Rotten Tomatoes Issues Statement Rebuffing Criticism

In what become a cultural talking point, X-Men: The Last Stand producer Brett Ratner took to the media complaining about, well, the media. And the public at large.

While recently speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Ratner explained his frustration with the movie review site, Rotten Tomatoes, saying that it oversimplifies the often nuanced response to a film.

“The worst thing that we have in today’s movie culture is Rotten Tomatoes.” he said. “I think it’s the destruction of our business.”

Suffice it to say his reaction was stemming from the 27% (of 100) that the film received by the consumers.

Today the company released a statement regarding the comments:

“At Rotten Tomatoes, we completely agree that film criticism is valuable and important, and we’re making it easier than it has ever been for fans to access potentially hundreds of professional reviews for a given film or TV show in one place. The Tomatometer score, which is the percentage of positive reviews published by professional critics, has become a useful decision-making tool for fans, but we believe it’s just a starting point for them to begin discussing, debating, and sharing their own opinions.”

While Ratner has previously been tied to some poorly-received films such as X-Men: The Last Stand, he reassures that he appreciates the work of film critics – just not the more modern simplification of their work through sites like Rotten Tomatoes.

“I have such respect and admiration for film criticism. When I was growing up, film criticism was a real art … there was intellect that went into that. You would read Pauline’s Kael’s reviews, or some others, and that doesn’t exist anymore. Now it’s about a number. A compounded number of how many positives vs. negatives.

“Now it’s about, ‘What’s your Rotten Tomatoes score?’ And that’s sad, because the Rotten Tomatoes score was so low on Batman v. Superman, I think it put a cloud over a movie that was incredibly successful.”

Even with the less-than-sunny response from some, the film was embraced by many fans, and went on to make $873 million worldwide.

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