Dark Phoenix Vs Rotten Tomatoes: The Battle Begins

Rotten tomatoes has turned into a real hotbed for movie ratings.  Everyone has their own points of view, so it should not be surprising when critics and audience ratings are close or far apart.  Sometimes critics love a movie and fans hate it, or fans love what critics hate.  Dark Phoenix may be one where fans and critics are galaxies apart.

Questioning the accuracy of RT comes from recent movies where fans have teamed up to drive a movie’s ratings into the ground such as The Last Jedi or Captain Marvel. Fans with an agenda drove The Last Jedi’s score into the ground, but it has since rebounded somewhat to 44%.  There is no way a movie could make $620 million domestically and only have 44% of the fans like it.

Dark Phoenix Fighting Low Rotten Tomatoes Critic Scores

Dark Phoenix may be in for a reverse battle.  There have been no fan outcries (yet) about the movie, but critics are trashing the movie, due out today.  As of June 7, Dark Phoenix sat at a 22% rotten out of 171 critic reviews.  Critics are not liking this movie one bit. 

As of 11:30a this morning the first audience ratings are coming in and the movie, while not stellar, is scoring a 63% on 799 reviews.  Many are admitting the flaws of the movie, but fans are acknowledging the fun of the movie.  Early fan reactions say the film is rushed but did an okay job with the time such a complex saga was given.  Many also comment on Simon Kinberg’s directorial debut.  While he has assisted behind the scenes on many films, this is the first time he controls the camera, and it shows.

Word of Mouth & Social Media Can Kill

Another thing drawing opinions down is the internet.  Before social media days, one rarely heard about reshoots and films being altered before release.  Reshoots are a normal filming process.  Nearly every film goes through them to some degree, but in today’s world, the word reshoot has near disastrous connotations. Dark Phoenix learned that the hard way.

Media outlets also seem to have a drive to want this movie to fail.  Critics and media articles have been quick to jump on any news for this film that could be spun as negative.  It feels like media outlets (like Rotten Tomatoes, for example) WANT this film to fail.

Then again fans often see what critics do not.  Fans have a love of the property and the characters, that critics do not.  Fans can acknowledge faults in a movie while still enjoying the simple pleasures of seeing childhood favorites on the big screen.  Sometimes simply having the film on the big screen is worth a C starting score.

Dark Phoenix Vs Dark Knight Rises

The latest and last X-Men film may have had a strike against it from the very beginning, a problem very similar to Dark Knight Rises.  Both story line were huge story arcs in the comics that spanned dozens upon dozens of issues over multiple titles.  Hollywood comes along and tries to tell the stories in a single movie despite the fact the story alone could span a trilogy or more. 

What you end up are the cliff notes to a classic tale for both Batman and the X-Men.  Characters that play major roles barely see any screen time.  Pivotal moments in the comics are lightly covered or glossed over all together in favor of streamlining the story.

No matter the reasons, look for Dark Phoenix to have a RT score somewhere between 65-80.  While that is a broad range, low expectations can often lead to viewers liking a film more because they do not go in with lofty goals and instead go in hoping to simply enjoy the film.