring positive reviews.

Accusations of a conspiracy against Warner's DC movies are fairly widespread online, and the attitude isn't limited to comic books or movies, writes Devin Faraci at BirthMoviesDeath. "It feels like we live in an era where anytime something doesn't go our way—whether it be a movie review or a presidential primary—the first reaction is to cry out conspiracy, to find ill will and mysterious forces moving behind the scenes," he writes. "The reality, nine times out of ten, is that other people just didn't like the thing or the candidate you liked." The Hollywood Reporter notes that the petition starter has updated the "Shut Down Rotten Tomatoes" page to say he knows that a petition can't shut down the site, and "it's just a way to express our anger." (More Rotten Tomatoes stories.)