It seems some Star Wars fans are accidentally review bombing the 2008 Australian horror film Acolytes instead of The Acolyte Disney+ series. The Acolyte is the latest live-action Star Wars series to air on Disney+, premiering its first two episodes on June 4, with new episodes airing weekly until the finale on July 16. The show has earned mostly positive reviews from critics so far, but it has been incredibly divisive among Star Wars fans, to say the least.
At the time of this writing, the Rotten Tomatoes critic score for The Acolyte is a respectable 84%, while its audience score is an abysmal 16%. Without delving into spoilers, there are Star Wars fans who are not happy about some of the creative choices in the show, feeling as though it doesn't fit with the rest of the Star Wars canon. Others are not impressed with the show's quality, and are unhappy at the direction the Star Wars franchise has been going in general. There are also some people who are upset that the show focuses on female characters and has a diverse cast.
Those unhappy with The Acolyte, whether it's due to legitimate criticism about the show's quality or anger over its "woke" content, have taken to Rotten Tomatoes to let their displeasure be known, spamming the series with low ratings to bring down its audience score. However, some individuals seem to have gotten lost, instead review bombing the 2008 Australian horror film Acolytes, which has nothing to do with the Star Wars franchise in any capacity. Now, the Acolytes film was never popular with audiences anyway; from what we can see using the Way Back Machine, it's gone from about a 42% audience score to a 33% audience score. Still, it does seem as though its score has been impacted by Star Wars fans who actually want to review bomb The Acolyte instead.
The best thing I ever did TV wise was ignoring fan opinions about shows I want to watch before watching it. Hive minds plant seeds and set expectations, you can't even passively read it. You gotta shut it out and avoid it. I really liked Kenobi, I think more people would have too if they didn't see the angry reddit nerds picking it apart, coloring their first watch.
I agree. For me, it wasn't Kenobi but Book of Boba Fett. I really enjoyed the show, however, when I went online, somehow all Star Wars fans called it the worst ever made.
I didn't like the Book of Boba Fett, but only because I wanted a different show. I wanted a loner amoral bounty hunter weaving through the galaxy. Basically I wanted the early Season 1 Mandalorian. But it wasn't as bad as people online said.
Anybody that uses the term "woke" in their review can be dismissed entirely.
I liked boba, and kenobi, but they were a “meh” kind of “liked”. They didn’t have anything like Mando where it was like… “OMG!”
Mostly? I’m angry they brought Boba back from the dead. The entire show was clearly a merchandizing grab; they could have done that with something set pre RoTJ, and could have made it more, how shall we say, about Boba.
It really felt like Mando 2.5, and that kinda tanked it for me.
Both shows for me. Actually include Ashoka in that too. Funnily enough the only show I haven't finished has been andor as I got bored so quick with it. Yet "fans" treat it as if it's citizen fucking kane.
As a huge Star Wars fan I can confirm that I absolutely loathe Star Wars. Not for being "woke," mind you, but for just being generally creatively bankrupt, poorly executed, and with new media for it effectively held hostage by the existing media for it. Which is why I don't watch any of the t.v. shows or movies anymore. In my opinion this is a superior alternative to getting online and filling my diaper in the "user reviews" section of Rotten Tomatoes.
I'm guessing that The Acolyte has suffered the same fate as Marvel's Secret Invasion - in production for an overly-long duration, full of re-writes and re-shoots. So far, it's resulted in a show that's a mash-up of individual scenes: some are quite cool, some are oddly shoddy, many of them don't stand up to much scrutiny.
Review-bombing anything is so self-defeating though: it gives the producers such an easy out, and allows for any legitimate criticism to get folded into the more illegitimate stuff.
Secret Invasion was the worst thing a Marvel show can be: boring. The best part of the comics was that anybody could be a Skrull. Half of the Avengers were impersonated. The show gave us Rhoady and Agent Ross. The Skrull didn't even suit up as War Machine.
Then they gave waaaay too many powers to the Super Skrulls.
Killing off Maria Hill and Talos just felt hollow. And it was a total waste of Nick Fury. Sam Jackson was good, but the script was shit.
That the fire was too quick and didnt explain why Floating Jedi with Shit Hair killed himself.
The witches weren’t Nightsisters
All of the above
Sure there’s glaring holes and dumb stuff but it’s still entertaining. Better than Book of Boba, but not as good as Ashoka and definitely not as good as Andor. The jury is out on if better than Obi Wan, that had Vader so gets automatic points. I keep seeing YouTube’s about it being “DEI” whatever that means and just derogatorily calling out the show runner forcing in woke was because she’s lesbian etc.
Are only straight white Jedi allowed? I haven’t seen anything “woke” shoved in your face that I can think of.
And you’d think people would like lesbians.
The story is still unfolding so I’m sure we will find out what actually happened to the witches, if they got youngling’d or not etc. We’ve seen the POV of one twin so perhaps the other is coming, like what’s she been up to etc.
Uh maybe you're missing the foreshadowing (or I could be wrong) but it seems like the Jedi killed everyone. That little fire Mae started in the upstairs bedroom wouldn't have caused all the damage we saw in the basement. The Jedi bombed them, and that regret is what caused floaty Jedi to kill himself after meditating on it for years.
That "woke" shit is so fucking stupid. Rogue One has a pretty obviously gay couple and that movie is universally loved. One can even make the argument that when the empire was in charge that OF FUCKING COURSE gay people wouldn't be out. It's even cannon that the empire was racist towards non humans.
If the stories are good, fans will eat it up. That some reprobate is butthurt because a main character isn't a straight, white dude is the dumbest shit.
Conversely, I hope this series is good, because if it isn't, I won't want to talk about it and inadvertently join the chorus of those mouthbreathers who are all screaming go woke go broke when legitimate criticisms with that show have NOTHING to do with that
Agreed. At this point in the show I'm hopeful I'm reading it right... But I think everything has been misdirection and showing one person's point of view that is impacted by their own impressions. The few YouTubers I've seen that haven't gotten sucked into the anti-DEI rage hole are actually putting out some great theories on what is happening... But I think the show runner's comments have enflamed so many of the bro-chad-fans they are looking for reasons to be mad ..
I am hopeful that my read of things is true, so I'm enjoying it so far. It is possible they mess up, but I'm gonna give it the season to fully judge.
Imo, The Acolyte hasn't been that bad so far. It's not amazing, mind you, and it still suffers from the plague of mediocrity that seems to be going around in the new movies and shows that have been coming out, but it's definitely watchable. The set and costume design are great, the acting is alright, directing is alright, but the writing has been rather hit or miss so far.
The Mae vs Sol force kungfu fight is legitimately great, I hope they just fill the runtime with fights at this point. Not impressed by the writing either.
I’ve been enjoying it. There are a few things that feel like plot holes right now, but I suspect that’s because we’re only seeing one perspective, and we’re supposed to think it doesn’t all add up. And when we see the other perspective it’ll make sense.
Thanks, sounds like it's worth a watch. I haven't really hated any of the shows (though there were definitely parts that weren't that great. like Boba Fett's technicolor scooter gang)
My brother thinks it is total garbage, but he has watched zero episodes so far. I have watched all three released episodes with my wife and we both are really enjoying it.
Here a crazy idea! If you're interested in a film or TV show, watch it. I don't understand the premise behind rotten tomatoes, especially when this kind of thing goes on.