Joshua Rivera

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Polygon, Slate, The Verge, Vanity Fair
For 76 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 65% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 32% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 2.8 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Joshua Rivera's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 68
Highest review score: 95 The Matrix Resurrections
Lowest review score: 30 Space Jam: A New Legacy
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 55 out of 76
  2. Mixed: 15 out of 76
  3. Negative: 6 out of 76
76 movie reviews
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    • 52 Metascore
    • 45 Joshua Rivera
    The Last Voyage of the Demeter
    There are no surprises in The Last Voyage of the Demeter. Just about everything in the story plays out exactly how the average horror fan might assume it would, exactly how they know it will, because the movie begins with the end of the story, then does little to play up the dread that comes with that knowledge. And most of us, unfortunately, know too much about this story already.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 70 Joshua Rivera
    The Marvels
    Director Nia DaCosta, who previously helmed 2021’s Candyman remake, has inherited all the downsides of a project set in a shared universe, and few of the upsides. But the good stuff she has to work with? She makes it sing.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 32 Joshua Rivera
    Cobweb
    Unfortunately, the film’s most compelling questions don’t ever get answered.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 40 Joshua Rivera
    Don't Look Up
    Humor is subjective, but giving an example of Don’t Look Up’s specific jokes feels like a spoiler, depriving you of one of the three times you’ll likely experience a genuine laugh.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 50 Joshua Rivera
    The Gray Man
    Realism isn’t necessarily the problem here; dissonance is. The Gray Man is a story about assassins who are, we’re told, the very best in the world. And yet over and over again, they are shown to be shitty at their jobs. They incite international incidents. They wage small wars in town squares. And they have a very hard time holding a small girl hostage.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 80 Joshua Rivera
    Bullet Train
    Cartoonish as it is, Bullet Train is committed to letting its core cast make as big an impression as they can through quirks and fights, as Olkewicz’s knotty script ping-pongs between past and present.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 65 Joshua Rivera
    Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire
    Godzilla x Kong (yes, it’s styled like that, like a streetwear collab) is beyond “good” or “bad” or “movies.” It’s an arena show, a pro wrestler shouting in the squared circle, thumping their chest and raising the jumbotron hype meter before doing their signature move.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 60 Joshua Rivera
    The Super Mario Bros. Movie
    This new take on Mario is so faithful in its efforts to recreate iconography from four decades of video games that there’s almost no energy left to expend on reaching the unconverted. The Super Mario Bros. Movie is a sermon for the Nintendo faithful, their children, and few others.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 30 Joshua Rivera
    Bloodshot
    As an action movie, Bloodshot is the worst kind of uninspiring: not bad enough to circle back around toward fun, not good enough at action to be even momentarily impressed by a fight scene.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 40 Joshua Rivera
    Unfrosted
    The movie represents months and months of sustained labor from hundreds of people, including many of the most talented and recognizable names in their field, in the service of a story that possesses no satirical edge, nor any human connection. It takes whatever pleasure that can be derived from a Pop-Tart, and chokes on it.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 30 Joshua Rivera
    Moonfall
    This film could have literally given us the Moon. Instead, it offers the world’s noisiest lullaby.
    • 40 Metascore
    • 30 Joshua Rivera
    White Men Can't Jump
    The new White Men Can’t Jump will likely struggle to linger in anyone’s head the day after they watch it. Every character interaction is straightforward, every motivation and foible is stated out loud. Every joke is delivered for the camera, not the characters.
    • 36 Metascore
    • 30 Joshua Rivera
    Space Jam: A New Legacy
    Space Jam: A New Legacy is so overwhelmingly suffused with corporate propaganda that it seems like the filmmakers are seeking exactly that sort of praise: not satisfying cinema, not a worthwhile story, not a fun time at the movies, but “a great product.”
    • 35 Metascore
    • 50 Joshua Rivera
    Morbius
    Smith’s dynamism painfully underlines the lack of imagination and energy elsewhere in the film.
    • 30 Metascore
    • 50 Joshua Rivera
    Expend4bles
    The Expendables movies had one trick, and that trick has been played out. Director Scott Waugh has to resort to something else with Expend4bles: finally trying to turn one of these projects into a good action movie.
    • 26 Metascore
    • 35 Joshua Rivera
    Dolittle
    The movie is dreck made just acceptable enough for children with still-developing frontal lobes, one that would bore most adults to tears if it didn’t stop to do things like give a dragon a colonic.
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