We’re finally in the home stretch for the release of Captain Marvel and while reviews are embargoed until the film’s March 8 premiere date (early impressions from preview screenings state that the movie is, ahem, marvelous), it hasn’t stopped trolls bombarding Captain Marvel‘s audience review score on Rotten Tomatoes despite not having seen it.
This sort of behaviour from the internet’s cesspool is sadly quite common on the popular review aggregator, particularly with films starring women (like The Last Jedi) or people of colour (like Black Panther), as the site allows users to review and comment on films ahead of their release date.
But after the latest brigading attempt on Captain Marvel, Rotten Tomatoes are making some big in an attempt to fix this problem, or in their words, “improve the overall user experience.”
A recreation of Rotten Tomatoes attempting to fix the troll problem.
In a new official blog post Rotten Tomatoes noted that due to “an uptick in non-constructive input, sometimes bordering on trolling” they’re going to disable the site’s comment function and getting rid of the “Want To See” score feature until a film is released.
These changes will essentially prevent users from reviewing films before they’re released, thus theoretically curbing any instances of trolls misbehaving.
But while it’s good to see Rotten Tomatoes taking steps to prevent brigading, this solution doesn’t permanently fix the troll problem.
The internet’s best and brightest may have lost the power to bombard films with bad reviews pre-release, but there’s nothing to stop the morons from brigading once a film is out.
In short, don’t be surprised to see Captain Marvel‘s audience scores on RT and IMDb tanking even after it’s making bank in cinemas.
This certainly isn’t a slight on Rotten Tomatoes’ efforts to combat the issue. Tackling the troll problem is a tough task akin to getting rid of cockroaches – those suckers just never die and keep coming back to annoy you.
There’s the option to simply ban all troll-y reviewers, but this isn’t feasible as it is difficult to gauge whether a negative review was written sincerely or in bad faith.
Then there’s the possibility of trolls simply migrating from Rotten Tomatoes and onto another website to spread their filth around.
So I guess the only real solution is to avoid the internet altogether. After all, trolls can’t control the narrative if you’re not part of it.