'Justice League' Rotten Tomatoes Score Drops From Initial Reveal

For most movie fans, film criticism is a nuanced examination of the merits of a film in which [...]

For most movie fans, film criticism is a nuanced examination of the merits of a film in which performances, direction and narrative are all taken into account to communicate what a movie contributes to the medium. For others, a film gets a binary distinction of "good" or "not good," with review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes calculating data based on critic reviews. Justice League initially debuted on the site with 43% positive reviews, which has now dropped to 40%.

Films in the DC Extended Universe have never been a big hit with critics, dating all the way back to Man of Steel in 2013. Despite the films often scoring low numbers on the review aggregator site, each movie goes on to score millions of dollars at the box office and still find an audience that develops a deep passion for each entry.

The emphasis of a film's Rotten Tomatoes score has a strange impact on movie fandom, especially in the 18 months since the release of Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice.

When a studio is fearful that their product might be disappointing, they typically delay critic screenings and embargo official reviews until days before the release as to avoid negative press dismaying people from seeing their films. With both Batman v. Superman and Suicide Squad last year, critic screenings were delayed and reviews were embargoed until much closer to the films' release than other big-budget blockbusters.

Conversely, Marvel Studios, which has been making movies since 2008, typically holds screenings and lifts embargoes further in advance, and often have stronger positive critical reactions.

A rift has begun to divide fans of Marvel and DC, as Marvel fans boast that a Rotten Tomatoes score is objective proof about that the Marvel Cinematic Universe films are better while DC fans have attempted to discredit anyone who publicly bashes the DCEU films, claiming that anyone who doesn't like these movies isn't a "real fan" or "doesn't get" the successes of these films.

Ultimately, it's important to note that no one person's opinions about a movie are more valid than anyone else's and these personal opinions, whether you're a critic or casual movie-goer, are the only ones that matter.

Also, it's safe to assume that Justice League will make millions of dollars, even if its Rotten Tomatoes score drops to 1%.

You can check out Justice League for yourself when it hits theaters on Friday.

[H/T Rotten Tomatoes]

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