Serenity
Aviron Pictures | Release Date: January 25, 2019 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
37
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 38 Critic Reviews
Positive:
6
Mixed:
13
Negative:
19
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
Los Angeles TimesKatie WalshJan 25, 2019
The off-kilter, colorful, cartoonish fantasy of Serenity is just so odd and appealing that you want to spend time with the characters, aboard this ship, among the people of Plymouth in this crazy, upside-down world. Read full review
60
The GuardianCharles BramescoJan 24, 2019
The cinema calendar is chockablock with faulty efforts built around perfectly serviceable ideas, but realized without a modicum of distinction. Serenity offers the less-common inverse: a magnificently terrible idea, executed to perfection. Read full review
58
The Film StageDan MeccaJan 24, 2019
One can respect what Knight is trying at, while never fully buying into it. Despite the talent and the brazen originality, Serenity‘s reach exceeds its grasp. Read full review
58
IndieWireJude DryJan 24, 2019
The big reveal at the end of the second act is absurd enough to pump some adrenaline into the third act, but the movie drags on too long afterwards. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Jan 24, 2019
Though Serenity is blessed with a goofily enjoyable high concept, it doesn’t exploit it very effectively. You can make the viewers detectives themselves, allowing us to slowly unravel a mystery, or you can give up the charade early and just run with the premise you’ve opted not to conceal very carefully. There’s little sense in doing neither. Read full review
53
Paste MagazineOktay Ege Kozak Jan 31, 2019
I can imagine and understand it receiving all kinds of passionate feedback, from intensely negative to downright infuriated, but I doubt anyone will claim it is boring. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinJan 24, 2019
Serenity isn’t just meant to surprise you — which it will — but to give you an emotional wallop — which it may or may not. It didn’t work for me: I was too hung up on the fanciness (and, in truth, ridiculousness) of the final half-hour to feel everything Knight wanted me to feel. Read full review
50
New York PostRob Bailey-MilladoJan 24, 2019
Writer-director Steven Knight mixes a tried-and-true James M. Cain formula with a clever digital gimmick worthy of Christopher Nolan, but some of his dialogue is overripe to the point of rot. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyJan 24, 2019
It wants to be trashy, pulpy fun that toys with your mind and your expectations. Sadly, it just ends up insulting both. Read full review
50
Original-CinKim HughesJan 24, 2019
Conceptually ambitious and sporadically entertaining but more often confusing and ultimately kind of dumb, Serenity must have seemed appealingly high-minded on the page. But the zigzagging new thriller lands with a thud despite a skilled cast and writer/director Steven Knight’s commendable desire to scribble outside the lines of conventional narrative. Read full review
50
The PlaylistKimber MyersJan 24, 2019
The oily slick of sin across the surface of this film isn’t what makes it wickedly fun; it’s the utter devotion to its bonkers twist, at once defying logic and good taste. Serenity knows it’s trash, but that’s not to say that it’s not entertaining trash. Read full review
42
ConsequenceAllison ShoemakerJan 25, 2019
Serenity is often stylish. It is never, ever dull. It is also deeply stupid. Read full review
40
EmpireIan FreerMar 1, 2019
Serenity is a genuine headscratcher, baffling on almost every level. Badly scripted, strangely acted and poorly pitched, there is so much to pick over it’s hard to know where to begin. Sometimes the best of bold intentions are just not enough. Read full review
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