Don’t you dare say a bad thing about The Dark Knight Rises. Rotten Tomatoes has suspended its comments after several users threatened critics who were posting negative reviews about the new batman movie.
Matt Atchity, the site’s editor-in-chief, told the Press Herald that it was the first time that Rotten Tomatoes has suspended user comments.
Atchity said that several people were making insulting and hateful comments toward critics who left negative reviews for The Dark Knight Rises despite the fact that they had never seen the movie.
Atchity said:
“The job of policing the comments became more than my staff could handle for that film, so we stopped the comments altogether… It just got to be too much hate based on reactions to reviews of movies that people hadn’t even seen.”
Atchity said that the movie review site is now looking at different commenting systems to help curb hateful comments.
“There are a lot of options on the table… We may do away with comments completely or get to a place where comments are only activated after a movie opens. Sometimes, you get interesting comments on a small movie, but on a movie like this with a passionate fan base behind it, things get out of hand…. I don’t want to be a place that contributes to that kind of bile.”
Most of the insulting comments were directed at blogger Marshall Fine and Associated Press critic Christy Lemire. Fine wrote that The Dark Knight Rises lacked “the spark” that fueled the 2008 hit The Dark Knight.
The Dark Knight Rises currently has an 87% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
