10 Recent Movies Critics Hated (But Audiences LOVED)

There's no denying that critics and audiences frequently disagree on movies - reviews might be mixed on a blockbuster action flick that's ultimately embraced by general audiences, while viewers may have little love for a more arty critical darling.

But sometimes the chasm between critical and audience reception is so massive that it barely makes sense at all, where a movie is aggressively panned by the press only for regular viewers to express their love for it online.

That's certainly the case with these 10 recent films, all of which received predominantly negative reviews from unimpressed critics, yet registered far higher audience approval scores on Rotten Tomatoes.

It's a testament to several things, namely that critics are far more worn-out on certain types of movie, and that as long as a film can deliver a basic rendition of what the trailers promised, it's probably going to get a pass from most general viewers.

That's not to say that one side of the argument is right or the other wrong, but simply that critics and general viewers experience a film in acutely different ways which define their final verdict...

Critic Score: 42%

Audience Score: 80%

While it wasn't at all surprising that The King's Man flopped at the box office, releasing mere days after Spider-Man: No Way Home as it did, the marketing nevertheless suggested it could be a solidly entertaining return to form for Matthew Vaughn's hit action franchise.

But alas, critics were ultimately even less generous to it than they were the largely-maligned Kingsman: The Golden Circle, which scored a polarising 51% back in 2017. For that movie, though, audiences were only 13% higher at 64%.

Conversely, critics opined that The King's Man failed to reconcile its flashy action movie chops with its more serious, somber war story, and that it felt too much like countless other period action-adventure flicks.

Audiences, on the other hand, were far more receptive, praising the film's boldness in taking the series in a new direction while delivering the expected high-wire action, alongside a cracking Ralph Fiennes performance.

In addition to its high 80% audience approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, it also scored a solid "B+" on CinemaScore, the exact same score as both previous Kingsman movies.

While the film's commercial underperformance casts doubt over whether a planned fourth Kingsman film will indeed happen, it seems at least that general audiences are enjoying the film, even if many presumably waited until it hit VOD to give it a watch.