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'I Got Death Threats For Writing a Bad Review of Aquaman' (huffingtonpost.com)
The Huffington Post recently published a post by one of the 300 members of the Broadcast Film Critics Association -- and a contributing writer to Variety:
I saw "Aquaman" on a brisk Monday morning in December. Though I appreciated that star Jason Momoa didn't take himself too seriously while playing an underwater superhero, the glut of CGI effects distracted me from the story. Which was hollow and nonsensical anyway. As with every movie I watch -- up to four a week, hundreds a year -- I expressed my opinion in print and online for Us Weekly, as well as my own site, MaraMovies.com. The review was also linked on Rotten Tomatoes, where I'm a Top Critic.
Since I had a lot of films on my busy holiday schedule, I quickly moved on. Hundreds of men who read my review did not.... [Example comment: "I will kill your mom, dad and friends Bcoz I want [you] to regret for what u did. I have your address and details about your family members."] I reported the messages to Instagram and was rebuffed because, per the automated response, the vitriol didn't "violate community guidelines." Didn't matter. They found me on Facebook and Twitter, too.... Nearly 2,000 people "liked" a post in which some guy made a collage of my face and a few negative reviews.... I wasn't scared by the threats as I much as I was disheartened. One guy summed it up when he messaged me: "How many of us are you going to block? There are thousands of us."
Ironically, the review wasn't all negative. It called Aquaman "the first live-action D.C. Comics movie in which a superhero actually appears to be having fun. Batman, Superman, the Suicide Squad, even our beloved Wonder Woman tend to behave as if they just lost their 401(k) savings during the apocalypse." Yet rifing on the critic's last name, one commenter still wrote "hope another Holocaust happens."
Instead of "thousands" of angry fans, it could just be hundreds who are using multiple accounts. But there's a larger issue. "I worry that reading volumes of hate mail is starting to get in my head and cause me to consider the potential angry male ramifications while I'm writing my reviews, thereby compromising my integrity."
Since I had a lot of films on my busy holiday schedule, I quickly moved on. Hundreds of men who read my review did not.... [Example comment: "I will kill your mom, dad and friends Bcoz I want [you] to regret for what u did. I have your address and details about your family members."] I reported the messages to Instagram and was rebuffed because, per the automated response, the vitriol didn't "violate community guidelines." Didn't matter. They found me on Facebook and Twitter, too.... Nearly 2,000 people "liked" a post in which some guy made a collage of my face and a few negative reviews.... I wasn't scared by the threats as I much as I was disheartened. One guy summed it up when he messaged me: "How many of us are you going to block? There are thousands of us."
Ironically, the review wasn't all negative. It called Aquaman "the first live-action D.C. Comics movie in which a superhero actually appears to be having fun. Batman, Superman, the Suicide Squad, even our beloved Wonder Woman tend to behave as if they just lost their 401(k) savings during the apocalypse." Yet rifing on the critic's last name, one commenter still wrote "hope another Holocaust happens."
Instead of "thousands" of angry fans, it could just be hundreds who are using multiple accounts. But there's a larger issue. "I worry that reading volumes of hate mail is starting to get in my head and cause me to consider the potential angry male ramifications while I'm writing my reviews, thereby compromising my integrity."
Seriously, THIS is a "crisis" worthy of posting on Slashdot ?
Slashdot has not just gone down hill, it's out of the toilet now and running through the sewer, along with a whole bunch of other turds.
And to the anonymous critic :
If you can't handle the reality that some of the public are crazy and some of the public are assholes, you need to find yourself a different job.
And while you're at it : GROW UP.
I also in general enjoy the Marvel stuff more, I think the relationships between the characters are more interesting, or possibly have a bit more depth? Or as much depth as they can have in a. superhero movie anyway.
I did like Wonder Woman, but why not as much as some other Marvel movies, I really can't quite say...
I totally agree with you about both Captain America: Civil War and BvS. I had the same issue.
One thing I will say about the value of all the DC movies if they have accidentally led to the greatest spin-off of all time, the Batman/Superman cafe stuff that How It Should Have Ended puts puts out. I honestly probably have derived more enjoyment from that series of video than all of the Marvel and DC video content put together.
It's almost at the point to where I judge the value of something more on spin-offs generated than on the base material. The Star Wars prequels and newer movies for example while being quite terrible, led to a resurgence of Star Wars related video content by fans who thought (rightfully) they could do better... either humor or new original content. So much stuff would not exist without a terrible base to found it upon, you pretty much have to thank the person who produced that base even if you dislike it...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
That's a nice conspiracy theory you have there, with no sources. You are fake news.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!