Rotten Tomatoes Considering Further Changes To Combat Trolls ‘Reviewbombing’ Movies

On February 26th, Rotten Tomatoes made the unprecedented decision to scrap their ‘Want To See’ percentage rating on forthcoming movies, following several controversies – most notably a dedicated ‘reviewbombing’ campaign by fragile manbabies on the page for the superhero feature film Captain Marvel.

Now that the movie is out, and said infants have resumed their pride-wounded screeching in the film’s audience reviews section – in vain, it’s important to note, as the movie is a $500+ million smash hit with an 81% critics score – Rotten Tomatoes is reportedly considering further measures to curb trolls. Indeed, going forward a user may be asked to verify that he or she has seen the film in question before being allowed to post a critique (though what such a prompt would look like in practice is anybody’s guess).

It’s the lack of having seen the film which is reportedly such a sticking point for Rotten Tomatoes. The audience reviews section is designed as such to be for ordinary people to give their thoughts on a film they’ve just seen, and to hopefully help other ordinary people make informed decisions. It is not, as some have seen it, a comments section for one to air one’s gripes about an actress’ political beliefs.

“We are disappointed that there was a group of people who were obviously very passionate and who had a negative opinion of the movie, whether they saw it or not,” Dana Benson, vice-president of communications for Fandango (who own Rotten Tomatoes) said in a statement to press, “[As such], we are in the middle of evolving the audience score. We want to ensure its credibility.”

Captain Marvel is in UK cinemas now, rated 12A.