The Dark Knight Rises, Internet Trolls, And Then It Went All Pear Shaped...

[Please note, the paragraphs below were written before July 20^th and the Aurora, Colorado tragedy.]

Unless you have been living under a rock (or bridge) you may have heard of the controversy on Rotten Tomatoes about the reviews of “The Dark Knight Rises.” It seems that some super-fans got a bit peeved that a critic did not like the movie. They got so incensed that they threatened rape and murder. Over a movie. What? They had to even resort to the “nuclear option” of shutting down the comments section for this movie review. This also lead to Rotten Tomatoes Editor-in-Chief Matt Atchity to write a hilarious retort to the whole idiotic situation. He basically had to say something that might be kind of obvious: 

 “But if I could ask everyone for one thing, it's this: don't be a dick. Even if you think someone else is being a dick. Just take a deep breath, step away from the computer, and maybe go for a walk. Have a smoke if you need one. There are plenty of other things to get angry about, like war, famine, poverty and crime. But not movie reviews.”

That is great advice. I need to do this from time to time. Idiocy and cruelty abound on the internet and while you want to wail about being hurt, and get back at them, maybe you should just walk away.

Something about this did not smell right to me, though. Like a rotten tomato or even better a rotten egg, I think this was a manufactured controversy. What if you are a movie exec and know that your movie series peaked with the previous movie and the next one cannot possibly match the last one, especially because the Oscar winning actor who practically made that movie tragically died. How do you still get people to see this movie? Well, if there are any negative reviews (and there are always negative reviews) hire a few online thugs (or as they are called internet trolls) to say things that are so outrageous they have to go nuclear with the comments section.

If you have read “The Chronicles of IDIOT,” you know I am fascinated by conspiracy theories. I can't really call this a conspiracy, just what I would call market manipulation.

~~

That is what I wrote before Friday July 20^th. Then all of this went, as the British say “all pear shaped” because a psychopath did a horrific act of domestic terror. My husband and I do not want to watch this movie any more, we will watch it later at home on demand or on DVD.

There have been calls to not let this scumbag change our movie going habits, sorry but that cannot be helped. I cannot stop thinking that if our kids were ten years older, our whole family could have been in a theater just like that one. We live in Tucson, and we will never forget what happened there or what happened last Friday in Colorado. My heart goes out to the people who have been injured and to the families who have lost loved ones. I have been praying for all of you.

Something else that really bothers me is that this psychopath was a graduate student in Neuroscience. I am guessing that he is a paranoid schizophrenic, but was smart enough to be able to cover it up till then. He applied to the University of Arizona, but did not get accepted into the program. But if he had, it could have happened in Tucson all over again.

I know life must go on and am moving on. Luckily my kids have not asked about this and we are trying to keep it from them. Why let little children be scared of going to the movies?

The gun control debate does not continue. The politicians seem to think just saying how sorry they are is enough. I am not sure how I feel about gun control. It is in the constitution and I do think people should be able to defend themselves. But does a family need a machine gun to do so? Or to hunt? No wonder the politicians won't touch this with a ten foot pole.

And so, this takes me back to that original conspiracy theory that internet trolls were being hired to anti-plug the movie. What happened last Friday shows me, yet again, that those little distractions are not important. To some, these type of dramas or whatever manufactured drama they make a mountain out of a molehill, I quote Mr. Atchity again: “There are plenty of other things to get angry about, like war, famine, poverty and crime.”

What happened on Friday was such a serious crime that hopefully we will get angry about this and try to channel that anger into a constructive decisions about at least two things. 1. How to recognize a mental illness like paranoid schizophrenia, and get help for a person before they snap. 2. Decide that our constitutional right to arms does allow us to arm ourselves for defense, but not to the extent that a person could buy 7000 round of ammunition over the internet.