8 Reasons Batman V Superman Is The Most Culturally Significant Movie Of 2016

The defining quote of Batman V Superman isn't anything from in the film itself (although "Martha" comes close), but the reaction to it: "It's not for the critics, it's for the fans." It's the line that was being used even before the film hit in reaction to the scathing reviews, and as things got more heated it built to claims of bias and Marvel payoffs. This reared its head again with similarly panned geek properties throughout the summer, most notably X-Men: Apocalypse, Warcraft and Suicide Squad (with the latter even motivating a petition to shutdown Rotten Tomatoes).

But it really was a product of Batman V Superman, and a devious one at that; it's a construct of Warner Bros., not the fans who cite it. The actors, director and studio heads were trotting out carefully written lines to this effect even before the film hit, prepping the die-hard fans in how they should inevitably react.

Of course, the notion of audiences and critics having different sensibilities is almost as old as cinema, but it's never been quite weaponised like this before. An irreversible, less-than-healthy change, this one.