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Low audience vs critic reviews can also indicate review bombing. This often happens on films or TV shows targeted by rightwing media for being too “woke”. The

Low audience vs critic reviews can also indicate review bombing. This often happens on films or TV shows targeted by rightwing media for being too “woke”. The show that always sticks in my mind as an example is HBO’s Watchmen, which has 96% with critics and 56% with the audience.

mikrotikker 3y ago
And vice versa for leftwing media for being too "offensive". And example would be Dave Chapelles specials.
- flangola7 3y ago
  What movies have that happened to?
  - mikrotikker 3y ago
    Sorry i added an edit. An example would be Dave Chapelle special.
    - flangola7 3y ago
      That was over justified problems of transphobia, and not nearly the same scale of reaction. I also wouldn't really call a compilation of stand up sessions to be a movie, though that is neither here nor there. I can't actually think of any films that attracted the same foaming at the mouth as you see by conservatives.
      - mikrotikker 3y ago
        > can't actually think of any films that attracted the same foaming at the mouth as you see by conservatives Could that be because you are stuck in an echo chamber and experiencing confirmation bias? "The outrage is legitimate when we do it"
        flangola7 3y ago
        I have pondered that possibility at length but have yet to see any compelling evidence or reason to believe that it is accurate. Some outage is legitimate and some is not, and a qualitative assessment like I performed will reveal which is which. "Both sides" are very different entities, far from being two sides of the same coin despite the common shallow rhetoric that tries to persuade otherwise.
        ceejayoz 3y ago
        Feels like if it were widespread on both sides it wouldn't be all that challenging for you to come up with an example. What's the prominent leftist equivalent of Ben Shapiro ranting for 43 minutes about the Barbie movie? (https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/ben-shapiro-barbie-movie-rant-b2381253.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/ben-shapir...)
      - jilpk 3y ago
        It wasn't justified though. The humorless hordes who complained not only could not take a joke, but also were irate at everyone else not being similarly offended. Perhaps his set isn't to the comedic tastes of everyone, but there's an easy solution to that: don't watch it if you don't like it.
tick_tock_tick 3y ago
I think anti-woke review bombing is vastly overestimated. I think the opposite is more common honestly news articles get written about something being "review bombed" and then you get a much larger sea of 5 stars artificially inflating the score. The Watchmen TV show is a horrible example as it's literally fan-fiction with little to no real connection to the graphic novel. So that fact alone pissed a lot of people off. It completely ignored the only actual "squeal" (Doomsday Clock) to create the story they wanted to tell while borrow the popularity of the name to get attention. Even ignoring all that did you actually even watch it? 96% is complete bullshit. 96% means some of the best TV ever made. I don't think it's a 56% but the 56% is way closer to reality then the 96%.
- brokencode 3y ago
  Yup, I watched it and it was great. And the fact that the show was review bombed by rightwing trolls was well documented by media coverage at the time, whether you believe that or not. You seem not to understand the Rotten Tomatoes score though. 96% just means that 96% of critics gave it a positive review. That says nothing about how positive the review was. Idk how many of them would describe it as one of the best shows ever, though that’d be an interesting score as well.
  - nverno 3y ago
    I was a huge fan of the graphic novel, but that show disgusted me from the moment I saw how they had demonized Rorschach. I'd tend to agree with OP that many fans of the graphic novel were turned off by the TV nonsense. 'Right-wing trolls' kinda seems like crying wolf - it's an easy scapegoat, but basically impossible to prove.
    - brokencode 3y ago
      The show didn’t demonize Rorschach. The white supremacists in the show twisted his ideology to legitimize their beliefs and provide a powerful symbol for their cause. You might disagree, but that’s just an example of what makes the show so good. It’s shocking and subtle and up for interpretation. It makes you think, regardless of whether you agree.
dotnet00 3y ago
I feel like your framing of the issue is too one-sided. Many times the "rightwing media" driven review bombing is about beloved series being damaged/unfaithful. That just happens to often be traced back to politics because it's an easy way to paint all critics as bigots. Eg Captain Marvel or She Hulk being generally disliked compared to Iron Man, Hulk or Captain America, The Last Jedi being disliked in the Star Wars community or in gaming, The Last of Us Part 2 being much more controversial than the original. Put aside the politics for a bit and actually pay attention to the arguments and it becomes clear that people aren't specifically complaining that Captain Marvel is a woman, but that she isn't interesting or likable. Similarly TLOU2 wasn't controversial primarily because of the trans character, but because it essentially wrecked what people liked so much about the original for seemingly no meaningful reason. When faced with that, it's unsurprising that the conclusion tends to be that the series was sacrificed at the altar of politics. This is such a common tactic in gaming when a game is controversial, just lean on the claim that gamers are typically bigots and get away with anything because most people don't want to be called bigots. It's why Steam Reviews are preferable to reviews from journalists on whether or not a game is worth playing.
- brokencode 3y ago
  The defense of “you shouldn’t change anything about my beloved series” is pretty flimsy. If you don’t change anything, then what’s the point of watching/reading/playing the same thing over and over? Doesn’t any series just get incredibly boring without variation? Great literature, TV, and films say things. Sometimes you might not agree. But at least it makes you think. Ideally, each entry in a series should say different or evolving things. Just look at how The Wire explores different aspects of Baltimore’s crime epidemic in each season as an example. And I’m not saying Captain Marvel is great or even good by the way. I thought it was just another boring superhero move, and a D or F tier at that. Same goes for a lot of your other examples. But I do think even beloved series have to have room for adaptation and experimentation. Because otherwise, they stagnate and can get to a point where they’re no longer worth watching. Just look at Mission Impossible for example. Each film is well made and has fun action. But do we really ever need another one? Doesn’t essentially the same thing happen every time? Isn’t Ethan Hunt always going to save the day and risk everything for his friends and the mission?
cameronh90 3y ago
Conversely, I find that often very "woke"/political films are rated overly highly on RT compared to how much I enjoy them. I'm not right wing, it just isn't going to make me enjoy an otherwise mediocre film. Black Panther, for example, was a perfectly fine film... but who isn't bored of Marvel stuff now, and is it really worth 96%? Higher than The Dark Knight? And even that was probably somewhat overrated due to Health Ledger's passing...
- hotnfresh 3y ago
  BP’s middling MCU. Coulda been a contender for very best, but they played it too safe. We shoulda followed killmonger for a while and not seen Wakanda at all until well into the film. That’d be harder to pull off, but it coulda been a good movie period, not just good for Marvel. As it is, it whiffs at what it’s going for because it doesn’t commit. One of the worse end fights of a marvel film, too, which is saying something, and really matters since that’s like 30 damn minutes of the film. Lots of good elements and performances. Middling MCU film overall.
takeda 3y ago
It works the other way look up Sound of Freedom 60% critics, 99% (not long ago it was 100%) audience. You can't make it any more obvious.
- brokencode 3y ago
  Yup, Sound of Freedom was pushed very heavily by rightwing media. There were daily articles on news sites like Breitbart about how it was the best movie of the year and how biased critics were trying to destroy it. About how readers should watch it to help support a conservative alternative to Hollywood.

mikrotikker 3y ago

And vice versa for leftwing media for being too "offensive". And example would be Dave Chapelles specials.

flangola7 3y ago
What movies have that happened to?
- mikrotikker 3y ago
  Sorry i added an edit. An example would be Dave Chapelle special.
  - flangola7 3y ago
    That was over justified problems of transphobia, and not nearly the same scale of reaction. I also wouldn't really call a compilation of stand up sessions to be a movie, though that is neither here nor there. I can't actually think of any films that attracted the same foaming at the mouth as you see by conservatives.
    - mikrotikker 3y ago
      > can't actually think of any films that attracted the same foaming at the mouth as you see by conservatives Could that be because you are stuck in an echo chamber and experiencing confirmation bias? "The outrage is legitimate when we do it"
      - flangola7 3y ago
        I have pondered that possibility at length but have yet to see any compelling evidence or reason to believe that it is accurate. Some outage is legitimate and some is not, and a qualitative assessment like I performed will reveal which is which. "Both sides" are very different entities, far from being two sides of the same coin despite the common shallow rhetoric that tries to persuade otherwise.
      - ceejayoz 3y ago
        Feels like if it were widespread on both sides it wouldn't be all that challenging for you to come up with an example. What's the prominent leftist equivalent of Ben Shapiro ranting for 43 minutes about the Barbie movie? (https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/ben-shapiro-barbie-movie-rant-b2381253.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/ben-shapir...)
    - jilpk 3y ago
      It wasn't justified though. The humorless hordes who complained not only could not take a joke, but also were irate at everyone else not being similarly offended. Perhaps his set isn't to the comedic tastes of everyone, but there's an easy solution to that: don't watch it if you don't like it.

tick_tock_tick 3y ago

I think anti-woke review bombing is vastly overestimated. I think the opposite is more common honestly news articles get written about something being "review bombed" and then you get a much larger sea of 5 stars artificially inflating the score. The Watchmen TV show is a horrible example as it's literally fan-fiction with little to no real connection to the graphic novel. So that fact alone pissed a lot of people off. It completely ignored the only actual "squeal" (Doomsday Clock) to create the story they wanted to tell while borrow the popularity of the name to get attention. Even ignoring all that did you actually even watch it? 96% is complete bullshit. 96% means some of the best TV ever made. I don't think it's a 56% but the 56% is way closer to reality then the 96%.

brokencode 3y ago
Yup, I watched it and it was great. And the fact that the show was review bombed by rightwing trolls was well documented by media coverage at the time, whether you believe that or not. You seem not to understand the Rotten Tomatoes score though. 96% just means that 96% of critics gave it a positive review. That says nothing about how positive the review was. Idk how many of them would describe it as one of the best shows ever, though that’d be an interesting score as well.
- nverno 3y ago
  I was a huge fan of the graphic novel, but that show disgusted me from the moment I saw how they had demonized Rorschach. I'd tend to agree with OP that many fans of the graphic novel were turned off by the TV nonsense. 'Right-wing trolls' kinda seems like crying wolf - it's an easy scapegoat, but basically impossible to prove.
  - brokencode 3y ago
    The show didn’t demonize Rorschach. The white supremacists in the show twisted his ideology to legitimize their beliefs and provide a powerful symbol for their cause. You might disagree, but that’s just an example of what makes the show so good. It’s shocking and subtle and up for interpretation. It makes you think, regardless of whether you agree.

dotnet00 3y ago

I feel like your framing of the issue is too one-sided. Many times the "rightwing media" driven review bombing is about beloved series being damaged/unfaithful. That just happens to often be traced back to politics because it's an easy way to paint all critics as bigots. Eg Captain Marvel or She Hulk being generally disliked compared to Iron Man, Hulk or Captain America, The Last Jedi being disliked in the Star Wars community or in gaming, The Last of Us Part 2 being much more controversial than the original. Put aside the politics for a bit and actually pay attention to the arguments and it becomes clear that people aren't specifically complaining that Captain Marvel is a woman, but that she isn't interesting or likable. Similarly TLOU2 wasn't controversial primarily because of the trans character, but because it essentially wrecked what people liked so much about the original for seemingly no meaningful reason. When faced with that, it's unsurprising that the conclusion tends to be that the series was sacrificed at the altar of politics. This is such a common tactic in gaming when a game is controversial, just lean on the claim that gamers are typically bigots and get away with anything because most people don't want to be called bigots. It's why Steam Reviews are preferable to reviews from journalists on whether or not a game is worth playing.

brokencode 3y ago
The defense of “you shouldn’t change anything about my beloved series” is pretty flimsy. If you don’t change anything, then what’s the point of watching/reading/playing the same thing over and over? Doesn’t any series just get incredibly boring without variation? Great literature, TV, and films say things. Sometimes you might not agree. But at least it makes you think. Ideally, each entry in a series should say different or evolving things. Just look at how The Wire explores different aspects of Baltimore’s crime epidemic in each season as an example. And I’m not saying Captain Marvel is great or even good by the way. I thought it was just another boring superhero move, and a D or F tier at that. Same goes for a lot of your other examples. But I do think even beloved series have to have room for adaptation and experimentation. Because otherwise, they stagnate and can get to a point where they’re no longer worth watching. Just look at Mission Impossible for example. Each film is well made and has fun action. But do we really ever need another one? Doesn’t essentially the same thing happen every time? Isn’t Ethan Hunt always going to save the day and risk everything for his friends and the mission?

cameronh90 3y ago

Conversely, I find that often very "woke"/political films are rated overly highly on RT compared to how much I enjoy them. I'm not right wing, it just isn't going to make me enjoy an otherwise mediocre film. Black Panther, for example, was a perfectly fine film... but who isn't bored of Marvel stuff now, and is it really worth 96%? Higher than The Dark Knight? And even that was probably somewhat overrated due to Health Ledger's passing...

hotnfresh 3y ago
BP’s middling MCU. Coulda been a contender for very best, but they played it too safe. We shoulda followed killmonger for a while and not seen Wakanda at all until well into the film. That’d be harder to pull off, but it coulda been a good movie period, not just good for Marvel. As it is, it whiffs at what it’s going for because it doesn’t commit. One of the worse end fights of a marvel film, too, which is saying something, and really matters since that’s like 30 damn minutes of the film. Lots of good elements and performances. Middling MCU film overall.

takeda 3y ago

It works the other way look up Sound of Freedom 60% critics, 99% (not long ago it was 100%) audience. You can't make it any more obvious.

brokencode 3y ago
Yup, Sound of Freedom was pushed very heavily by rightwing media. There were daily articles on news sites like Breitbart about how it was the best movie of the year and how biased critics were trying to destroy it. About how readers should watch it to help support a conservative alternative to Hollywood.