Review Bombing: The Ailment of the Contemporary Internet
In recent years, review bombing has become a way for internet users to express their discontent. In practice, it involves massively publishing negative reviews about a work in order to lower its user ratings and discredit it. However, this practice is often carried out by unverified accounts that haven’t even seen the work in question and aim to bring it down for reasons unrelated to its artistic quality. Most of the time, it is motivated by politics, and the latest victim of this practice is Barbie, a film with feminist and progressive themes.
Recently, Barbie has a user rating of 73% on [platform name], while its critical rating is 90%. However, since the platform is accustomed to review bombing, it automatically removes reviews from unverified accounts that were hastily created to harm the film. After this filtering, the film’s rating goes back to around 86%. However, on [another platform name], things are different. The filtering seems to not have been done properly, as out of almost a thousand reviews, half are positive and half are negative, with a small minority being mixed. With a critical rating of 80/100, Barbie has a user rating of 5.3. Among the negative reviews, there are critiques of the film’s feminist themes, its diverse cast, and its criticism of patriarchy, rather than focusing on the quality of the film itself.
After the Success of Barbie, Mattel Is Not Ready to Stop
Despite these few negative online critiques, the Barbie film has already grossed over $530 million at the global box office in less than a week since its release. Naturally, in the face of such success, Mattel, the toy manufacturer behind Barbie, has decided to continue adapting its licenses for the big screen. In total, there are 14 toy-based films planned for the coming years. Among them, we know that a Polly Pocket adaptation project is in the works, with Lily Collins, Emily from Emily in Paris, set to play the lead role. On the gaming side, a Hot Wheels film is also in development with J.J. Abrams (Star Wars VII & IX, Star Trek) as the producer – quite a notable name. Lastly, there is even a film planned based on the Uno card game, as surprising as that may sound. We are curious to see how the card game will be translated to the big screen.
