Yesterday I re-reviewed Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice (you can read my review here) and noted there seemed to be a hard edged anger against it out there. While films often elicit differing reactions, it seems like those who don’t like BvS really, really hate the film and some have gone way out of their way to slam it and those who do like the movie.
Well, the opposite seems to be happening with Captain America: Civil War (CA from now on).
The film, which is due to be released on May 6th, has experienced almost the exact opposite of BvS in terms of expectations. While many were absolutely certain well before its release that BvS would be “terrible”, a very large number of people expect CA to be nothing less than fantastic.
Early word from advanced screenings seemed to confirm these positive thoughts. Further, the earliest reviews were quite good.
But not every one of them.
Rottentomatoes.com currently lists 18 reviews for CA and of these, 17 are positive and only 1 is negative. In my comments yesterday regarding BvS I said things were getting “personal” to those who hated the film. It now appears things are getting personal the other way regarding CA and fury descends on any who dare to speak negatively about that film.
The below link is to the single negative CA review presented thus far. It was written by Michael Fairbanks and appears on theyoungfolks.com:
Movie Review: Captain America: Civil War
Frankly, I found this a well reasoned and intelligently written review even though it might wind up, to me, being all wrong (I very much look forward to seeing CA and hope it is at least in the same ballpark as the fantastic Captain America: Winter Soldier).
What is most striking about the review was that the author was clearly going into the film with high expectations and found, in the end, it didn’t quite reach the level he hoped for. Mr. Fairbanks laments this while presenting very specific reasons why he found the fim disappointing. In the end, he gives the film a mediocre “C”. While hardly a devastating grade and only one review from one person, one would think based on the comment section following the review that Mr. Fairbanks just insulted everyone’s mother while simultaneously kicking their brand new puppy.
The negative responses to this review border on the hysterical and were apparently so overwhelming and (I can only imagine) vicious the editors of the site closed the comments section and posted the following:
Due to the overwhelming response to this review, comments are temporarily closed. We take comment moderation seriously and will be going through each comment to ensure it does not violate our Comment Policy.
Sheesh.
I repeat what I said yesterday: Things are getting mighty personal out there regarding superhero films and opinions of the same. For what its worth, the above review remains as of this day the only negative one CA is drawing and, for all we know, it might be the only one it draws.
It is also quite possible and even more likely there will be other critics and, indeed, common audiences that don’t find CA quite as good as others may.
Opinions vary. They always do.
Is that such a crime?