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Uh oh. The much-hyped Suicide Squad is taking a beating from critics.
Mick La Salle of SFGate began his review with: "If you know someone you really can't stand—not someone you dislike, not someone who rubs you the wrong way, but someone you really loathe and detest—send that person a ticket for Suicide Squad."
It seems like La Salle isn't the only one who espouses this sentiment. Rotten Tomatoes, which aggregates scores from critics, says that only 32% of its approved critics have given the movie a favorable review. The site adds that the movie suffers from "thinly written characters" and "choppy directing."
Well, one fan of Suicide Squad was NOT having it. In fact, this individual started a Change.org petition to shut down Rotten Tomatoes. As of publication, it has 15,577 supporters, which beats the initial goal of getting 15,000 people on board. The goal has now been moved to 25,000 supporters. The petition notes that Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice had also received a low approval rate (27%), and takes this as evidence that critics are biased against "The DC Extended Universe."
There are a couple problems with the petition. For one thing, Rotten Tomatoes is an aggregator site (i.e. it just collects reviews from other sources), so it's not the source of all the vitriol against Suicide Squad. Second, an online petition is probably not going to shut down a website that's been around since the late 90s, a fact that the petition's founder noted:
A petition definitely won't shut down the site
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The aim of the petition is to deliver a message to the critics that there is a lot of people disagree with their reviews.
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A lot of people the supporters and the opponents of the petition act like we are already going right now to shut down the site
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not it's just a way to express our anger
We should also mention that "Abdullah Coldwater" of "Alexandria, Egypt" is named as the creator of the petition, so take that for what it's worth.
Meanwhile, some people were not impressed with the call to end Rotten Tomatoes.
David Ayer, the director of Suicide Squad, seems unfazed by all the bad news. He took to Twitter to defend the flick:
Prefiero morir de pie que vivir de rodillas - Emiliano Zapata
— David Ayer (@DavidAyerMovies) August 2, 2016
Zapata quote is my way of saying I love the movie and believe in it. Made it for the fans. Best experience of my life. ❤️
— David Ayer (@DavidAyerMovies) August 2, 2016
Translated, the Zapata quote roughly means, "I'd rather die on my feet, than live on my knees." It's a pretty gutsy statement, but it also doesn't speak to the quality of the movie. We guess Ayer is just trying to say "I got no time for haters."
Anyway, bad reviews or not, the movie is slated to make a killing at the box office. The aforementioned Batman v Superman raked in a cool $870 million, and there's no reason to believe that Suicide Squad can't do the same.
