“Captain Marvel” was hit with tens of thousands of audience reviews just hours after the film opened in theaters on Friday, scoring a dismal audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes of 33%.
“As of 8 a.m., the film had a 33 percent audience score from more than 58,000 reviews,” reported The Hollywood Reporter. The outlet credited the low audience rating to “trolls” sandbagging the film, noting that the number of reviews in a matter of mere hours from “Captain Marvel’s” opening is “more than the total of audience score reviews for Avengers: Infinity War for its entire theatrical run.”
On mid-day Friday, the audience score peaked to 35%; the critics’ score, however, held at a solid 81%.
“Very little to get excited about here as the villain is the best character in the movie. Brie Larson is awfully miscast in the lead role. Thumb up for Mendelsohn and Jackson. As a lead-in to End Game it’s both inadequate and unnecessary,” reads one review from the site.
Another reviewer wrote, “Wasn’t expecting much going in and that’s what I got, not much. Brie Larson was a poor choice for the lead. She’s just not believable. I was bored all too often watching it.”
“A boring and bland story focused on a character with neither personality nor a single weakness,” says another post critical of the film.
Rotten Tomatoes recently amended their system to bar the general public from leaving reviews before the film is released. This was apparently an effort to cut back on “trolls” leaving negative reviews.
“We are disabling the comment function prior to a movie’s release date,” said Rotten Tomatoes, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “Unfortunately, we have seen an uptick in non-constructive input, sometimes bordering on trolling, which we believe is a disservice to our general readership. We have decided that turning off this feature, for now, is the best course of action. Don’t worry though, fans will still get to have their say: Once a movie is released, audiences can leave a user rating and comments as they always have.”
While feminists in media invested in the female-driven film’s success have claimed that the bad reviews for the film have come at the hands of women-hating male film critics, “Captain Marvel” has taken some heat from female movie critics, too.
For example, as noted by The Daily Wire’s James Barrett, a female film critic from Reeling Reviews, Laura Clifford, gave the flick a C- and criticized feminist actress Brie Larson’s performance.
“…I found the whole film to be a muddle of special effects, disjointed writing and lack of humor. The humor, especially, is built in to the other Marvel films and I wonder why there is nearly none in ‘Captain Marvel.’ The answer, I think is in the film’s star, Brie Larson, as hot-shot fighter pilot and kick ass warrior Carol Danvers. She is OK in the action sequences, which are many, but is too serious an actor for the character. That is a real problem for a hero in a franchise that is known for its mirth. … It is telling that there are eight credited writers, making this a kitchen sink of clichés,” said Clifford.
Moreover, World’s Megan Basham blasted “Captain Marvel” for its “girl-power pandering” and What She Said’s Ann Brody described the movie as “dark and empty.”
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