The truth about Wonder Woman's high score on Rotten Tomatoes

A week ago we found out that Wonder Woman was getting an overwhelming amount of positive buzz from critics on social media, and today we saw that positive buzz turn into actual positive reviews for the movie once the embargo was lifted on them. As of the time of this post, Wonder Woman is sitting at a 96 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes with only 2 bad reviews out of 55 total. At this point, even with many more reviews coming, with a lead like that it is highly unlikely that the movie will end up any lower than "Certified Fresh" and it will certainly become the first critically acclaimed film in the DC Extended Universe. 

Naturally, DCEU fans are excited for a number of reasons. This is the first time that a movie in the franchise hasn't been polarizing in some form among the critics, it eliminates the notion that a DCEU movie simply can't get critical acclaim, and most importantly it bodes well for the idea of female-led superhero movies as this one, while not the first ever, certainly stands to be the most successful one ever made and could very well pave the way for more across the board. Early congratulations are most certainly in order for Patty Jenkins, Gal Gadot and the entire cast and crew of Wonder Woman as they really have a chance to make history at the box office with this movie. 

All of that being said, there is still a need to put this in perspective as fans of the DCEU. No one is saying that we shouldn't be happy with the critical success finally happening, but it does not change what is still flawed about the Rotten Tomatoes review aggregator system. It still uses a heavily flawed algorithm that puts reviews into a pass-fail system even if they are middle of the road, it still gives people a therefore arbitrary number to look at and make judgments from instead of actually reading the critic reviews themselves, and it's still made up of critics that outright hated the first three DCEU films and are incorrectly treating Wonder Woman as a complete reboot or course correction for the franchise. Without even seeing the movie yet, I can tell you that it is not a reboot or a course correction because it fits within the storyline already constructed for the franchise, but that's not going to stop critics from calling it such at all. 

This isn't meant to be a splash of cold water on your face if you are happy about Wonder Woman's positive score because it IS a GOOD thing. Movies that are critically acclaimed do have a better chance of succeeding heavily at the box office because critics have SOME impact on how an audience perceives a movie. Whether or not they should is another matter. The point is that this is nothing but good news for Wonder Woman, the DCEU and WB because the opening weekend of the film could now be even bigger than they were originally anticipating. It's also great "free" marketing to further promote the movie on top of the major money already spent on marketing that some still claim doesn't exist. 

If you are someone that has been speaking the ills and evils of Rotten Tomatoes for the past year though, this new development shouldn't change your mind about that. A great score for Wonder Woman does not erase all of the inherent bias from Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad. It does not legitimize the Tomatometer scoring system and its "merits" and it does not mean that critics all of a sudden are going to treat the DCEU more fairly now. What it COULD mean is that now that a DCEU film has been critically praised on RT, the conversation among fans may be headed for even a slightly more civil tone where blatant disrespect levied at a franchise that "no one" likes isn't so quick to be tossed at DCEU fans. It MIGHT be the tide turning in terms of the DCEU finally gaining some respect, but one would think that we need to see the same praise for Justice League, notably a Zack Snyder directed DCEU film, before we can really say a perceptual change is happening among the critics, bloggers and fanboys. 

The world is still by and large waiting to see Wonder Woman to judge for itself and begin the discussion of just how much we agree or disagree with the critics to this point, but for now we should just enjoy the positive reviews and keep in mind that even with the success of this movie that is now all but certain, it is still important to make your own minds up about what movies to see and not to allow review aggregators like RT make decisions for you. It's a great time for DCEU fans to be "cautiously optimistic" about the climate of how the franchise is being treated.