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'Captain Marvel' Smashes Box Office Record, Laughs Off Review-Bombing Trolls (hollywoodreporter.com)
"With a $302 million international gross, Captain Marvel has earned $455 million overall to date, the largest ever global opening for a March release and the sixth highest of all-time," reports the Wrap. The superhero movie raked in $153 million just in America, reports Collider, "Suggesting that a sad, extremely vocal minority of idiots on the internet don't actually matter in the slightest."
They're referring to another Rotten Tomateos review-counting glitch Friday morning, as covered by the Hollywood Reporter: The Disney film had only been in theaters for hours on Friday when the female-driven superhero picture was torpedoed online via Rotten Tomatoes. As of 8 a.m., the film had more than 58,000 reviews. That is more than the total of audience score reviews for Avengers: Infinity War for its entire theatrical run.
Rotten Tomatoes explained in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter that a glitch was responsible for thousands of reviews showing up on the site when they shouldn't have. According to Rotten Tomatoes, it had included audience reviews given before the film was released, something which is no longer allowed.
Movieweb believes those pre-release reviews were generated by bots, suggesting a small handful of review-bombers who were attempting to amplify their impact. Yahoo Entertainment believes the attempted review-bombers were angry with the film's star "for, well, not giving a crap about what the trolls say. Perhaps that's the best superpower of all."
When asked about the attempt to review-bomb Captain Marvel, the film's star Brie Larson smilingly replied, "Oh... who cares?"
"Love what you love! Who cares what other people think?"
They're referring to another Rotten Tomateos review-counting glitch Friday morning, as covered by the Hollywood Reporter: The Disney film had only been in theaters for hours on Friday when the female-driven superhero picture was torpedoed online via Rotten Tomatoes. As of 8 a.m., the film had more than 58,000 reviews. That is more than the total of audience score reviews for Avengers: Infinity War for its entire theatrical run.
Rotten Tomatoes explained in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter that a glitch was responsible for thousands of reviews showing up on the site when they shouldn't have. According to Rotten Tomatoes, it had included audience reviews given before the film was released, something which is no longer allowed.
Movieweb believes those pre-release reviews were generated by bots, suggesting a small handful of review-bombers who were attempting to amplify their impact. Yahoo Entertainment believes the attempted review-bombers were angry with the film's star "for, well, not giving a crap about what the trolls say. Perhaps that's the best superpower of all."
When asked about the attempt to review-bomb Captain Marvel, the film's star Brie Larson smilingly replied, "Oh... who cares?"
"Love what you love! Who cares what other people think?"
Admittedly, I haven't see it (only its effects and the ugly divisive firestorm surrounding it), so maybe I'm being unfair. Up to this point I've had no interest in seeing it myself, but I have heard some things about it that suggested it was pretty heavy on the propaganda side. Maybe you can clear this up. This is what I've heard:
1) The hero is potrayed as constantly having been kicked down and told she's not good enough, exclusively by comically-over-the-top sexist men.
2) SPOILER ALERT The one white male in the film who is her ally turns out to be the villain.
3) Captain Marvel herself is a "Mary Sue" with no real character arc. She starts out perfect and flawless, and ends up perfect and flawless. Her only "flaw" that she overcomes is not appreciating how awesome she truly is, or appreciating how much evil men have been holding her back or deceiving her about her awesome-amazingness.
4) Captain Marvel never faces any real challenges, nor has real character development, nor is shown to grow in any meaningful way.
5) The feminism is presented in a clumsy heavy-handed way, such as playing the song like "I'm Just A Girl" during the climatic fight scene--and not in a funny, ironic way.
Perhaps I've been misinformed on this, and if so, I would be legitimately interested in hearing an alternate take. Maybe Nick Fury takes her cocky attitude down a peg in a funny scene? Maybe she has some real flaws that she overcomes? Maybe there are scene(s) where she shows some real humanity or vulnerability? Maybe she makes some real mistakes and owns up to them? Those would definitely help combat the "one-dimensional Mary Sue" rumors.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
That's the saddest thing, isn't it? Mainstream superhero movies have traditionally united us. This is the first one that feels like it has only divided us even more. And, perhaps most disheartening, Marvel seems to have chosen this approach intentionally. The certainly didn't take this approach with Black Panther. Nor did DC take this approach with Wonder Woman.
This feels like the kind of unpleasant turning point that I had hoped would never come in this genre. They've brought divisive politics and social division into a genre that used to be noted for its universal appeal. It makes me dread what we can expect going forward.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.