mel-gibson

Mel Gibson thinks ‘Batman v. Superman’ was “a piece of shit,” which begs the question, since when do we care what Mel Gibson thinks?

There’s been this conspiracy theory floating around the Internet that Disney has been paying critics and influencers to bad mouth Warner Bros. recent superhero offerings. That’s a pretty tame conspiracy, I would have inserted a few dozen lizard people, but it’s hard to believe nonetheless. The negativity around movies set in DC’s cinematic universe has been widespread enough that the idea that each source of vitriol has been paid off would suggest that at least someone credible down the line should have been offered money, refused, and would then out Disney.

The thing is, for something like that to have legs, each hateful source would not need to be monetized. A few high profile bad reviews could be enough momentum for other outlets to get on board. Likewise, selective coverage of the more popular opinion would disproportionately marginalize the minority opinion. I don’t think Disney is helping their new acquisition of Marvel by buying bad press for DC. The initial bad reviews of ‘Man of Steel’ were most likely authentic, but that organic response seeded undue bias that set the tone for how future related films were received. This is a kind of incidental conspiracy that isn’t nefarious as much as it is mob mentality.

Never has anti-DC media bias been more obvious than with the recent coverage of Mel Gibson. Gibson had a long interview with Deadline about his new film…whatsitcalled? You probably don’t know what it’s called either, yet you have probably seen the headline that Mel Gibson slammed ‘Batman v Superman’ all over the damn place. Variety, Entertainment Weekly, Business Insider, Us Weekly, The Guardian, Forbes, People, Maxim, and practically every movie blog and online media outlet ran with it—including this one! This is notable because there was barely anything to cover. Gibson said literally one thing about ‘Batman v. Superman’ in a long talk about other topics. His quote wasn’t even enough to convince me that he’s seen it. It could have been in reference to other people not liking ‘Batman v. Superman’ to back up his greater sentiment that superhero movies suck in general.

Much of the coverage was just an excuse for the authors to reiterate that ‘Batman v. Superman’ was the worst, as if it’s a fact as objective as Mel not being a fan of Jews. Oh, yeah, that. Mel’s an asshole. I’m not saying he deserves to be a pariah indefinitely, but the idea that his hate coincidentally aligning with the hate of the majority should earn him any amount of redemption bothers me. Donald Sterling might as well go off on Nickelback.