The Acolyte has been the subject of a lot of controversy this week. Its latest episode introduced some new lore that potentially contradicts some long-held beliefs among Star Wars fans about the ability to create life with the Force (it likely doesn’t contradict anything and will probably be explained in future episodes, but don’t let that stop some people from getting ahead of themselves).
Such has been the uproar that some of the haters have taken to Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB to review bomb The Acolyte — an unfortunate development in modern fandom that doesn’t paint a true picture of what the majority of fans actually feel — with the series currently sitting at a 16% audience score. It still has an 84% rating with critics.
However, some overzealous viewers have failed to check what property they’re actually reviewing (or were instructed to review) before posting, which has led a lot of haters to accidentally review bomb an entirely unrelated film called Acolytes that was released 16 years ago in 2008.
That film actually stars Joel Edgerton — who recently reprised the role of Owen Lars in Obi-Wan Kenobi and has credited Star Wars for changing his career — and it now has an audience score of 33%. This was pointed out by Jordan Maison in a post on X (Twitter).
Lol, chodes review bombing a 2008 movie called Acolytes instead of #TheAcolyte, but we’re supposed to take these “critiques” in good faith pic.twitter.com/A7Tz2eeIxG
— Jordan Maison (@JordanMaison) June 14, 2024
It was also pointed out in a reply to Maison’s post that some trolls have also accidentally review bombed a fan film from 2022 called The Acolyte: A Star Wars Fan Film on IMDB. That film, diligently made by actual Star Wars fans, now sits at 1.5 stars out of 10 (it was still 2.3 when the below screenshot was taken.
A fan film from 2022 recently got a sudden influx of 1 star reviews. A coincidence? I think not! 🤧 pic.twitter.com/MDVkiUgIdg
— Jayson Koos (@Jay12678) June 14, 2024
As Maison mentions, it is difficult to take these negative reviews in good faith when they’re being blasted at anything that even mentions the word “Acolyte” in its title, like a sniper deciding to use a sawn-off shotgun from a bell tower.
It would be nice if some of these people could accept that Star Wars can be a great many things, and not just the narrow view they have in their head, but that seems depressingly unlikely. Hopefully The Acolyte will reveal that — as showrunner Leslye Headland herself has said when promoting the series — that things aren’t quite what they seem and people upset by the most recent episode can see there was no reason to panic.
Josh is a huge Star Wars fan, who has spent far too much time wondering if any Star Wars character could defeat Thanos with all the Infinity Stones.
source: www.starwarsnewsnet.com