Internet trolls start targeting Russia’s Crimea blockbuster

With its brow-beating patriotism and questionable historic view, Kremlin-sponsored blockbuster Crimea was never going to be universally acclaimed.

Panned by critics — or at least by those who bothered to watch it — the film was slated for its poor acting, lack of engaging plot, and its tendancy to brush over the Kremlin’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula as a heroic and necessary feat by the Russian military. Now it’s come under fire from the most discerning of movie reviewers: anonymous internet trolls.

BBC journalist Sergey Kozlovsky noticed on Wednesday that the film’s profile on movie database IMDb had been helpfully updated with a brief summary: “Two unmotivated characters randomly scream at each other because the director thinks that’s how things work in Hollywood.”

https://t.co/JcG75FlvEG pic.twitter.com/OdFBJfk2U0

— Sergey Kozlovsky (@asspirin12) December 13, 2017

Russian news outlet TJournal traced the new edits back to a new review by Russian YouTube personality, Bad Comedian. The site also pointed out that the review has already been seen by more people than the actual film itself. The film was seen by an estimated 1.5 million people when it was released on 28 September. At the time of writing, the Bad Comedian review had already racked up almost 4 million views

The film currently has an IMDb rating of 1.1/10. It fares slightly better on Russian review site Kinopoisk, where it boasts a rating of 2.7/10.