Misplaced anger targets the wrong "Acolyte" on Rotten Tomatoes

How one small detail is making an Australian film a victim of angry fans

Kaki Olsen

Star Wars: The Acolyte Episode 3 "Destiny." Mother Aniseya (Jodie Turner-Smith) and Mother Koril (Margarita Levieva). Image credit: StarWars.com

Star Wars: The Acolyte has received mixed reviews, but that's to be expected. It's a sad fact that not everyone can be pleased by everything, and this has proved true throughout history. Louis Leroy, an art critic, said in Claude Monet's Sunrise that "a preliminary drawing for a wallpaper pattern is more finished than this seascape." H.L. Mencken described F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby as "no more than a glorified anecdote."

Many evaluate movies and TV series just as seriously as the art critics of the Impressionist Era, and some of them would find Leroy too polite. On Rotten Tomatoes. Star Wars: The Acolyte has a critic rating of 84% and an audience rating of 16%. The reason for this is a review-bombing campaign. Gamerant.com's Dalton Cooper explains it in "Star Wars Fans Seem to Be Review-Bombing the Wrong 'Acolyte'":

"Those unhappy with The Acolyte, whether it's due to legitimate criticism about the show's quality or anger over its "woke" content, have taken to Rotten Tomatoes to let their displeasure be known, spamming the series with low ratings to bring down its audience score."
Dalton Cooper

The tragedy of this effort is that not everyone who wants to trash the series knows how to locate the object of their loathing successfully. In the effort to bash The Acolyte, another film has taken the brunt of this ire. Acolytes is a 2008 Australian horror film in which a serial killer is blackmailed by three teenagers who want a bully to disappear. It's not Disney-funded, it's not from 2024, and it's not remotely related to the project spearheaded by Leslye Headland. The closest it comes to this Star Wars series is by its inclusion of Australian actor Joel Edgerton, who took on the role of Owen Lars in the prequel films and the series Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Thanks to people who got lost on the way to Osha, the audience score for this 2008 film has dropped from 42% to 33%. At least the critics still rate it 75%.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and this show set in the High Republic era is full of material for fans to love or loathe. We hope those fans will leave Australian cinema alone in the future or at least learn how to find the right show.

Kaki Olsen

Site Expert for Wizards and Whatnot. Kaki Olsen is a Paid Contributor to five Fansided sites and counting: -Dork Side of the Force (She'll be a Jedi when she grows up.) -Tea and Banter (The more royals, the better.) -I Prefer Reading (Bring on the angsty books!) -TripSided (Where in the world will she go next?) -Wizards and Whatnot (Proud hobbit in Slytherin) A native of Massachusetts, she was educated at Brigham Young University. She has been a contributor and editor for Front Row Reviewers for six years, but is also a traditionally published author of books and short stories ranging from modern fairy tales to the first missionaries in space. By day, she works as a case manager for a disability firm, but she moonlights as a Professor Umbridge cosplayer, volunteers as a crisis counselor, self-cares with Red Sox games, and writes altogether too much Transformers fanfiction. She makes her home in the Merrimack Valley with her piano, overflowing bookshelves, and many imaginary friends for her next book.