Fans cry foul over ‘Suicide Squad’ reviews, petition for Rotten Tomatoes shutdown

In recent years, critics have reviewed Marvel’s slate of films far more favorably than DC Comics’ lineup. Though some folks would agree that DC has trotted out some pretty uninspired efforts of late, it seems the recent string of rotten tomatoes has spawned some sour grapes.

As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, there is a petition circulating on Change.Org that demands the dissolution of the Rotten Tomatoes review site because “It’s Critics always give The DC Extended Universe movies unjust Bad Reviews.” And before you start taking us to task for the misplaced apostrophe and the random capitalizations, please note that the above was pulled from the petition verbatim.

The document was created by Abdullah Coldwater from Alexandria, Egypt, and — though we admire his spirited brand of fandom — we’d be remiss if we didn’t point out that Rotten Tomatoes doesn’t actually issue the reviews, it merely aggregates them. Thus, shutting down the site would not silence the “biased” critics that Coldwater and his co-signers so lament.

Speaking of co-signers, as of the publication of this article, the petition has 14,369 signatures and counting. Coldwater has since issued a clarification that states that he and his fellow fans merely wanted to “deliver a message to the critics,” adding “ … it’s just a way to express our anger.”

In his complaint, Coldwater cites two films in particular that he feels were unfairly lampooned: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (27 percent on Rotten Tomatoes) and the soon-to-be released Suicide Squad (32 percent on RT). Reviewers have used a host of unflattering adjectives to describe the latter, including (but not limited to) muddled, turgid, cluttered, messy, and sloppy.

That said, there are plenty of folks who refuse to let a little ol’ critics consensus get in the way of watching their favorite characters tear up the big screen. Suicide Squad officially hits theaters Friday and stars Will Smith, Margot Robbie, and Jared Leto.

As of press time, Rotten Tomatoes was still extant. Stay tuned for updates.