Aquaman's Critical Reception Thread (Rotten Tomato and Metacritic)

Do you think Critics are being too harsh on Aquaman? Do you agree with some?


  • Total voters
    21
does phone booth still exist in the states in this day and age?
 
My local guy gave it 3/4 stars in a review that didnt sound like he was going to give it that score. Very weird. FWIW if 60% is the threshhold for "fresh" then if it splits the next 160 reviews (which would put it past the 350 it will surely hit) it will still be fresh.

Here is the thing, I honestly am not that shocked by some of the critical reactions. When I was younger, and the movies this film was modeled after were making big bucks in the theaters, the critics often hated them too. Sure if you look on RT now they have decent scores (often from reviews 20-30 years later) but at the time not so much. (even in hindsight classic action films like Predator only hit 80% now and Independence Day which crushed is at a robust 64%) My dad would always talk about how he half ignored the reviews for the summer action films because critics were never meant to like them. The films were for the audience escapism not the critics. The critics were there for the serious films and the Oscar-bait. I would never expect critics to love this film, the only reason I thought they might like it is because they seem to like similar films but just because they like one over the other isnt that big of a deal to me when it comes to this film.

It is a very recent thing that critics began to really take these films seriously. And the thing is, critics are human too and they are going to have their biases. And no I dont mean "Its not Disney/Marvel so I HATE IT!!!!!!" type biases but subconscious things that might influence them. It is not overt, it isnt something they openly do nor do they even notice it just sort of is there. Sometimes, you dont know why you like one thing and hate something that is nearly the same. It happens, and there is nothing wrong with it. (it is probably why a lot of critics arent super high on MPR, and it is certainly why my gf thinks the live action Dumbo and Lion King look stupid) Sure I might read the SHH review of Aquaman and wonder what the heck they were thinking (based on other reviews I have read of theirs) but I think they honestly felt that way and as such I am not going to complain about it. Just like any poster here as long as they seem to give it a fair shot and arent flaming/baiting/trolling then I respect the right to their opinion. Now, when it becomes clear the person didnt actually watch or pay attention to the film (like the reviewer who complained there wasnt enough of an eco-message) I will call them out for that but otherwise eh.

Long story longer...let the critics pontificate positively or negatively. As long as people buy tickets (and all indications are that they are!) and enjoy the film everyone wins :)
 
Audience Score is up

86%
Average Rating: 4.3/5
User Ratings: 15,959

This is roughly the same percentage and score as WW and Jumanji
 
Anyone able to post the current critical breakdown? I can’t see it on my phone :-). Thanks!
 
Anyone able to post the current critical breakdown? I can’t see it on my phone :-). Thanks!

68%
Average Rating: 6/10
Reviews Counted: 201
Fresh: 137
Rotten: 64

fans are loving it so far
87%
Average Rating: 4.3/5
User Ratings: 16,232
 
At least it will be finishing close to 70%.
 
Audience score is better than Venom though it so far only has half the entries.
 
Down to 66% with 214 reviews. Really hope it stabilizes soon.
 
Assuming this gets 350 reviews, it will need 210 fresh reviews or 68 more than it currently has. Which means it is allowed to get 67 more negative reviews.... in conclusion it needs 50 percent of the remaining reviews to be fresh to stay fresh.
 
Honestly I am not sure it is worth watching the critics much anymore. The number that is out now is the one most will have seen. (or previous ones) Watching the audience score is probably the most relevant.

IMO of course.
 
What’s frustrating is the 2.5/4 reviews are inconsistently being rated as a fresh or rotten. It makes this whole system seem flawed
 
Aquaman is more of a comic book film than anything DC/WB has done before.
 
Well the whole system is flawed...well more that how fans and studios use the number is flawed.

I wonder if RT would be better if they offered 3 types of ratings. Fresh, mixed and rotten. That way middle of the road reviews wont be counted as either positive or negative they would be mixed.

I am sure they have reasons for the way they do it this way though.

How is the audience score looking?
 
It's been hovering around 70 for a couple of days and then boom, today it's in free-fall. Is it critics from a particular market?
 
It’s likely that it’ll hit rotten territory soon. What a shame
 
Back up to 65%. Saw several fresh ones come in including one from a top critic at Time, but RT's site is screwy for me and they disappeared.
 
Wait are you guys serious? It fell that much in just one day? SMDH at these critics, man. They complained DC was too dark and no fun like Marvel and they deliver easily the most fun, feel good and crowd pleasing movie in ages and they huff and puff and fold their arms. Whatever, man.
 
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64%
Average Rating: 6/10
Reviews Counted: 236
Fresh: 151
Rotten: 85
 
This will likely stay fresh, but RT should probably change the consensus a little bit.
 
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