Conan the Barbarian
Lionsgate | Release Date: August 19, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
36
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 29 Critic Reviews
Positive:
2
Mixed:
12
Negative:
15
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
38
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliAug 19, 2011
The 2011 version of Conan the Barbarian looks cheap and feels rushed. The few good elements are dwarfed by a generic, nonsensical plot and shoddy storytelling. Read full review
38
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenAug 18, 2011
In today's cultural climate, any remake of Conan the Barbarian can only be considered (a) redundant or (b) a cruel case of rubbing salt in our cinematic wounds. Either way, it ain't a pretty sight – in fact, it's downright barbaric. Read full review
38
Washington PostJohn DeForeAug 18, 2011
Those nostrils do a lot of Momoa's acting, to be honest. As right as he is looks-wise, Momoa falls short in attitude. Read full review
38
USA TodayScott BowlesAug 18, 2011
Conan the Barbarian lives by a pretty simple ethos: He lives, he loves, he slays. What he doesn't do, alas, is act. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeTy BurrAug 18, 2011
As for the movie itself, it's tolerable. Read full review
38
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertAug 17, 2011
A brutal, crude, witless high-tech CGI contrivance, in which no artificial technique has been overlooked, including 3-D. Read full review
30
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovAug 28, 2011
The result is a somewhat functional blood feast for the exploitation crowd, but it's hardly a bead of sweat on the original's battered backside. Oh, and the score? Basil Poledouris' bombastic brass is still No. 1. Read full review
30
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzAug 17, 2011
There's just not a lot to like here, with the exception of what may be one of the all-time best bad movie lines, one Conan utters to Tamara as a kind of personal credo: "I live. I love. I slay. I am content." Read full review
30
The Hollywood ReporterKirk HoneycuttAug 16, 2011
There is no purpose to the film other than random blood splattering amid scenes of bondage, primitive savagery and S&M eroticism. The film is numbing and dumb with its hero indistinguishable from its villains. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleAug 18, 2011
Morgan Freeman's voice is heard as the narrator, which is in itself the stuff of parody. Then we listen and get lost within two sentences, because the narration is so poorly written that Freeman himself probably didn't know what he was talking about. Read full review
25
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezAug 18, 2011
Momoa, a familiar face from "Game of Thrones" to "Baywatch," has the muscles but not the imposing persona and barbaric presence that Conan requires. Read full review
25
The A.V. ClubKeith PhippsAug 17, 2011
It shouldn't, in other words, be that hard to make a good Conan movie. John Milius did a half-decent job with "Conan The Barbarian" in 1982, but this new film of the same name feels like a half-hearted revamp of virtually any of the Conan rip-offs that clogged up video-store shelves in the '80s. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineJaime N. ChristleyAug 17, 2011
The re-whatevered Conan the Barbarian feels unexpectedly low-rent, even with its multi-million-dollar backdrops and ear-splitting, rumbling soundtrack and (presumably post-converted) 3D imagery. Read full review
20
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierAug 19, 2011
With the most growling and grunting of any movie this summer - and that includes those apes perched atop the box office - Conan the Barbarian seems at times to have actually been made by barbarians. Read full review
20
NPRScott TobiasAug 18, 2011
There are swords and sorcery, pirates and monsters, taxed bodices and taxing mythology. In other words, there's the bare minimum necessary to summon this dismal movie into existence. Read full review
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