It happened with Black Panther, and now people are once again “review bombing” the user review score on Rotten Tomatoes for Captain Marvel. A quick look at the audience reviews page for Captain Marvel over on Rotten Tomatoes has been flooded with negative, angry “reviews” of the film and while there are some genuine comments noting excitement for the film, most have an unsettling common theme: anger about Captain Marvel being centered around a female hero.
Obviously it didn’t work with Black Panther, as the critic reviews were excellent as was the word of mouth and it went on to make a billion dollars. And it probably won’t work with Captain Marvel, but of course they’re going to try it.
A disproportionate number of comments on the review page cite issues with a perception that Captain Marvel is “sexist” for a variety of reasons including but not limited to the gender of primary hero, star Brie Larson’s backing of a campaign to send under privileged girls to see Captain Marvel, and generally a number of trolls complaining that the film is a “social justice warrior” or “SJW” film. Some have even gone so far as to lodge the same complaints about Captain Marvel — which, again, won’t hit theaters for another few weeks and first reactions to the film aren’t set to debut until tomorrow — as a certain subset of “fans” did about Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
In any case, despite the early backlash, the real test for Captain Marvel comes when the film hits theaters on March 8th, 2019.
