The thriller faced further obstacles before its release, including critical backlash and intellectual property disputes with major Hollywood entities.
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Variety critic Todd Gilchrist heavily panned the project during its initial rollout, calling it "a violent, incoherent, morally bankrupt slice of exploitation."
The critic expressed extreme dissatisfaction with the creative direction, arguing that the film actively damaged the reputation of its lead actor, stating it was "so astonishingly bad, it almost feels like [Boll] is deliberately sabotaging his star."
Boll also revealed that he was forced to alter the film's original title, which was previously identical to Christopher Nolan's famous Batman sequel, after holding private discussions with the intellectual property owners, describing it as "a friendly conversation."
The project marks a controversial comeback attempt for lead actor Armie Hammer, who was dropped by Hollywood agencies in 2021 following severe personal allegations.
While law enforcement authorities in Los Angeles County declined to file criminal sexual assault charges against Hammer, the actor has spent years publicly addressing the media fallout.
The distribution boost materialised after Musk personally reached out to the production team via their official podcast, Uwe Boll Raw, to request a full digital copy of the controversial thriller.
"Citizen Vigilante 2 will be even better," said Elon Musk, Tech Billionaire.
Boll noted that the entire digital transaction happened rapidly without extensive direct discussions between himself and the Tesla executive.
"I didn’t really chat myself with him or talk to him. It was very quick, you know.
I think this guy, I don’t know what he’s doing per day, but I think his attention went like fast, you know.
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So, I felt also if we don’t in a way agree to do it, he would’ve just moved on," said Uwe Boll, Director.
