Review Bombing: The Toxic Tactic That Doesn’t Work
Review bombing is a tactic used by self-described “hard core fans” of a given property who are unhappy with a reboot, adaptation or sequel, who align by the thousands to tank the rating score of a movie or series by giving it 1-star (or less if possible) on sites like Rotten Tomatoes, IMDb and Amazon. Review bombing also comes in the form of negative comments and thumbs-down on YouTube and other social media platforms under teasers, trailers, and other types of marketing content.
It’s the most recent iteration of a long history of toxic fandom that arguably kicked off with the launch of the Star Wars prequels and so-called fans who cried that their childhood had been ruined, and harassed some of the actors to the point that at least one, Ahmed Best, contemplated suicide.
The desired outcome of review bombing is to reduce viewership by making casual visitors to these sites believe that the audience hates the movie or series. A secondary goal is to undermine the aggregated critics’ score so it seems as if critics are completely out of sync with mainstream audiences (which, arguably sometimes they are, but the motives of review bombers are more pernicious). A third, possibly unexpected accomplishment, is to drum up so much negative controversy, conversation and arguing on social media that an average viewer who knows little to nothing about the property, but might otherwise check it out based on a trailer or poster, avoids the whole thing because there’s too much drama around it.
It’s generally accepted that the Review Bomb Squad doesn’t need to have seen the content to give it a 1-star review, in fact it seems to be a badge of honor to not have seen it and still blast the property with a low score and a nasty review. It’s also unclear how much of the reviews, comments and star ratings are generated by bots or paid trolls, but it’s a significant number, and often attributed to Russia as part of its overall “destroy America from the inside” strategy (that seems to be working).
Along with a low rating, review bombers post aggressive and hateful comments that are racist, misogynist, antisemitic and anti-LGBTQ+. They will personally attack people involved with the property as well, most often the creators and actors, but also sometimes studio and network execs, and even crew members. But the most aggressive and hurtful attacks are almost always directed at those involved in the content who are BIPOC.
Similarly, review bombers use terms like “woke,” “SJW (aka Social Justice Warrior,” “sheep,” “Critical Race Theory,” and more.
All of this points to review bombing having far less to do with the actual content, and far more to do with the ongoing Left/Right culture war that’s metastasized over the past decade, but really has its roots back to the Civil Rights Era (and by extension, the Slavery Era).
It seems clear that the cultural shift toward a more open, liberal, progressive society, and gains made by what you’d previously call minorities, particularly with regards to their presence in major tentpole movies and series, both behind and in front of the camera, is all simply too much for some to handle.
And in protest, those who don’t storm the Capitol will hide behind their keyboards and storm the review sites.
It’s not uncommon for review bombers and social media trolls to make violent threats against actors, or encourage them to commit suicide. These comments follow the actors from platform to platform, publicly and in private messages, and can have a serious impact on their sense of well-being, safety and mental health. It’s absolutely devastating, especially for actors new on the scene and just starting their careers, who might be personally managing their social media accounts and excited to see their own face on a billboard for the first time. And it even takes a toll on social media managers and marketing teams working for the studios and streamers, who see every comment and are responsible for the decision to hide or delete the worst of them. Trust me, the worst of the worst are almost unthinkable in their depravity.
I happen to have worked on the marketing for two of the most trolled properties in the past few years: The Last Jedi and The Rings of Power (and a few others in between). So while I can’t get too deep into the internal workings of the respective studios, I can speak to what’s been publicly discussed and the general sense of how these troll campaigns play out.
In the case of The Last Jedi, the review bombing and trolling came as something of a surprise. But whatever you think of the film itself, the personal attacks leveled most egregiously at Asian actress Kelly Marie Tran, who played new character Rose Tico, were beyond horrific. To the extent that she quit social media entirely, and will likely bear emotional scars of that experience for the rest of her life.
After its launch, a researcher who studied The Last Jedi trolling campaign found that 50% of the negative Tweets about the film were “politically motivated or not even human,” many of them Russian trolls. (source)
This has also happened to a number of actors on The Rings of Power. And the Star Wars series, Obi-Wan, and countless more. The racism directed at the Rings of Power cast inspired the original Lord of the Rings movie cast to make statements of support on social media, while Obi-Wan actor Ewan McGregor felt it necessary to record a video defending his Black co-star Moses Ingram against racist trolls.
The latest example is the Disney+ series Willow. (I haven’t seen the series but quite liked the original movie.) But when it comes to review bombing, you have to assume the content of these reviews has less to do with the content of the series, and more to do with political context. A quick glance at the comments on Rotten Tomatoes bears this out: a significant number of 1/2-star reviews mention some version of “left-wing progressive liberalism” as a driver for why they hate the show.
What impact does review bombing have on the viewership of a movie or series? Review bombers would argue that it can flatline a property before it has a chance to get its footing, but there’s not much evidence for that. One look at the numbers for The Rings of Power (100 million views and 24 billion minutes streamed and counting) or the box office of The Last Jedi ($1.3 billion globally), and the argument is rendered moot. Even Willow doesn’t seem much impacted, as the #6 show on Disney+. Would it be #5 or #3 if there weren’t review bombers? Maybe? Do you think that would make a huge difference? I don’t think so.
From inside the studio, review bombing often results in the opposite effect that trolls intend. First, it’s now expected that most big properties will get the troll treatment. Long before a marketing campaign even begins, there are plans in place for social media moderation, and ways to protect talent from these attacks and diminish the direct impact of trolls on their emotional well-being. That said, it still sucks for everyone involved, and the internal team will always rally in support of the content and talent. It can also lead to additional marketing creative being developed and distributed, which means even wider awareness of an upcoming movie or series.
Plus, audiences are now pretty savvy about trolls and review bombing and even the algorithm effect. At the fan level, you’ll see Facebook, Discord and Reddit groups splinter off between those who want to mock and meme a property and those who want to discuss, evaluate and celebrate it, and these groups are strongly self-policed. Fans will also rally around their favorite influencers, and from what I’ve seen, the more positive, thoughtful influencers and content creators tend to get more views and a more engaging conversation going. More and more, they seem to accept that the hate will happen, and do their best to shrug it off and move on.
Similarly, blogs and news sites will report on the controversy, but the bigger ones tend to post smarter, more nuanced analysis, while those who want to hate can still find their fellow haters in increasingly niche spaces.
There’s also a trend of mainstream audiences disengaging from the social media controversy about a title they’re interested in, but don’t want to get sucked into the drama — without stopping them from watching. Even better, casual and hardcore fans also get more vocal lately against the trolls and review bombers, calling them out for obvious bot activity like low follower counts and recent account creation dates.
Ultimately, though, the real impact of review bombing is still pernicious and unpleasant. Trolling makes it less fun to participate in the creation and enjoyment of big franchises, as a fan, as a creator, as an actor, and even as a marketer. It dampens enthusiasm, forcing non-toxic fans to go underground out of fear that they’ll be attacked for liking something that a racist troll deems too woke to exist. It forces talent to hire social management companies so they don’t have to deal directly with toxic fans, which means they also don’t get to engage with positive fans without strict guardrails. And it darkens the discourse by focusing only on divisive politics and the exhausting, tedious culture war.
Worse, trolling kills meaningful criticism and discussion about content, storytelling and quality — forcing everyone to pick a side and stick to it.
Frankly, the only thing review bombing really accomplishes is to scorch the earth in a winner-take-all battle… over what exactly? Whether People of Color should be allowed to participate in fantasy worlds filled with mythical creatures? It’s insanity, and it needs to stop. But it won’t.
Unfortunately, review bombers and trolls can’t be ignored. But they can be mitigated and dismissed, downvoted, blocked, hidden, and reported.
And they can’t ever really win.
Because the truth is, review bombers aren’t warriors. They’re losers whose only tool is dumb, blind hate.
And for people who love movies and TV, love will always prevail.
