Tin Man
SyFy | SCIFI | Release Date: December 2, 2007
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
53
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 20 Critic Reviews
Positive:
8
Mixed:
7
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
Christian Science MonitorGloria Goodale
Season 1 Review: This version, while imaginative and ambitious--as Halmi's sumptuous visions almost invariably are--is less successful. Read full review
80
Los Angeles Times
Season 1 Review: To say that Tin Man is not as good as its near-perfect models is not to damn it, even faintly. Like Sci Fi's "Flash Gordon" update--which the Halmis also produce and which it resembles far more than it does "The Wizard of Oz"-- it's a good-looking, entertaining fantasy adventure, with a cast that is easy to spend time with. Read full review
80
Philadelphia InquirerJonathan Storm
Season 1 Review: It's a cornucopia of fanciful sets and costumes and more computer graphic imaging than you'll find anywhere else on TV, and a lot of it is pretty cool. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsDavid Hinckley
Season 1 Review: Once we've all acknowledged there really was no need to remake "The Wizard of Oz" because the original creators did a pretty good job back in 1939, it's safe to admit that the way it's been handled in Tin Man, a new miniseries, is a lot of fun. Read full review
70
Chicago TribuneMaureen Ryan
Season 1 Review: Tin Man’s heart is in the right place, even if the execution of the story evokes, from time to time, creakiness of the metal man’s limbs. Read full review
70
Philadelphia Daily NewsEllen Gray
Season 1 Review: It's like a miniseries built out of spare parts. Yet there's a reason those parts get chosen over and over, and thanks to Deschanel, whose DG plays it straight in a script that's one long wink, Tin Man brings them together to a place that feels a bit like home. Read full review
70
The New York TimesGinia Bellafante
Season 1 Review: A big, sonorous dungeons-and-dragons affair that seems at every moment to call attention to its epicness, Tin Man would have benefited above all from more minimizing. Read full review
63
USA TodayRobert Bianco
Season 1 Review: Ambitious and intriguing though it may be, Tin Man is simply too long, too grim and too determined to impose a Lord of the Rings universe-saving quest on top of a simpler, gentler story. Read full review
60
Seattle Post-IntelligencerMelanie McFarland
Season 1 Review: The miniseries' trite finish falls short of capturing the amazement we felt the first time we saw Judy Garland bring Dorothy to life. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyKen Tucker
Season 1 Review: Unfortunately, Robertson's heaving bodice is her most expressive aspect; this miniseries needed a villain with a wicked sense of humor, but she and the rest of Tin Man are dour and punitive. Read full review
50
Newark Star-LedgerAlan Sepinwall
Season 1 Review: Some of the performances are good, particularly by Deschanel (who gets to sing near the end, good news for anyone who saw "Elf"), McDonough and Cumming, but solid acting and monkeys flying out of, um, someplace aren't enough to justify spending six hours over three nights on a labored attempt to make a classic children's story seem grown-up and cool. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineMatt Roush
Season 1 Review: Replacing "Oz"'s joyfully timeless charm with perverse irony and nightmarish, hallucinatory imagery makes this three-night miniseries more of a lavishly quirky curiosity than a keeper. Read full review
40
VarietyBrian Lowry
Season 1 Review: Tin Man proves a bit of a mess. Sci Fi has done well with minis in December, but despite the intriguing concept three consecutive nights of this adventure falls several Yellow Bricks shy of a load. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterRay Richmond
Season 1 Review: While the preening and the chewed scenery from the cast are at times glorious to behold, there is no substance to wrap our heads around, no one to really root for Read full review
40
Washington PostTom Shales
Season 1 Review: Peeps of sentimentality only serve to emphasize the film's uneven mix of the sardonic and the heartfelt. Tin Man unfortunately seems as bereft of an efficiently functioning ticker as is the titular character himself. Read full review
30
San Jose Mercury News/Contra Costa TimesCharlie McCollum
Season 1 Review: Baum's work almost collapses under the weight of a misguided re-interpretation. Read full review
30
Boston GlobeMatthew Gilbert
Season 1 Review: It's a dour retelling of the L. Frank Baum story, and it just keeps sinking further and further into pointless thematic complexity and visual density. Read full review
30
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob Owen
Season 1 Review: Writers Steven Long Mitchell and Craig W. Van Sickle are certainly inventive, if inventive can mean willing-to-crib-from-sci-fi-culture-past, but the Tin Man story doesn't hang together well. Read full review
25
Chicago Sun-TimesDoug Elfman
Season 1 Review: The execution of "Tin Man" is flat, flatter, flattest. The dialogue is utilitarian, except when it's "Dungeons and Dragons" cliche. Read full review
12
New York PostLinda Stasi
Season 1 Review: There is a point to this mess, but what it is, I can't say. Read full review
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