Everything is a political statement now, and so Black Panther must be a political statement of itself. Never mind that the film has not been released yet, and won’t be released for another week. Never mind that only a few select audiences of critics and premiere attendees have actually seen the movie at this point in time. So, for most observers, Black Panther is something to be discussed in the abstract. And, boy, is it being discussed in the abstract, and not in a good way.
Black Panther is already receiving a very strong blowback from certain quarters of the internet, a strong pre-release backlash to the film seemingly rooted in nothing more than its basic existence. There was a Facebook group ostensibly set up by rabid DC fans who were consciously planning to down-vote the movie on Rotten Tomatoes in response to negative critics’ reviews of Justice League. A similar campaign was launched, with similar rhetoric, around the divisive and controversial Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi.
To be fair, the legitimacy of these campaigns have been questioned. It should be noted that films like Thor: Ragnarok and Avengers: Infinity War, movies that are far less overtly progressive than Black Panther or The Last Jedi, have largely avoided generating this sort of backlash. It is entirely possible that the campaigns to sabotage Black Panther and The Last Jedi are dogwhistle campaigns driven more by anger at their progressive politics than by the particulars of their corporate origin. Facebook have since clamped down on this attempt to organise vote-brigading.
However, there is a concerted effort on certain quarters of the internet to downvote Black Panther and to sabotage its audience scores on certain metrics. The Internet Movie Database seems particularly susceptible to such manipulation. There are Twitter users proudly posting one-star reviews of the film and encouraging their followers to do the same. This is impressive, considering how few people have actually seen the film. But they demonstrate how charged and politicised the atmosphere is around Black Panther.
Indeed, it should be noted that the Internet Movie Database has been inundated with votes for Black Panther in the weeks leading up it is release. This is impressive, given that the film was not screened for critics until late January and is still in the midst of its premiere cycle. Reviews were embargoed until the 6th of February, suggesting that studio had kept a very tight grip on preview screenings. As such, it seems highly unlikely that Disney was screening the movie for large numbers of people who immediately rushed out to register their disgust for the film on the Internet Movie Database.
The demographics of this vote are informative. By February 7th, more than 5,800 people had voted for Black Panther. The staff working at the Internet Movie Database and younger voters had rated it quite highly, although those numbers were comparatively low; numbers that seem plausible for a film not yet in wide release. However, going by these figures, a lot of older men had seen it. And a lot of these older men had a strong negative reaction to it. The contrast in scores is striking, and well outside of what one might expect for standard deviation. By February 9th, that number (and the polarisation) had increased.
It should be noted that the Internet Movie Database has a history with this sort of ballot-stuffing for black films. There were similar issues with Get Out, which was similarly brigaded with negative user ratings before its release, despite overwhelmingly positive reviews. (Get Out went on to secure both a Best Picture and a Best Director nomination at the Academy Awards. There is a sense that something is certainly… off about the voting system on the Internet Movie Database, particularly for films that it would have been impossible for audiences to see.
There is a strong reactionary element to the kind of users who vote on the Internet Movie Database, with user ratings often politicised. The nature of this politicisation varies. For example, The Promise, a movie about the Armenian Genocide was subject to similar vote-brigading. Beauty and the Beast, a live action remake of the classic cartoon featuring outspoken feminist Emma Watson similarly provoked a very strong reaction from male voters over the age of thirty.
Personally, I co-host a podcast on the Internet Movie Database, known as The 250.
CinÉireann / February 2018 55