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Trolls Force Rotten Tomatoes to Limit Comments on New Movies

Internet users have been abusing the 'Want to See' feature to complain about the upcoming Captain Marvel movie, which features a female superhero.

 & Michael Kan Principal Reporter

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Movie review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes is disabling comments for films that have not yet been released.

The Fandango-owned site is also killing off the "Want to See" score, which let people click to log their anticipation or disinterest in a new movie and allowed Rotten Tomatoes to monitor enthusiasm about upcoming films.

Internet users, however, have been abusing the feature to complain about the upcoming comic book film, Captain Marvel. The Want to See score on the movie, which features a female superhero, had plummeted to 27 percent with 46,000 votes before Rotten Tomatoes dropped the function.

"Tired of all this SJW [Social Justice Warrior] nonsense," read one user comment for the movie, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

"Strong Wamen [sic] more Hollywood BS - no thanks," reportedly read another review. (You can find more of the comments here.)

In a Monday post, Rotten Tomatoes said it killed off the Want to See score because too many people were confusing it with the "Audience Score," which represents actual user reviews for a film. Indeed, several media outlets reported last week that online trolls were "review bombing" Captain Marvel, when the negative feedback was actually targeting the Want to See score.

Going forward, the review site will only show how many users are interested in an upcoming film, and nothing more. For instance, the Rotten Tomatoes page for Captain Marvel now shows that 16,571 users want to see the film, but offers no option to express disinterest in the film.

Rotten Tomatoes also addressed why it was disabling the comment section. "Unfortunately, we have seen an uptick in non-constructive input, sometimes bordering on trolling, which we believe is a disservice to our general readership," the site said. "We have decided that turning off this feature for now is the best course of action."

Fans will eventually get their say on new films. "Once a movie is released, audiences can leave a user rating and comments as they always have," the review site added.

About Our Expert

Michael Kan

Michael Kan

Principal Reporter

My Experience

I've been a journalist for over 15 years. I got my start as a schools and cities reporter in Kansas City and joined PCMag in 2017, where I cover satellite internet services, cybersecurity, PC hardware, and more. I'm currently based in San Francisco, but previously spent over five years in China, covering the country's technology sector.

Since 2020, I've covered the launch and explosive growth of SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service, writing 600+ stories on availability and feature launches, but also the regulatory battles over the expansion of satellite constellations, fights with rival providers like AST SpaceMobile and Amazon, and the effort to expand into satellite-based mobile service. I've combed through FCC filings for the latest news and driven to remote corners of California to test Starlink's cellular service.

I also cover cyber threats, from ransomware gangs to the emergence of AI-based malware. In 2024 and 2025, the FTC forced Avast to pay consumers $16.5 million for secretly harvesting and selling their personal information to third-party clients, as revealed in my joint investigation with Motherboard.

I also cover the PC graphics card market. Pandemic-era shortages led me to camp out in front of a Best Buy to get an RTX 3000. I'm now following how the AI-driven memory shortage is impacting the entire consumer electronics market. I'm always eager to learn more, so please jump in the comments with feedback and send me tips.

The Best Tech I've Had:

  • My first video game console: a Nintendo Famicom
  • I loved my Sega Saturn despite PlayStation's popularity.
  • The iPod Video I received as a gift in college
  • Xbox 360 FTW
  • The Galaxy Nexus was the first smartphone I was proud to own.
  • The PC desktop I built in 2013, which still works to this day.

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