In the age of social media, when everyone with an internet connection and an opinion can get in touch with filmmakers directly to voice those concerns, the reaction to highly anticipated big-budget blockbusters has become much more hostile and vitriolic. In 2017, this toxic subculture reached a new low following the release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Director Rian Johnson and Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy were relentlessly attacked by a vocal minority of Star Wars fans for supposedly destroying their childhood, and actor Kelly Marie Tran faced so much backlash from racist and sexist trolls that she quit social media.
While the initial critical reception to Johnson’s eighth installment in the Skywalker saga was almost universally positive, the audience’s response was another story. The Star Wars fan base — and moviegoers in general — were divided between declaring The Last Jedi to be the greatest film the franchise has to offer and condemning it as a crime against humanity.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)
Some fans appreciated The Last Jedi’s deconstruction of the Star Wars myth, while others decried its aimless plot, bitter recharacterization of Luke Skywalker, and blatant disregard for the setups and dynamics established in The Force Awakens.
A quick YouTube search will find hundreds of fans either ionately making the case that The Last Jedi is the best Star Wars movie to date or that it’s the worst thing ever created by human hands.
Joker (2019)
When Todd Phillips’ Joker hit the festival circuit, it was declared to be an instant Best Picture contender, which got audiences hyped up to see it. Then, the movie sparked widespread fears that its glorification of Arthur Fleck’s crimes could inspire real-life copycats.
Ultimately, Phillips’ cinematic study of the Clown Prince of Crime — pretty much a Joker movie in name only, as it’s more of a The King of Comedy and Taxi Driver rip-off than an adaptation of the iconic comic book character — wasn’t deep enough to warrant that kind of controversy. Intended as a powerful drama about mental health struggles, Joker ended up being a detriment to those it sought to represent.
Joaquin Phoenix gives a mesmerizing performance and Lawrence Sher’s cinematography is gorgeous, but everything in the script is cribbed from better movies. The controversy ended up being the perfect marketing campaign for the movie, generating enough buzz for this so-so effort to become the first-ever R-rated movie to gross $1 billion at the box office.
Spider-Man 3 (2007)
There are more than enough explosive set pieces and poignant character moments in Spider-Man 3 to make it a worthy conclusion to Sam Raimi’s groundbreaking trilogy, but there’s also a lot of things it does horribly wrong — mainly the inclusion of Venom at executive producer Avi Arad’s request.
Raimi wanted to tell the story of Peter Parker facing Uncle Ben’s true killer, a family man who resorted to a life of crime to provide for his sick daughter and feels sincere remorse for the murder. But Arad forced Raimi to include Eddie Brock, so Peter spends a good chunk of the movie under the influence of symbiotes, turning him into an unintentionally hilarious emo jerk.
Tenet (2020)
The first big-budget blockbuster to hit theaters during the COVID-19 pandemic, Tenet is Nolan’s take on a Bond movie by way of a mind-bending Inception-esque sci-fi thriller.
From incomprehensible dialogue to a needlessly dreary tone, there were plenty of complaints about Tenet. Nolan apologists flooded the internet with defenses of the film, but Inception is ultimately a better action movie, a better sci-fi movie, and even a better 007 homage.
Ghostbusters (2016)
When Sony rebooted the Ghostbusters franchise with an all-female cast, a lot of misogynists started writing up their scathing reviews before the teaser trailer had even been released. But it wasn’t just sexist trolls who were responsible for this movie’s failure; Paul Feig’s reboot is nowhere near as tightly structured or uniquely characterized as the timeless original 1984 masterpiece.
No movie could live up to Ivan Reitman’s finely tuned masterpiece. Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones are all hilarious performers who shared plenty of tangible on-screen chemistry — it would’ve been a better idea for Feig to just create an original supernatural comedy vehicle for that cast.
Prometheus (2012)
After duds Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection followed James Cameron’s groundbreaking initial sequel Aliens, Ridley Scott returned to the helm of the Alien franchise in 2012 with the convoluted prequel Prometheus. While some fans lauded Prometheus’ ambitious scope, others claimed it ultimately opened up a lot more questions than it answered.
There’s also a debate among Alien fans as to whether or not the xenomorphs even need an origin story in the first place. Giving them a fleshed-out backstory certainly won’t make them any scarier.
Venom (2018)
After polarizing fans with a much more faithful adaptation of the character than the version played by Topher Grace in Spider-Man 3.
While Venom was let down by a formulaic plot and a generic villain, it’ll be interesting to see what Hardy does with the character in the sequel, Let There Be Carnage, and how it’ll handle the iconic titular baddie.
The Wolf Of Wall Street (2013)
Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street made way more money than anyone would expect from a three-hour drama about the stock trade. But the movie is a nonstop barrage of sex, drugs, and pitch-black humor — it’s like Goodfellas meets The Hangover.
There was a lot of controversy surrounding the movie, as its comical tone and Leonardo DiCaprio’s irresistible charm were accused of glorifying its subject Jordan Belfort’s criminal lifestyle instead of satirizing it.
Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice (2016)
Zack Snyder just got Warner Bros. to raised a ton of money for suicide prevention along the way. The critics and the general moviegoing audience, however, have not been so kind to Snyder’s films.
As the climactic showdown between two titans of pop culture, Batman v Superman should’ve been the movie event of the century. But, from its silly “Save Martha!” moment to its horribly mischaracterized Bats and Supes to the fact that “mystery box” universe-building takes the place of actual storytelling, BvS divided audiences and failed to clear $1 billion at the box office.
Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999)
Pretty much every Star Wars movie since The Empire Strikes Back has polarized audiences. This is a fan base that holds the material very close to their hearts and expects a lot from its stories. Even Return of the Jedi — now widely accepted as the perfect Star Wars finale — divided fans back in 1983 with Boba Fett’s slapstick death scene and the third-act arrival of the Ewoks. The only post-Jedi Star Wars movies that fans have unanimously embraced with open arms have been Revenge of the Sith and Rogue One, and even they have their fair share of detractors. The Phantom Menace faced one of the most polarized reactions of all.
After waiting 16 years since Return of the Jedi to see the origin story of Darth Vader — arguably the most iconic villain in film history — Star Wars fans were outraged by 133 minutes of trade disputes, bad CGI, and Jar Jar Binks. Despite the ire from adult fans, contemporary kids loved the prequels so much that they’ve since turned just about every single frame of the trilogy into a meme.
