Controversy and drama follow the lead actress and the producers of Captain Marvel—a new Marvel movie starring Brie Larson to be released on March 8th.
The hate towards the movie was so horrible, it reached the point where Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic had to disable their feature to review movies before their release, all because of the maelstrom of issues the newest Marvel movie has stirred up.
“Unfortunately, we have seen an uptick in non-constructive input, sometimes bordering on trolling, which we believe is a disservice to our general readership. We have decided that turning off this feature is the best course of action,”, says Rotten Tomatoes in a blog post discussing their decision.
Captain Marvel follows Carol Danvers— played by Brie Larson —set in the 1990s where she becomes one of Earth’s most valuable superheroes as she’s intertwined in a battle between two alien races.
Although the film itself is promising, the decision to cast a woman as Captain Marvel has received a lot of backlash, especially by many conservative men.
Many people, mostly trolls, would comment on Rotten Tomatoes, giving the movie hateful reviews, simply because the lead was a woman.
“You could not pay me to see this SJW laden, white male hating worthless POS movie. I am sick of this identity politics taking over pop culture. Brie Larson could get hit by a bus and I would not shed a tear,”, read a comment on Rotten Tomatoes stated before they were all deleted.
Larson also promotes gender and race equality in movies, which adds more to the plate.
“About a year ago, I started paying attention to what my press days looked like and the critics reviewing movies and noticed it appeared to be overwhelmingly white male,” Larson said in an interview with the creator of #DisabledAndCute. “Moving forward, I decided to make sure my press days were more inclusive.”
When the commenting feature was still available, some even went as far as to call the movie a “social justice warrior thing.” The same backlash was received on racially inclusive Marvel movies such as Black Panther, going even as far as bomb threats being called in to theaters where the movie was played.
Many more sexist comments have been brought up, some men even pointing out how Brie Larson lacks a smile on teaser trailers and posters. Some went as far as to edit a smile on her face and claim they “fixed” the posters.
“It’s very easy to hide behind a screen and say what you think,” says Lashana Lynch, who plays Monica Rambeau, in an interview with CBR. “If people saw a filmmaker or an actress or a writer on the street, they may not be able to share their opinion to them face-to-face. It’s an easy way out.”
