All posts tagged: Critics

Netflix’s Narnia trailer featuring Led Zeppelin divides fans as critics brand it a ‘disgrace’

Netflix’s Narnia trailer featuring Led Zeppelin divides fans as critics brand it a ‘disgrace’

Published by Daniella Wilson

Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Membership today. Join today Already a member? Log in The first trailer for Netflix’s upcoming Narnia adaptation The Magician’s Nephew has divided fans online. Directed by Barbie filmmaker Greta Gerwig, the new movie version of the C.S. Lewis classic is set to be released in theaters next February 12 before arriving on the streaming service. Lewis famously began his Chronicles of Narnia series with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in 1950, before publishing prequel The Magician’s Nephew five years later. It is the first of the seven novels when the story is arranged in chronological order. Based on the trailer, Gerwig’s adaptation leans into a glam rock aesthetic. It is soundtracked by Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven.” This artistic choice has divided social media users. On X, one wrote: “Anyone who defends this slop should be ashamed. They have disgraced C.S. Lewis. His family should be ashamed to sell out like this. Netflix destroys everything that is …

Trump-Putin diesel deal contradicts Russia sanctions law, critics say

Trump-Putin diesel deal contradicts Russia sanctions law, critics say

Published by Sam Flores

President Donald Trump’s Friday announcement that Russia will supply diesel fuel to the global market marked an apparent pivot from recent efforts to pressure Moscow to end the Ukraine war by targeting Russian energy exports. Trump claimed the move, unveiled with less than a month left in an affordability-focused midterm election, would swiftly bring down record-high diesel prices. But commentators and critics were quick to highlight contradictions between the new policy and prior efforts by the U.S. to clamp down on Russian oil sales. Those efforts most recently included the enactment of the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026, empowering Trump to impose tariffs up to 100% on the top purchasers of Russian crude oil or gas, among other restrictions. Trump signed the bill into law just three weeks ago. “Congress just passed a law giving Trump the power to impose new tariffs on major buyers of Russian oil & gas,” Scott Lincicome, vice president of the libertarian Cato Institute, said on X after Trump’s Friday announcement. “Can America tariff America?” …

Tech leaders embrace Trump’s “super intelligence” as he calls critics “the enemy”

Tech leaders embrace Trump’s “super intelligence” as he calls critics “the enemy”

Published by Sam Flores

If people don’t widely embrace artificial intelligence out of fear or a godlike savior complex, AI’s biggest champions will try something else: labeling critics “the enemy.” That’s precisely how President Donald Trump described people who don’t like his rebrand via executive order of AI to “super intelligence,” posting on social media Thursday that “The White House considers anyone that uses the term, ‘Artificial Intelligence,’ as opposed to the highly accepted new and more accurate term, ‘Super Intelligence,’ THE ENEMY!”  As noted by Axios, the White House still uses the term “AI” including on websites like ai.gov, though that website was updated Thursday with “SI.gov” in massive text. “The URL is still ‘AI.gov,’ though, with ‘SI.gov’ leading to an error page,” Axios reported, which Salon confirmed. Tech billionaires are already embracing the term super intelligence. This week, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said AI is “no more” and promised to change the name of his AI company, SpaceXAI, a subsidiary of SpaceX, to SpaceXSI. More recently, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos shared his approval in a Wednesday interview …

Critics Are Even More Convinced Andrew Scott Will Win An Oscar After Elsinore Screening

Critics Are Even More Convinced Andrew Scott Will Win An Oscar After Elsinore Screening

Published by Sam Flores

Andrew Scott’s new movie Elsinore had its European premiere at the London Film Festival on Wednesday night – with the movie winning over a legion of critics. The Fleabag star takes the lead as the actor Ian Charleson in director Simon Stone’s new film, set at a time when the late performer is shown readying himself to play Hamlet, while privately seriously ill with AIDS and nearing the end of his life. It had already been suggested that Andrew was a strong contender for a Best Actor win at next year’s Oscars for Elsinore – and would make movie history in the process. Following the London Film Festival screening, critics have made it clear that they think the film – which also features an impressive cast that includes Billie Piper, Bridgerton’s Luke Thompson and Academy Award-winning national treasure Olivia Colman – has pushed Andrew one step closer to the prestigious accolade. Andrew Scott in Elsinore In a five-star review, The Times noted that the London Film Festival screening had announced Elsinore “immediately” as “the year’s Oscar …

Guillermo del Toro Defends Tom Cruise’s ‘Digger’ Against Critics

Guillermo del Toro Defends Tom Cruise’s ‘Digger’ Against Critics

Published by Daniella Wilson

Digger has found a big defender in Guillermo del Toro. The Oscar-winning Frankenstein and The Shape of Water director posted a couple of times over the last 24 hours advocating for the beleaguered Alejandro G. Iñárritu film, which has generated polarized (some scathing) reviews. The director’s first message on the subject was reacting to a post from the entertainment news site IGN, which had written, “The theater experience won’t change your mind on Digger, and the laughs that are there still will be when it hits HBO Max.” Del Toro shot back: “Entirely Petty headline. Love it or not. And, yes, I do. The film delivers in scale, ambition and reach at a theatrical screen level. Daring, bold and Cinematically complex. Decidedly a Theatrical experience.” Then, reacting to a post about Ken Russell’s controversial 1971 film, The Devils, del Toro wrote, “I was a kid and I remember this film — released by [Warner Bros.] was [called by critics] ‘excessive, overbearing’ etc and, in my country, Mexico, we were told that the Church explicitly considered …

Critics Can't Agree If Anne Hathaway's Verity Is A 'Camp' Guilty Pleasure Or Just A Misfire

Critics Can't Agree If Anne Hathaway's Verity Is A 'Camp' Guilty Pleasure Or Just A Misfire

Published by Sam Flores

After a truly stacked 2026, Anne Hathaway’s fifth and final movie of the year is finally in cinemas. In her latest film, Verity, the Oscar winner shares the screen with Dakota Johnson and Josh Hartnett in a big-screen adaptation of the Colleen Hoover novel of the same name. The erotic thriller centres around a successful and popular author who is unable to finish her best-selling book series after an accident, so her husband brings another writer into her life to do it. However, along the way, this writer becomes sucked into Verity’s world, and after making a series of startling discoveries, begins to wonder whether everything in her life is as it seems. Reviews for Verity have not exactly been glowing, with an average critical score of 41% on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of writing. Dakota Johnson, Josh Hartnett and Anne Hathaway in Verity It should be noted, though, that some critics have said that those who love a classic erotic thriller will probably still have a good time with Verity, even if it …

East Of Eden Reviews: Florence Pugh’s Netflix Drama Wins Over Critics

East Of Eden Reviews: Florence Pugh’s Netflix Drama Wins Over Critics

Published by Sam Flores

Netflix has brought to life a classic piece of American literature, transforming John Steinbeck’s East Of Eden into a new miniseries for the modern audience. Written by Zoe Kazan – the granddaughter of Elia Kazan, who wrote the iconic 1955 adaptation of East Of Eden, starring James Dean – this new take brings the story’s antihero Cathy Ames to the forefront of the multigenerational drama. Starring Florence Pugh, Christopher Abbott and Mike Faist, East Of Eden follows a doomed couple and their cursed family across five decades in the late 1800s America. Florence Pugh takes the lead in Netflix’s new spin on East Of Eden Critics have had an overwhelmingly positive response to this new series, celebrating Florence’s performance as the malicious Cathy, and highlighting the way the showrunner has made this classic American story feel relevant to present-day viewers. Here is what critics think about the new seven-part series of East Of Eden… “With stunning cinematography and an elegant score, the unsettling family saga gets room to breathe across a sweeping adaptation that digs …

Tom Cruise’s ‘Digger’ divides critics as Zurich Film Festival stars steal the spotlight – arts24

Tom Cruise’s ‘Digger’ divides critics as Zurich Film Festival stars steal the spotlight – arts24

Published by Sam Flores

To display this content from YouTube, you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement. Accept Manage my choices One of your browser extensions seems to be blocking the video player from loading. To watch this content, you may need to disable it on this site. Try again Cover image: arts24 © FRANCE 24 Issued on: 30/09/2026 – 16:47 12:26 min From the show Reading time 1 min This week on arts24’s film show, an unrecognisable Tom Cruise takes a career gamble in “Digger”, Alejandro González Iñárritu’s new satire, in which he plays an oil billionaire whose company initiates a world-ending ecological disaster. Critics are divided, but is an Oscar nomination possible? Also in cinemas this week, Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson star in the latest Colleen Hoover adaptation, “Verity”. Plus we take a look at the Zurich Film Festival where Julianne Moore collects the Golden Icon Award, and Olivia Colman and Alexander Skarsgård draw crowds for their cheeky fairytale “Wicker”. By: Source link

'Aggressively Unfunny' Or 'Terrific Fun'? Tom Cruise's Digger Continues To Divide Critics

'Aggressively Unfunny' Or 'Terrific Fun'? Tom Cruise's Digger Continues To Divide Critics

Published by Sam Flores

For the first time in more than a decade, Tom Cruise is stepping away from the action genre and revisiting his weird cinema roots. In the new movie Digger, written and directed by The Revenant and Birdman’s Alejandro Gonzales Iñárritu, Tom takes the lead as an eccentric oil tycoon who accidentally unleashes an ecological disaster that threatens all of humanity. Initial reactions to its first screenings on social media were markedly split, with some admiring the ambition of the satirical drama, while others were more critical, declaring it “less of a bang and more of a hollow misfire”. Now that more in-depth reviews are out, critics remain just as divided about Digger. An unrecognisable Tom Cruise in his new movie Digger While most applaud Digger’s sheer audacity, the film has been called “aggressively unfunny,” “pretentious” and generally “pointless”, while more positive reviews have hailed it as “thrilling” and “terrific fun”. Here’s a quick selection of what’s been said about Digger… The Times (1/5) “You thought the trailer was tedious? Try spending more than two hours …

Emma Willis Shares Subtle Message For Strictly Critics After First Live Show

Emma Willis Shares Subtle Message For Strictly Critics After First Live Show

Published by Sam Flores

Strictly Come Dancing host Emma Willis appears to have sent critics of the show’s new presenting team a message in her latest Instagram post. Over the weekend, Emma and her new co-presenters Josh Widdicombe and Johannes Radebe fronted their first live show of the latest season of Strictly since taking over as its hosts from Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman. While Emma herself received unanimous praise after the show aired, the same can’t be said for her male counterparts, with many critics sharing some (mostly) constructive criticism for the pair in their reviews. Emma Willis on the set of Strictly Come Dancing with new co-hosts Johannes Radebe and Josh Widdicombe On Tuesday evening, the former Big Brother star posted some behind-the-scenes snaps from the set of Strictly, including one snap that seemed to be aimed at the crew’s detractors. At the end of her carousel, Emma posted a message that read: “You’ll get judged either way, so you may as well pick the fun option.” Meanwhile, a day earlier, she had enthused in a separate Instagram …