Barbie appears to be the latest female-led movie getting review bombed
Most people seem to like Greta Gerwig's Barbie, unless you count random anonymous internet strangers
Aux News Barbie
Make sure you’re sitting down for this stunning revelation, but: The internet is frequently a Bad Place where Bad People do what they can to spread misery. One example of this is the practice of “review bombing,” where groups of people express their displeasure with something by going to review aggregation platforms and leaving negative review en masse. Though there are… probably examples of it being done for good reasons, it’s usually more of a collective tantrum with the most childish of justifications.
And now it seems to be happening to Barbie, specifically on Rotten Tomatoes. As noticed by MovieWeb, the “Audience Score” for the Greta Gerwig film is hovering around 86 percent positive (based on thousands of verified ratings from regular people), as compared to 90 percent from critics. But, if you bring unverified ratings into it, which is to say random strangers hiding behind entirely anonymous usernames, that number drops to 74 percent positive.
That’s not an extremely dramatic dip, but if you skim through the user reviews, there are a handful of aggressively negative ones. The movie not knowing what “demographic” it was for is an oddly common complaint, and there’s one that simply says “all in for equal rights not for delusional thinking.” Of course, people are allowed to dislike things, even things that get generally positive reviews from critics (surely not everyone is lying when they say they like Zack Snyder movies), but this kind of thing does happen relatively frequently to movies aimed at anything but a straight, white, male audience or with anything but a straight, white, male lead.
Just a few months ago, IMDb instituted a new ratings calculation specifically for The Little Mermaid after noticing “unusual voting activity” surrounding it. Similarly, Billy Eichner’s Bros received hundreds of one-star reviews on Rotten Tomatoes after it premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival but before its actual wide release.
161 Comments
Must be awfully difficult for them to see the movie screen through those white hoods.(Kidding, of course — I know none of them actually watched the movie.)
Hey man, the sexism rooted in my being which drove me to reviewbomb this movie is completely separate from the racism which also happens to be rooted in my being.
These days it’s Oakley’s and neck gaiters. They just turned the hood upside down.
I wear a neck gaiter sometimes on the job for dust control. Am I making a statement I don’t mean to make?
Not if it isn’t printed with….that.
Not quite sure what’s sadder: the angry nerds who review bomb the movie without seeing it, or the angry nerds like Ben Shapiro and Critical Drinker who sit through the entire movie and spend a day putting together a 40-minute video about why they didn’t like a movie that wasn’t marketed to them.
40 minutes? try a 5 part, multi-hour slog of whining.
Yes. How dare critics criticize stuff. Fucking Nazis… It’s almost as annoying as angry nerds who defend garbage content because representation is the only criteria that matters for them… Bad story? Your’e a neckbeard. Bad characters? Fascist! Bad pacing/cinematography/set-pieces? Klan MAGA monster, how dare you not love what I pretend to love!!!!!!
Who exactly IS this being marketed to? There is nothing in the trailer or ads I have seen that appeals to me personally, which is fine. Not every movie is for every person. So if I see it, it will be when I can test drive it for free on streaming. And that’s fine—I’m not review bombing or anything like that. But I am smart enough to know if a film feels like it is not up my alley to not go see it. It is too easy to go in with preconceived ideas and be disappointed.
Here’s a picture of lil’ Ben at the theater after realizing Barbie is about a woman and the theater doesn’t accommodate booster seats.
And which they clearly didn’t actually pay attention to.
Lefties are usually angry nerds with masks that believe looting is justice. Righties are uneducated zealots that believe wizards are real.
To be fair, The Critical Drinker’s video is just over 9 minutes and probably netted him over $8,000 dollars (and his ticket is also claimable as a business expense).
To be fair, I also have $8,000 AND my dignity.
I’ve come to learn that everything has a price in this world.
Also pertinent.
To be fair, I also have $8,000 AND my dignity.So does Critical Drinker. Unlike you, he also has the respect of others for his insightful and honest opinions.For example, Critical Drinker positively reviewed the trailers for Barbie and was looking forward to the movie.Then he saw it.And was appalled.The reasons he has earned the respect of others (unlike you) is that he can admit when he was wrong. As he does at the beginning of his Barbie review, talking about how he was suckered by the marketing for the film.
How would you like to have $8,014.25?
*brings out inflatable swimming pool and 57 cans of dog food*
I only have one of those and it’s not the money part 🙁
dignity and am empty sack is worth the sack.
“Ticket” implies he went to see it.
He went. It’s kind of his job.
It’s kind of a job
Well yeah he does it for money not like he actually likes the stuff he watches. Also given his content type and short vids I highly doubt he actually made near 8000. YT vids really don’t pay that much money for short form even for high views from YT’s testimonies (unfortunately…………..). If you really could make that much for short form people (him included) wouldn’t be trying to spam them so much lol
To be fair, I am not even sure he seen it truly. Plus I highly doubt he made close to 8000 for a short-form vid. YT vids don’t make that much especially for a short-form even with high view counts from YT’s testimonials (unfortuantely…………………..). Its why YT’s, him included, make so many vids. Plus I doubt he even actually saw the movie in theatres, probably just read synopsis’s on reddit. So no ticket for write-off lol
What are you sure? No way I knows youtubers and even their views in the millions don’t make that much. You need huge views and longform videos to make any real money and theres no way content under 10 mins makes any real money. Ironically Benny boys video technically would have been more profitable of the two being like what 40 mins?. Also not defending either of them, they are clickbait chasers for chuds.
Honestly it’s sadder that anyone cares about random reviews from people on the internet that caused an overall score of a movie to drop. Jesus Christ, Barbie isn’t the greatest fucking movie ever created and who really gives a fuck that it’s audience review has dipped?
the angry nerds like Ben Shapiro and Critical Drinker who sit through the entire movie and spend a day putting together a 40-minute video about why they didn’t like a movie that wasn’t marketed to them.No, they are angry that the movie wasn’t made for the people it was marketed to. The marketing campaign was a lie.Are people not allowed to be angry when others lie to them?
You know, I sometimes get some enjoyment out of Drinker’s videos. But I just put on his Barbie take, and he’s really putting a lot of effort into making it fit his idea of what should be wrong with it.
Maybe I got the wrong intro to him (a friend brought up his reviews regarding the lotr show), but it felt from the jump that while maybe he’s funny (“messy but verbose drunk” was a comedy premise I aged out of with my 20s), he’s always upset about movies I don’t really care about, and for reasons that are juuuuust shy of “I don’t like corporate efforts to appeal to women and poc.” ….now I type that out, actually that’s not the subtext at all: that’s his entire raison d’etre.If I ever thought he was doing his videos out of sincere self-expression, that’s been pretty well obliterated by the Barbie video: he knows that movie isn’t for him, but knows kvetching about how it’s a harbinger of our cultural doom (his words) will appeal to a specific sort of cultural crybaby.
I first saw him maybe a year ago. I didn’t agree with him completely but he was entertaining. He’s gone downhill fast, reusing the same tired clips and the same take for every review. I checked out his Indiana Jones one after I saw and enjoyed it. It was frustrating being unable to clap back at what were either deliberately false descriptions or failures of comprehension.
Hm, to be clear, what I enjoyed was Indiana Jones, not Drinker’s video for it.
I’ll watch Critical Drinker because he can be entertaining and occasionally insightful, but he’s definitely suffering from a bit of audience capture.
Can’t imagine how a movie like Thelma and Louis (1991) would be received today. We have literally rolled backwards 32 years.
There is no sadder
Just let the feminists have their self-indulgent movie.
OH WOW THANKS HOW BIG OF YOU
Who let your mentally ill ass out of the greys? Abort yourself.
Ha. Wienie.
Just like you have Sound of QAnon… I mean Sound of Freedom.
Ah, Dickless! I was wondering what rock you were hiding under.You may go now.
Conservatives would never do that
Women are half the world. Sorry that’s too much for you.
You got some attention. Now you may go.
I miss the days when we were allowed to discuss story, characters, pacing, cinematography, etc. instead of STRICTLY the (real or perceived) political message of media.
Nobody’s stopping you from doing that, you’re just a lazy bitch.
By all means, go ahead. Tell us what you think of the story, characters, pacing, cinematography, etc.
Whenever someone says something like “when we were allowed to” I assume they actually do want to discuss the (real or perceived) political message, but are afraid of stating their true feelings.
Who’s stopping ya?
Oh, right–THEY are.
Sure, you CAN criticize those perfectly legitimate things, but if you do, prepare for a tirade of strangers calling you a bigot (and worse!) because obviously your criticisms are a dog whistle for fascist white cis male supremacist ideology.
That’s probably cause you’re an obvious bigot arguing in bad faith.
That’s a hell of straw man you’ve built. Impressive. But let’s pretend your nonsense is true. If you’re giving an objective, unbiased critique of the cinematography, characterization, and pacing of a film, you are not being called any of those things.The only people who get called racist or fascist or sexist are racists, fascists, and sexists. I’m guessing that happens to you a lot and that’s why you’re so mad. But that’s a YOU problem. I mean I know things are really tough out there for cis white dudes, the most oppressed people in human history, but why don’t you just develop a thicker skin and stop caring about strangers yelling at you on social media? How does that even affect your life in any way? Other than being a minor annoyance, perhaps.
I’m guessing you diddle kids. thanks for proving my point. I can’t even criticize criticism without you calling me a bigot…
Review bombs are not about duscussing anything. It’s tiny minds, afraid of anything that isn’t white, straight and male-centric.
You say that like your idea of “discussion” isn’t lecturing others on why your opinions are the only acceptable ones…
It’s ok to let that asswipe die in the grays.
Can you pin a date on that because I literally cannot remember. I know it’s true, but I feel like an athropologist just trying to think about it.
surely not everyone is lying when they say they like Zack Snyder moviesSince the movie dunks on the Snyder Cut of Justice League, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was exactly those snowflakes who are doing the review bombing. They don’t take kindly when you say bad things about their…whatever he is to them.
The only difference between Trumpian conservatives and progressive “liberals” is that progressives pretend their hypocritical bigotry doesn’t exist instead of wearing it like a badge of ignorant pride
They’re also probably pretty powerhungry considering they complained on the internet and actually got their way.
That joke made me laugh so hard I started coughing.
Apparently WB forced Gerwig to put in a reference to it, and didn’t pay attention to what the reference was.
I hope this is true.
Apparently WB forced Gerwig to put in a reference to it, and didn’t pay attention to what the reference was.No one hates the Snyderverse more than WB executives. That’s how we got Joss Whedon shoving the Flash’s face into Wonder Woman’s boobs.
Why would they dunk on the Snyder version over the original? Neither were movies i cared about but the original was way worse. No one thinks otherwise that saw both movies.
I watched both version of Justice League and can say the Snyder Cut is worse.
I do, they’re both bad but the theatrical cut is blessedly shorter.
Jesus, there is literally one throw away line about Zac Snyder and that’s dunking on his movie and fan base? Also it’s a kind of a dick move to put that in a movie when the guy’s child committed suicide. But whatever makes you feel good.
I’d love to know what Barbie could have done to actually win these guys over, just as an experiment.I have the feeling the answer is nothing, really.
Daddy didn’t hug them, now they stomp around angry at everyone.
Dang you got really offended that people didn’t like your movie lol.
Barbie? No statistically it sounds like a lot of people did like it, sorry.
People are offended by predictable, tortured, bad faith takes, that try to drag every single thing into their dumbass fake culture war, that’s actually just a projection of their audience’s insecurities.
My Daddy didn’t hug me, either—but I’m not going to take it out on a Greta Gerwig comedy starring Margot Robbie. Or any comedy starring Margot Robbie. Or any movie, period.
Your first mistake is assuming that their actions on the Internet actually correspond to something in the real world. Review bombing a movie is an abstract response to a vague impression of what the movie is said to possibly represent.
Yeah! Now let’s all gripe about that Matt Walsh movie we never watched.
Right like it NEVER does what these idiots think it’s gonna do. First none of these people had any intention of seeing it in the first place, so no money lost from ticket sale, and second all it does it drive articles like this, so MORE publicity, and puts it in front of people who may not have heard about it. Plus, you know it doesn’t actually work.
On top of that that’s even assuming most of those reviews are legit. Many are probably just set up bots. Or just as likely people with multiple accounts. I’ve heard of triggered neckbeards setting up dozens of accounts just to spam downvotes.
Obviously, make Ken the HERO!Geez, it’s not like their thought processes are deep or anything….
They want to be more important than women, no exceptions.
So it would be possible to make a Barbie movie they liked. Barbie would need to be portrayed as a sex doll for men.
The answer is Legally Blonde. Just with Barbie characters.Not also that it isn’t just guys who despise this movie. Numerous women have also posted negative reviews of this movie.
If Margot Robbie was butt ass naked through the entire movie maybe these incels would have liked it LOL. Personally I think it looks fun and I am certainly not in the target demo. Also that lede picture, and the promo one of Barbie stepping out of her heels 100% drove the internet foot freaks minds WILD.
Quentin Tarrantino was spotted seeing it. For cinema, or for feet? Why not both!
LOL shit as soon as that first trailer dropped with a close up of Margot’s bare arched feet Tarantino was 100% in.
If that was the case, those men could’ve just watched The Wolf of Wall Street for the gazillionth time.
lol, it’s funny but I have seen that movie loads of times, but I barely seem to remember her, crotch shot I think it was. Shit the one scene that always pops into my head is Dicaprio fucking wasted trying to get in the lambo.
Honestly Margot Robbie is VERY brave for putting her feet out there like that. The the wikifeet types are living well this week.Though I’ll tell you what I’ve seen these kinds trying to make arguments about how actresses (and occasionally actors) are Actually Ugly Now, because they turned 30 or had an expression or wardrobe or something that the incels disapprove of. Absolutely wild the level of delusion some people will put on the internet.
Well I don’t know if I would call it brave just because of foot fetish people lol. What I always found funny is when it happens to be mentioned, there was an article here about Taylor Swift fans “complaining” about her giving away feet pictures for free, she wasn’t it was just photos that HAPPENED to also show her feet, acting like having a foot fetish is some REALLY way out there weird fetish. It’s like in the broad range of things people have a fetish about feet are REALLY tame LMAO. Not to kink shame, but look I think eating ass is way grosser than being into someone’s feet lol.
I don’t know that having a foot fetish is necessarily a gross or exceptionally weird fetish, but in my (admittedly very limited) experience the foot fetish corners of the internet are a strange place full of weirdly cropped images and people who are very quick and dedicated to what they do.Mostly joking, though.
LOL agreed, maybe it’s because the people that admit to it, primarily online go WAY over the top about it. It’s like there isn’t just a “hey nothing wrong with a nice pedicured foot” person, it’s just a bunch of dudes, I assume, just hardcore obsessing over them lol.
Don’t negotiate with bigots. Either you get more bigotry or you’ve wasted time arguing with bigots.
I don’t have any interest in negotiating with them. I’m too old to think that would work. I’m curious what they’d manage to articulate though. Either it’d be a blatant lie, or they’d end up telling on themselves even harder than they already are.At the end of the day, just like with a lot of other things that center women, they just don’t want it to exist.
Not possible. Credit to Gerwig for not pandering.
Swoon over a dude and look perky
honestly? If the movie had ended two thirds of the way through with (spoiler alert) Ken successfully turning Barbie Land into Kengdom and all the Barbies permanently turned into subservient bimbos, Ben would have LOVED it.
I mean if you saw the movie and you walked away thinking it was delusional to point out the real world is unfair, probably didn’t see the movie.The only fair “demographic” criticism I would say is a fair review is that I can see where there are probably a lot of little girls who want to see the movie when the movie isn’t really for small kids.
I don’t even think that’s a problem – for all of the (justified) attention the more adult themes and writing are getting, kids are kids and just let stuff they don’t get fly over their heads and enjoy what they do get. I work in a cinema and have seen plenty of families with young girls going to watch it and, while the parents are coming out laughing at the final line, the daughters seem to be very happy about a film where the Barbies are awesome and the Kens are silly. I don’t have girls but my two sons have watched it twice now (again – work in a cinema, it’s free!). It’s led to the 8 year old asking why I’m laughing at certain jokes which lead to a discussion on the silly ways Ken is trying to be a proper man but the 5 year old just thinks it’s hilarious that Ken smashes into a plastic wave.
I bet you have some stories about parents taking their kids to movies they should not have.Pretty much all I remember of seeing Borat follow up Bruno is a mother hurrying her children out of the theater when the dong started talking.
The first time I saw that movie it was at my sister’s house and she put it on in the middle of the day, in front of her small children. And thought it was fine. I’m not usually one to criticize other people’s parenting and I didn’t, not exactly, but mentioning that either of her sons describing a single scene from this movie to anyone outside her home would have CPS there tomorrow fucking morning, possibly with an order for removal, got her to shut it off.
Yeah, and that’s all totally fine. I personally think most of it would go over their heads. My only consideration when watching it and seeing kids in the audience was more “is there enough that’s fun for them?” If there is, cool! I also have no issue with the choices that were made. I loved it! But I could see a valid review saying “I was a little unsure if it was for kids or adults” or “Took my kid and it didn’t work for them.”
And that’s the thing, there is tons in “kids” movies ALSO aimed squarely at the parents that the kids just don’t get, its pretty common, and frankly the only thing that makes “kids” movies bearable for adults lol.
Glad to hear kids are enjoying it. Like Lindsay M. H., I also wondered if there was enough for younger kids to like because it seemed a lot of the best jokes required knowledge of adult life and older pop culture to understand. But the Kens were probably goofy enough that you could be entertained by them even if you didn’t get the bit about having a guy explain The Godfather to you, or like the depression Barbie ad is ridiculous enough that it’s funny even without understanding the specificity of it.
The movie is also generally bright-looking and energetic. I think there’s a lot of a kid to enjoy, even if they don’t get the full message.
Good point. The aesthetic and tone played a big role in my enjoyment of it too.
Being a grown adult that feels threatened by Barbie must be wild
The ever growing list of things that make conservatives shit their pants in fear about: women, Black people, Latinx people especially from Mexico, Chinese people, gay people, trans people, rainbows, feather boas, Mickey Mouse, lite beer, and Barbie dolls. Poor scared babies cannot deal with anyone or anything without running and crying to be protected.
Play this for them, fanburner:
While at the same time calling all of the people in that list “snowflakes”. The walls in their minds must be made of steel.
That’s the part that gets me. They call people snowflakes to insist they think they’re “soft” or whatever and then they get super upset over stuff like baby it’s cold outside… do they not…. sigh I don’t have the energy for this.
The scary part is that we’re dealing with people who don’t recognize the subtleties of emotional intelligence (or don’t have any). They don’t understand the value of self-awareness (it threatens their identities) so they aren’t going to change. Nor do they want to be educated. Cave people are going to fight the way that they do – with simple mantras and brute force. I’m glad I didn’t have kids.
I’m glad you didn’t have kids, too.
Don’t forget the footwear of cartoon M&Ms.
dr seuss
It isn’t just conservatives. Men everywhere (in every party), especially white men, are feeling disenfranchised. Not because they actually are but because they don’t acknowldge that the game was previously rigged in their favor. Even the guys who seem liberal (and say they are) are harboring some deep-seated resentment.
This.
Almost – but not quite – as bad as a grown adult complaining that an animated confection no longer does it for him because…sneakers.
Remember, folks: This kind of “anyone can submit a review” infrastructure is fucking worthless garbage and should not exist. Don’t pay attention to it, don’t engage with it, and shame anyone who works for RT for enabling its existence. If you happen to find out which RT higher-ups decided to create and sustain this system, beat them with a wiffle bat.
Two thumbs down on your comment.
You should at least have an understanding of how reviews are “verified” over at Rotten Tomatoes. The only way a review can be verified is if you purchased a ticket online through AMC Theaters, Regal Cinemas, or Cinemark and that the email address used to buy the ticket matches the email on your Rotten Tomatoes account. If you purchased directly at the theater, no verification. If you purchased from a different theater than the 3 above, no verification. So while review bombing does take place, just because your account isn’t verified it doesn’t mean you didn’t see the movie.
You understand why that’s not really any better, right?
Oh right. So people that have actually seen the movie are required to like it. I see.
Are you being deliberately obtuse, or what? Nobody’s required to like it. But the opinions of randos on RT, even if they’ve seen the movie, are of no value to anyone.
The obvious point seems to be that no one should care about whether they liked it or not.
I think the point is that you should be required to see the movie before reviewing it.
Ugh. Don’t respond to that troll.
That place went to shit years ago. It was once reliable. Their branding was successful enough to convince people that it’s still a worthy site.
I suppose the same reason I still keep visiting AVClub.
More definitive proof that conservatives are haters, sexists, bigots and racists! 👍
No one cares about this movie lol. Finish high school then try writing articles. Please don’t tell me you are an adult, that you read this and that you still published it. Jesus this is stupid.
You sound triggered.
Imagine creating an account JUST to comment on this article multiple times and then trying to convince us you don’t care. It’s goddamn adorable, bub.
It would be far easier to shut down Rotten Tomatoes. We got a long just fine without knowing viewer ratings for decades.
Despite Sound of Freedom supposedly driving left leaning people up the wall as much as Barbie actually is doing so to the alt-right, it’s currently at a 97% audience score when including unverified reviewers. That’s because normal people have millions of better things to do than trying to undermine a political agenda by going on a movie review website and posting a bunch of negative scores.
You should at least have an understanding of how reviews are “verified” over at Rotten Tomatoes. The only way a review can be verified is if you purchased a ticket online through AMC Theaters, Regal Cinemas, or Cinemark and that the email address used to buy the ticket matches the email on your Rotten Tomatoes account. If you purchased directly at the theater, no verification. If you purchased from a different theater than the 3 above, no verification. So while review bombing does take place, just because your account isn’t verified it doesn’t mean you didn’t see the movie.
If I’m ever in need of understanding something, I’m certainly not looking to a troll for insight.
I don’t think anyone has a problem with that “Sound Of Freedom” movie. It just looks really bad and formulaic. From hearing clips I guess it has a character actually say the title aloud so, if I knew when it happened, it might be fun to sneak into a theater to laugh my ass off. I mean I’m not surprised it’s a big hit. I live in the Bible Belt and despite some progress an absurd number of people do and think whatever their preacher says. Living among followers and fools I’ve been questioning the wisdom of democracy for some time now. But the problem with the alternative, some form of enlightened despotism, is everyone having the same definition of “enlightened”. Fuck it, AI is probably the answer. A non-human ruler may be the best shot the human race has for justice. Or maybe these aliens will come be the adults in the room. Someone has to.
There are definitely some reactionaries on the left feeling threatened by sound of freedom’s relative success as some harbinger of awful things to come. The same people who chose to interpret a 17 year old ted cruz yearbook quote about ruling the world as literal (google “ted cruz world domination” and see how many headlines mention that this was said in jest-by and don’t come across as handwringing clickbait)
The problem is that awful things are coming. Some very very awful things have already happened. At least 24 states are expected to ban or heavily restrict aboriton access (21 already have). This is madness – for everyone, men included.
We need more warnings, and louder.
I’m not sure why an AI ruler would be anymore inclined to dispense “justice” than a human one?
I believe the idea is that the being in charge shouldn’t be as easily corruptible as humans have shown themselves to be. The ideal AI ruler would be one that wasn’t motivated by personal greed, racial and/or religious biases, and a desire for power over others. Nor would it have reason to do the myriad of inane things politicians do to retain power instead of actually using said power to benefit mankind.
As for aliens, who knows how they’d think.
Yeah but why would that be the case? Any AI we create will be infected with the prejudices and assumptions of its creators. Further, even the concept of “justice” is not an objective idea. It’s shot through with emotion and subjective feeling.
2 cents:1 – At this point it’s sort of undeniable that review aggregators like Rotten Tomatoes are useless. Since it’s almost impossible to eliminate this problem, they are more and more losing their relevance. Even if we consider the “critics” reviews, it won’t work, because there is in fact a disconnect between the tastes of critics and general audiences;2 – That said, this particular instance of review bombing is surprisingly undeniable proof of the quality of “Barbie”. If somebody had any doubts about it being not only a good movie, but actually a great one, true cinema, the fact that the worst these ignorant pieces of trash could do is to put it at 74% of approval (a number that many movies would love to have!) is a certification of the success of “Barbie”, and Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie should celebrate it, maybe even make “mock-propaganda” out of it (“Barbie, the movie that even the worst assholes couldn’t take down!”).
Sam you should at least have an understanding of how reviews are “verified” over at RT. The only way a review can be verified is if you purchased a ticket online through AMC Theaters, Regal Cinemas, or Cinemark and that the email address used to buy the ticket matches the email on your Rotten Tomatoes account. If you purchased at the theater, no verification. If you purchased from a different theater than the 3 above, no verification. So while review bombing does take place, just because your account isn’t verified it doesn’t mean you didn’t watch the movie.
If you honestly take any time out of your day to review bomb Barbie, Bros or any other movie, 1). you have never helped a female achieve orgasm, and 2). you probably think that’s their fault.
I doubt they ever even got a chance at (1).
I appreciate the sentiment, but I’m not sure if I’d used the word “helped.” It’s not like we’re asking a guy to get something off of the high shelf for us.
I mean it’s not like women exactly need us in that category. We’re just assisting on the journey.
Thank you 🙂
Is there a surer sign of a fragile male ego than review bombing Barbie? You are more secure in your masculinity if the movie does not threaten you.
I love how people try to draw parallels between Barbie and the Qanon movie. Conservatives are burning their dollies and review bombing. Liberals are pointing out that Sound of Freedom was created by a grifter and is being pushed by lunatics, aside from not being a well-crafted movie. Totally the same reactions.
How could anyone possibly dislike a blonde goofy Mattel toy character? Let us never forget that shoes are everything an ditzy blondes are the backbone of this country.
What really irked me this year was the pure venom and negativity given to Indy 5 many months before the film was released. People purposefully trying to destroy the movie before they’ve even seen it. And then the early Cannes reviews came out which weren’t great but I saw so many videos on Youtube already declaring the movie a woke disaster even though those people hadn’t seen the movie yet. And then when the movie got a wide release and it got a fairly respectable 69% on Rotten Tomatoes and most people at the very least seemed to enjoy it on some level (after only seeing it once, I liked a lot about the film and overall thought it was a pretty solid film), and those people just really look like pure shitheads at this point. It’s hard to say whether the haters had an impactful effect on the box office or people were really just not interested in the new Indy film (could very well have been the case) but the overall harsh negativity kind of depressed me.
The Venn diagram of “people who are really upset about that Snyderverse joke” and “people who like to review bomb” looks a lot like a circle.
Maybe it goes without saying, but I saw Barbie last night. It fucking ruled beginning to end. no notes. the hype is real.
“but this kind of thing does happen relatively frequently to movies aimed at anything but a straight, white, male audience or with anything but a straight, white, male lead.”
…and there is the racism and sexism that Gawker/GMG/GO Media Inc. is well known for. :sigh: When are y’all going to accept that someone’s skin color/gender/sexual preferences don’t really matter much at all? (Don’t bother answering that; we all know that you never will, because pandering to other sexist, racist bigots is how you make bank. On top of that, the rabid hordes of your current stans would tear you apart for betraying them if you ever tried to actually be ethical and evenhanded.)
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(For those I’ve triggered by my strong words, know that I am of the Roddenberry/Rogers/Schultz school of bigotry fighting: relentlessly resisting any narrative that doesn’t uphold ‘folks is folks’ & ‘the differences between pretty much any two groups of people are FAR outweighed by their similarities’. (You can look up the full episode of “The Lieutenant Episode 21 – To Set It Right” on YouTube for a good reason why I take that stance. It is from 1964, and Roddenberry pulled NO punches when it came to facing the realities of racism & sexism in that contentious time.)
If you hate me because I am a straight, white man, that speaks to YOUR bigotry, not mine. I don’t hate you, and I mourn the tortured path that brought you to hating me. If I could help you with your unhealed hurts, bad habits, and persistent hangups, I would do so in a heartbeat. Please take care of yourself and seek help to deal with y0ur past before it poisons your future beyond all healing.)
Data proves that it makes no difference in box office. Even when audience scores are very high like the Flash or Shazaam (two male lead shows) it did not stop them from bombing. The fans hate the TV show the Witcher and review bombed that like crazy. Barbie made 500 million and Captain Marvel (the poster child for review bombing) made 1.1 billion. No one cares or looks at rotten tomatoes, and even if they do look, it certainly does not effect anything. It is a made up thing to complain about.And with Barbie, the supporters seem to go between “gee, its a stupid movie about a doll..why u mad bro?” and “this is the most profound reflection on womenhood ever and should be nominated for awards.” Which one is it? If it is a dumb movie about a doll, wouldn’t it be normal for some people not to like it? Shrug, never mind reason..be outraged!
Fucking incels.
Can’t imagine how a movie like Thelma and Louis (1991) would be received today. We have literally rolled backwards 32 years.
I wonder if men wonder why no one listens to their endless complaints.
They need to step up their game. The movie’s rapidly headed for $1 Billion box office…as Margot Robbie prophesied.
Or people just didn’t like the movie.
Is it getting review bombed, or are there just people who didn’t like the movie? Having read through many of the 1-3 star unverified reviews on RT, sure, some of them are seemingly hate for hate’s sake, but many users (with names that typically identify as female) call out the glaring problems with the film, like for example, how it spends more time focused on Ken than Barbie.