Suicide Squad gets its theatrical release tomorrow, but unless you've managed to avoid the internet over the last few days, you'll have probably noticed that early critic reviews have been less than glowing. The harsh words haven't went down well with fans, with one going so far as to start a petition calling for the closure of aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes.
Over 18,000 angry DC aficionados have signed the petition so far, which was started by Abdullah Coldwater of Alexandria, Egypt. He writes: "Critics always give The DC Extended Universe movies unjust Bad Reviews... and that Affects people's opinion."(sic)
At the time of writing, the movie has a 29 percent approval rating on the site, with 98 negative reviews out of the 139 that have been counted.
Coldwater says the petition definitely won't shut down the Rotten Tomatoes, but is a way to "deliver a message to the critics that there is a lot of people disagree with their reviews." Quite why he's picked on Rotten Tomatoes, which only aggregates scores and doesn't offer an opinion of its own, is a mystery. It also appears that a lot of people have decided the movie is definitely better than the reviews suggest without having actually watched it.
Somewhat ironically, as noted by Entertainment Weekly, the company behind the movies set in the DC universe - Warner Bros - owned Rotten Tomatoes up until February of this year, when it was sold to Fandango. The studio acquired a minority stake in the ticket seller as part of the deal.
However, much like that other recent DC title that was also slammed by critics - Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice - Suicide Squad looks like it will take in a fortune at the box office when it opens.