Critical Mass: Fifty Shades Darker, The LEGO Batman Movie

With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, are mainstream movie critics loving any of this week’s new theatrical releases? They’re cozying up to the Warner Bros. Animation spinoff The LEGO Batman Movie and Keanu Reeves’ latest installment in the John Wick series, though they’re leaving Fifty Shades Darker out in the cold, breaking the romantic sequel’s heart with scathing reviews.

With so many new and holdover titles packing theaters around the country, EW wants you to make good choices at the movies, so consult our Critical Mass reviews guide below (with a special “romance level” added just for the holiday) before heading to the multiplex this weekend.

Fifty Shades Darker

Opens Feb. 10 in theaters nationwide.

EW’s Devan Coggan says:

Poor Dornan still isn’t given much to work with, except this time, his abs are a little more defined and he’s grown some stubble to show just how heartbroken he’s been without Ana in his life. Johnson gets to have a little more fun, actually cracking jokes and acknowledging the humor in some of Christian’s more ridiculous requests. Still, they’re both hampered by James’ nonsensical dialogue, as Dornan is stuck saying things like, “I don’t know whether to worship at your feet or spank you.” Worst of all, Darker commits what might be the most punishable offense: just being boring. C–

Read the full review here.

Rotten Tomatoes: 8%

Metacritic: 38

Romance Level: 1/5 hearts

The LEGO Batman Movie

Opens Feb. 10 in theaters nationwide.

EW’s Chris Nashawaty says:

Seventy-five percent of the film’s carpet-­bomb campaign of pop culture meta punchlines will ricochet over the target audience’s head, but parents dragged along for the ride will no doubt be grateful for Arnett’s rat-a-tat send-ups of Adam West and superhero clichés. Directed by Robot Chicken’s Chris McKay and produced in part by the first film’s dynamic duo Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, LEGO Batman revs so fast and moves so frenetically that it becomes a little exhausting by the end. It flirts with being too much of a good thing. But rarely has corporate brainwashing been so much fun and gone down with such a delightful aftertaste. B+

Read the full review here.

Rotten Tomatoes: 94%

Metacritic: 75

Romance Level: 3/5 hearts

John Wick: Chapter 2

Opens Feb. 10 in theaters nationwide.

EW’s Chris Nashawaty says:

Reeves is like a haunted (and largely speechless) ronin living by the 21st-century code of the samurai. If that all sounds too highfalutin by half, well, there’s also a bunch of tire-squealing car chases, countless point-blank kills, and scenic bone-crunching brawls in Rome’s ancient catacombs. And there’s a laundry list of interesting character actors who keep dropping by to spice up the bloodbath, like Laurence Fishburne, Common, and Ian McShane, who purrs bespoke menace as the grandmaster of the whole masonic order. But it’s Reeves, with his natty suits and icy stare, who grabs you by the throat — figuratively and literally. Killing is John Wick’s business…and business is good. B+

Read the full review here.

Rotten Tomatoes: 93%

Metacritic: 75

Romance Level: 3/5 hearts

A United Kingdom

Opens Feb. 10 in limited release.

EW’s Leah Greenblatt says:

In bringing their story to the screen, director Amma Asante (Belle) faithfully follows the familiar arc of countless historical biopics before her: the noble struggle, the seemingly insurmountable setbacks, the string-swelling triumph in the last reel. But she does it all with such aesthetic grace and sincere goodwill that it’s hard not to react exactly as the script intends, heartstrung by every fresh hardship or victory. It helps, too, to have two actors so immensely appealing in the lead roles. Oyelowo and Pike hold fast to the intimate core of the pair’s connection, even as they are spurned by their homelands and subjected to humiliations large (exile, threats of annulment) and small (an official’s wife offers Ruth a cocktail while archly informing her that her new husband may help himself to a soda, because “blacks can’t drink” in the territory). B+

Read the full review here.

Rotten Tomatoes: 86%

Metacritic: 69

Romance Level: 5/5 hearts

Split

Now playing.

EW’s Leah Greenblatt says:

Split’s giddy nonsense ultimately dissolves in a scrum of half-realized ideas, but maybe that’s ­exactly Shyamalan’s goal: tipping his final scene with a perfect tease, to be continued. B

Read the full review here.

Rotten Tomatoes: 74%

Metacritic: 62

Romance Level: 0.5/5 hearts

Rings

Now playing.

EW’s Christian Holub says:

Rings embodies a common problem of attempted franchise revivals: indecision about its intentions. The film tries going in a few too many directions at once, and some wires get crossed. Storylines that seem important at first (like Julia’s mother’s sickness or Gabriel’s affair with a student) end up going nowhere. Characters appear and then fade back into the background. But in the end, there are enough grotesque corpses and symbolic visions of haunted wells to give fans what they came for. C+

Read the full review here.

Rotten Tomatoes: 6%

Metacritic: 24

Romance Level: 0.5/5 hearts

A Dog’s Purpose

Now playing.

EW’s Leah Greenblatt says:

Director Lasse Hallström, a veteran of sprawling casts and story lines (Chocolat, The Cider House Rules), shoots in sumptuously rich Technicolor, even if narratively it often feels more like he’s working with finger paints. Each segment, duly framed by textbook fashion and music cues (head­scarves and Simon & Garfunkel for the ’60s, Jheri curls and a-ha in the ’80s), unfolds with the soothing blandness of a bedtime story. And Purpose itself plays like a family film from another era, its gentle sensibilities a million miles removed from the winky pop culture references and meta layers of most modern all-ages entertainment. The effect is sweet, benignly retro, and just a little bit boring; a comforting Milk Bone for the soul. B

Read the full review here.

Rotten Tomatoes: 35%

Metacritic: 43

Romance Level: 4/5 hearts

Hidden Figures

Now playing.

EW’s Leah Greenblatt says:

Charged with streamlining Figures’ knotty real-life histories, director Theodore Melfi (St. Vincent) tends to paint too much in the broad, amiable strokes of a triumph-of-the-week TV movie. But even his earthbound execution can’t dim the sheer magnetic pull of an extraordinary story. B+

Read the full review here.

Rotten Tomatoes: 92%

Metacritic: 74

Romance Level: 4.5/5 hearts

La La Land

Now playing.

EW’s Chris Nashawaty says:

There have been a handful of lavish, big-studio musicals in recent years. But for the most part, they’ve been bloated Broadway adaptations full of sound and fury. And some moviegoers may, no doubt, feel a little tentative about the genre. But La La Land is the anti-whatever those are. It’s more intimate and personal and affecting…more magical. My advice is to see La La Land and surrender to it. It will make you feel like you’re walking on air too. A

Read the full review here.

Rotten Tomatoes: 93%

Metacritic: 93

Romance Level: 5/5 hearts