28
Metascore
15 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 55TheWrapWilliam BibbianiTheWrapWilliam BibbianiIf an algorithm recommends The Emoji Movie, Weitz’s film argues, there’s something very, very wrong with that algorithm — and there’s no denying that logic.
- 48Paste MagazineNatalia KeoganPaste MagazineNatalia KeoganMaking such an insubstantial film about one of our era’s greatest technological shifts isn’t just annoying. It feels downright irresponsible.
- 40The GuardianBenjamin LeeThe GuardianBenjamin LeeIt’s too sloppily written and edited for even the least discerning of horror fans to really enjoy, a patchwork of nonsense confusingly stitched together by someone, who at one point, knew better.
- 40VarietyDennis HarveyVarietyDennis HarveyWhen crises start occurring at the halfway mark, they pile on too quickly to underwhelming effect, sacrificing credibility for excitement that never really materializes.
- 40IGNA.A. DowdIGNA.A. DowdThe stars are about the only reason to boot up this preposterous thriller, which ends up playing less like a critique of AI technology than another daydream about its power.
- 30The Hollywood ReporterCaryn JamesThe Hollywood ReporterCaryn JamesChris Weitz (most famously About a Boy and most recently Operation Finale) works hard to make Afraid a smarter-than-average horror movie, but the effort is conspicuous, and in the end the film is bland and obvious. And if horror can’t make us feel frightened in a way we couldn’t imagine ourselves, why bother?
- Alexa, send this underbaked, untethered failure back to the cutting room.
- 20The New York TimesElisabeth VincentelliThe New York TimesElisabeth VincentelliThis scenario’s predictability could be forgiven were the movie effective on any level, but it just isn’t, from Cho and Waterston’s wooden performances to jump scares that would not startle Scooby-Doo.
- 16The A.V. ClubLeigh MonsonThe A.V. ClubLeigh MonsonFor all that its baffling narrative may be explained by deleted scenes, there is no excuse for how tediously non-threatening AfrAId is as a horror movie. Almost entirely bloodless and with half a handful of kills, there just isn’t enough visceral terror to make up for the disparate, thematically muddied nonsense that’s been cobbled together into the shape of a movie.
- 12RogerEbert.comPeter SobczynskiRogerEbert.comPeter SobczynskiHere is a film that is so awful in so many ways that at one point, it includes a clip from the notoriously dreadful “The Emoji Movie” and you begin to worry that that film’s reputation might be tarnished by association.