James Gunn: ‘Only a Few’ Snyder Cut Fans ‘Feel It’s Worthwhile’ to Review Bomb ‘The Suicide Squad’

James Gunn responded on Twitter this week to claims that his DC Comics tentpole “The Suicide Squad” is being review-bombed ahead of its U.S. release by supporters of “Zack Snyder’s Justice League” (commonly referred to as the Snyder Cut). Review-bombing refers to fans spamming aggregation websites such as Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb with negative user ratings to bring down a film’s overall score. “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” and “Captain Marvel” are two prominent examples of films that were review-bombed before release. The review-bombing of “Captain Marvel” led to Rotten Tomatoes disarming user ratings until after a film opens.

Here’s what Gunn had to say after a fan mentioned on social media that the “Snyder Cut crew” was review bombing “The Suicide Squad”: “I’ll live — stuff like this means nothing in the big picture. (And important to point out most of the Snyder Cut fans have been supportive, it’s only a few who feel it’s worthwhile spending their time doing stuff like this.)”

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Kevin Smith recently spoke out against the review-bombing of his animated Netflix series “Masters of the Universe: Revelation.” The series was met with toxic backlash from a section of the “He-Man” fandom upset with Smith’s decision to seemingly kill off main characters He-Man and Skeletor in the pilot episode. The twist opened the door for the female warrior Teela to assume a lead role in the show, which some fans disliked.

“I know there’s some people that are like, ‘Hey, man, this show’s woke,’” Smith told Variety about the backlash. “I’m like, all right, great, then so was the original cartoon we’re fucking sequel-izing. Go watch it again. There are girls in every episode. Deal with it.”

“It’s been interesting, seeing who truly is a hardcore fan,” Smith said. “Because anybody that’s like, ‘Oh, man, there’s not enough He-Man’ or something like that, doesn’t understand the show that we based it on. There were episodes where he lost the sword and he never became He-Man. It wasn’t like He-Man always saved the day. His friends helped him. That was the fucking point of the show.”

Gunn’s “The Suicide Squad” opens August 6 in theaters and on HBO Max, where it will be available to stream for 31 days.

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