Summer movies just keep crashing and burning with critics

Tessa Thompson as Agent M (left) with Chris Hemsworth as Agent H (right).
(Image credit: Courtesy Sony Pictures)

Yet another tentpole release of the 2019 summer movie season is receiving a critical lambasting.

Men in Black: International on Wednesday became the season's latest highly-anticipated film to be panned, as it was hit with a low Rotten Tomatoes score of 30 percent, indicating this percentage of critics liked it — although that score will change as more reviews are posted. Variety called the movie "a mess," while The Atlantic described it as "fundamentally boring," Entertainment Weekly labeled it a "terrible reboot," and ScreenCrush declared it full of "mediocrity in every conceivable sense."

It's only June, yet this is at least the fifth big-budget film of the summer to receive mixed-to-negative reviews and a rotten score on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics weren't over the moon for Disney's Aladdin remake, which earned a 56 percent score compared to 71 percent for 2017's Beauty and the Beast and 95 percent for 2016's The Jungle Book. Then there was Godzilla: King of the Monsters, which only got a 40 percent score compared to 75 percent for the 2014 predecessor.

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The Secret Life of Pets 2 also got a mixed 55 percent score, down from 73 percent from the original, and the X-Men film Dark Phoenix drew the worst reviews of the entire series with a brutal 23 percent rating. Pokémon Detective Pikachu, meanwhile, just barely dodged a "rotten" score.

Audiences haven't been much more receptive to many of these franchise films, with Dark Phoenix and Godzilla both bombing at the box office, while The Secret Life of Pets 2 is also underperforming, although Aladdin has been a hit. Among the only major wide releases since Avengers: Endgame to completely stick the landing with both critics and audiences was John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum. Overall, the ratio of hits to misses hasn't been great.

Toy Story 4 hits theaters on June 20, though, and has received positive critical buzz, meaning it could be on Pixar to pick critics and audiences up out of this surprising summer slump.

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Brendan Morrow

Brendan worked as a culture writer at The Week from 2018 to 2023, covering the entertainment industry, including film reviews, television recaps, awards season, the box office, major movie franchises and Hollywood gossip. He has written about film and television for outlets including Bloody Disgusting, Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Heavy and The Celebrity Cafe.