When Captain Marvel first hit the airwaves, it was already stirring up a bit of controversy. Many fans were upset that Brie Larson had been cast for the role of Captain Marvel. A lot of negative things were said about the actress; particularly her build. It was beginning to feel a lot like Wonder Woman when many attacked Gal Gadot and accused her of being too “feminine” and “thin” to play the Amazonian super hero. As for others, they simply didn’t like who Brie Larson was as a person. Some were also upset that the film neglected to add a powerful woman of color to the role. “You could have put a powerful black woman as Captain Marvel,” said many fans, “and it would have been stellar. Why continue white washing these comic movies?”
Another issue that fans seemed to have with the movie is that Disney bought the Marvel franchise. “Great, another lackluster Star Wars that’s been incredibly ‘Disneyfied’” a lot of forums were quick to say. After Disney’s handling of the Star Wars franchise, many were incredibly afraid to see what the Marvel Universe would look like under Disney’s control. Would it be a rehashed, tired story that’s been told before but with different characters this time? Would they write out some of the dynamics?
However, the controversy didn’t stop there. Once the film hit theaters, people were quick to attack Brie Larson once again over a number of unfavorable comments that were made. Fans also took to the Internet as wave after wave of conspiracy circulated around the film. Many were convinced that Disney was buying seats to the show to manipulate the film’s opening weekend numbers and others turned on Rotten Tomatoes to accuse them of purposefully deleting negative comments regarding the movie. Other conspiracies surfaced as well, but these were the ones that everyone seemed the most focused on.
Regardless of how much is true and how much is fake news, the film remains to date the most controversial movie that the Marvel Universe has brought out. Let’s take an in depth look at why this film has garnered so much hate and why people are turning against the movie.
Brie Larson
Despite the other conspiracy theories floating around regarding the film, Brie Larson is arguably the most controversial part of it. Or at least, she’s the part that people seem to focus the most on. Mostly, Brie Larson has become the subject of many complaints.
Unfortunately, a lot of these focus around her body. She is being shamed from all sides for not being “thick” or “built” enough to play the super hero. Others are quick to point out that Marvel was at one point searching for a butt double for Larson. “The fact that she can’t even fill out her suit should be reason enough to not cast her. Are we really resorting to butt doubles when there’s a number of actresses out there who could easily fill the role?” Brie Larson’s body really shouldn’t be an issue, but it is. However, it’s the same issues that people had when Gal Gadot “didn’t work out hard enough” to fill the role of Wonder Woman. People were upset that she didn’t put on a ton of muscle for the film, but is that really a big deal? Social media says yes.
Others have even resorted to saying that she doesn’t know the character well enough and that she doesn’t smile often enough of the trailers. These are definitely bizarre allegations lobbed at the actress that are rather unfair. Captain Marvel has the weight of the world on her shoulders and must save those around her. Should she really be smiling all the time? And why is everyone so obsessed with women smiling? Attacking her knowledge of the character is another thing that forums have taken it upon themselves to add to the growing list of “why we hate Brie Larson.”
Another issue people have with Brie Larson is what the populace is referring to as “rampant misandry” and “radical feminism.” Many call the actress a feminazi and claim that the movie is tainted by her personality. The bulk of this comes from an interview that Larson did with Marie Claire. In her interview, she managed to turn a big chunk of fans against her. Here’s what she said:
“I started paying close attention what my press looks like and also to the critics reviewing the movies. I did this about a year ago. When I started paying close attention, I realized that these groups were compromised of white males. With this in mind, I wanted to make my press days more inclusive. This led me to restrict who can interview me and who can come to my press conferences. “
Many chastised this interview and accused Brie Larson of misandry. Larson was quick to defend herself against the backlash, but her response only seemed to anger people further. She said, “if you think about it I’m bringing more chairs to the table, not taking chairs away. Nobody’s getting their seat taken and there’s definitely not less room to sit; it just means that there’s more seats available.” However, the damage was already done and many fans were over her.
Captain Marvel is a requirement, not an option
Captain Marvel is expected to play a big part in the battle with the Avengers against Thanos. Because of this, the movie becomes a crucial step in the journey to watch the team face off against Thanos. This just further adds to the divisiveness of the film. The fact that it’s a requirement doesn’t set well with many fans. “Captain Marvel sets things up for Avengers End Game; you can’t go watch End Game without having seen Captain Marvel first. This movie also introduces a key character. I don’t like feeling like I’m being forced to see a film just so I can better understand End Game, which is something I actually want to see,” said several fans.
However, many DC and MCU movies play off of each other and it’s not unusual for you to need to see one movie or read one specific comic in order to understand the rest. While many can arguably stand alone, meaning you can watch Doctor Strange without watching Ironman or you can see the Star Wars movies individually and still largely understand them, fans were not
happy with the idea that this wasn’t one of those films. However, many forget that you won’t understand End Game if you haven’t seen the first Avengers. Personally speaking, we like how the movie series is following the lines of a comic book and many fans agree.
Others speculated that the film was produced and done that way on purpose. “They knew it wasn’t going to sell well, they knew we didn’t want to see Brie Larson as Captain Marvel. So how are they going to sell tickets to a film that literally nobody wants to see? Well, make it a requirement! Disney knew what it was doing.” This sentiment can be seen all over forums that target the movie.
Rotten Tomatoes removes unfavorable reviews
Many assumed that the negativity would settle down after the film’s release and people couldn’t have been wrong. With Brie Larson’s interview and the controversy surrounding her fresh in everyone’s minds, there was no way the film was going to lose any of its divisiveness.
And as if the film didn’t have enough going against it, a problem with Rotten Tomatoes turned fans rabid. When the film hit theaters and thus hit ratings websites like Rotten Tomatoes, many were convinced that they’d see how bad the movie was truly doing.
However just hours of after the film’s inaugural opening, tens of thousands of audience reviews mysteriously vanished from the site. While Rotten Tomatoes blamed a “bug” for the missing reviews, fans were quick to point out that the 58,000 reviews that were lost were all negative. The audience score of the film was at a 33%. However, the “bug” wiped all of these negative reviews, leaving many of the positive ones behind. After the reviews disappeared, the film’s rating spiked to a high of 89%.
Rotten Tomatoes has flopped around as to what the “bug” was. According to the website, “our old setup allowed for people to review movies before they were even released. Because of this, we were hit with a ton of negative reviews by trolls. Thus, we chose to ‘start over fresh’ and prevent people from reviewing films that haven’t been released yet.” In other interviews, Rotten Tomatoes claims that the site encountered a critical error and many of the reviews were lost this way. However, fans were quick to point out that it was only Captain Marvel that was being affected by the crash.
Still trying to make peace with the public, Rotten Tomatoes also claimed that many of these reviews were “repeated” due to an issue with their posting system. “Many reviews were duplicated and this lead to an unfair score of the movie. People trying to review the film, whether positive or negative, may have seen their review post twice. This of course impacts the film’s score and we want to give our audience an accurate reading.” Many are still calling bullsh!t on Rotten Tomatoes.
The controversy lead Rotten Tomatoes to temporarily block users from commenting on films. Instead, only verified movie critics could leave their remarks. Many people thought that this was Rotten Tomatoes’ way of boosting the film’s score. “Of course critics are biased; they’ll vote however they’re paid to vote. You can’t rely on them,” said many. Rotten Tomatoes insisted it was just to prevent multiple posts from the same users from showing up and manipulating the score.
The film now sits at 53% based on user ratings (35,000 to be exact), and the critical Tomatometer rests at 79%.
Empty seats in theaters
One of the more interesting and bizarre conspiracy theories surround Captain Marvel involves empty seats in the theater. Normally, you wouldn’t really think of this as a big deal. Sure, it’s strange to see so many open seats on a film’s inaugural weekend, but is it really that surprising given all the controversy surrounding the film? There are tons of social media accounts, forums, and blogs devoted to just hating on the film. So it really shouldn’t be a shocker that many of the theaters remained at less than full capacity for the movie.
Many tweets like the one above began making their way around social media. Many agreed that their theaters were also surprisingly empty. “You don’t expect to see the theater so empty on opening night. It was weird. I mean, I’m not complaining because less people in the audience means a better viewing experience, but it was unusual. Maybe it’s the movie’s bad rap that’s keeping people away,” suggested one fan of the film.
However, people were quick to suggest that Disney was “padding” its ticket sales and numbers regarding the film.
This lead many people down a conspiracy rabbit hole where Disney or offshore accounts were faking the numbers and purchases regarding the film. @Just_Pele is just one of many who believes that the numbers and sales of Captain America are fake. “It’s obvious that they’re trying to convince us that this film is doing better than it is. Nobody wanted to see this movie and it was set to flop from the moment they started filming it. But Disney wants to make it look like the film was successful and they want more people to go watch it. So in order to do that, they pad their numbers and fake ticket sales,” argued others.
Neither Disney nor theaters have stepped forward with any rebuttal or explanation regarding the empty seats so for now, people are having a field day with this one.
Are you trolling me?
However it’s not just Brie Larson and the weird events surround the film that are leading to conspiracies and controversy. Trolls are also contributing to the movie’s divisiveness according to The Hollywood Reporterand Rotten Tomatoes. Hollywood Reporter was quick to step in for the ratings website when negative reviews started pouring in.
“58,000 reviews hit Captain Marvel within just a few hours of its release. In just this short amount of time, the film had garnered more reviews than Avengers: Infinity War did in its career. Something is definitely up with that,” said The Hollywood Reporter.
Rotten Tomatoes agreed that many of these negative reviews were submitted before the movie even opened. “Trolls are ‘review-bombing’ the film with negative, fake reviews before it’s even released. They’ve been against the movie since the beginning and what better way to exact their revenge than to lower the film’s score so significantly that maybe others won’t want to see it?”
Circulating conspiracy theories such as Disney fudging its numbers is also contributing to the film’s controversy thanks to fans. The more of these theories that come out that attribute negative qualities to the film, the more attention Captain Marvel gets, but not for the better. “Trolls are killing the movie without even giving it a chance. And at the same time, they’re killing it for others,” lamented many social media users.
“The movie is so bad not even pirating sites care about it”
This one is seemingly innocuous, but fans claim that it’s also contributing to the movie’s bad rap. According to several social media posts, the film isn’t even on the bulk of pirating websites and if it is, it’s poor quality.
“Typically these websites work fast. By the time a movie hits the theaters, it’s already being uploaded to the piracy website database. And we’re not talking about that grainy ‘camera in your purse’ type stuff; we’re talking Blu-Ray quality. But as far as Captain Marvel is concerned, I haven’t found it on any of the major websites. Well, I mean I have, but it’s really bad content. Most of its in a foreign language or really grainy. And it’s definitely not being watched much. In fact, there’s hardly anyone complaining to these websites about getting a copy,” said one fan of the streaming websites.
Many piracy fans believe that the fact that the film isn’t available in stunning quality on their favorite streaming platforms must mean that it’s not worth having. “If it was worth anything, they’d have it you know,” said another user. This notion has also been spreading through social media like wildfire and is only helping to hinder the movie’s success.
What are your thoughts?
Have you seen Captain Marvel yet and if you have, what were your thoughts on it? Do you really think the film is as bad as people are making it out to be? We also want to know whether or not you’re aware of the controversy surrounding the film and what your thoughts are on it. Do you think Disney is really padding their sales or do you believe that’s a more logical explanation for it? What do you think of the reviews flooding in so fast? Do you think it’s trolls trying to get back at the movie and Brie Larson? We also want to know whether or not you like Brie Larson. Do you think she was a good fit for Captain Marvel? Let us know in the comment section below!
The post Why Captain Marvel is the Marvel Comic Universe’s Most Controversial Movie to Date appeared first on Ishli.com.
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