Green Knight Review Round-Up: What Do The Critics Think?

The Green Knight, like Black Widow and Fast and Furious 9 before it, is a film we've been waiting on for a long time thanks to multiple pandemic delays. Unlike those films, though, this independent film isn't showing on every single screen that lights up--you'll have to work a little harder to find a screen showing it, making it all the more important to know what we're going into when the film hits theaters this Friday, July 30.

Over on Metacritic, the Green Knight is in the green with a score of 88. Rotten Tomatoes, meanwhile, has the Arthurian fantasy at 94% fresh with 15 reviews from its "top critics." While these scores will certainly shift as the film comes closer to release this weekend, those are still solid scores.

Below, you'll see a selection of the many reviews of the Green Knight, including our own.

The Green Knight

• Directed by: David Lowery
• Written by: David Lowery (adapted from the original Arthurian tale)
• Starring: Dev Patel, Alicia Vikander, Joel Edgerton
• Release Date: August 30

Gamespot - 9/10

"Anyone willing to engage with and participate in The Green Knight will undoubtedly get a lot out of the experience--it is absolutely worth multiple viewings and long discussions with friends from multiple angles. Similarly, failure to actively tune in will likely result in a confusing and frustrating watch. It would be best to measure your expectations, and to go in with an open mind."

- Mason Downey [Full Review]

Slashfilm - 10/10

"Contrary to the rousing sword-and-shield epics of Arthurian adaptations past, The Green Knight is a slow march to death. And Lowery’s steady and slow-burning direction reflects that: a dreary, grey color palette that looks and feels damp, with only Gawain’s bright yellow cloak piercing through the gloom. But shot mostly in natural light, there’s still a clarity to Lowery’s vision, even as the journey descends into a surreal, magical realist wonderland filled with talking foxes, naked giants, trickster scavengers, or ghostly saints who demand Gawain recover their head."

- Hoai-Tran Bui [Full Review]

The Chicago Tribune - 3.5/5

"Lowery has an unusual gift for forest-shrouded wonders, as proven by his beguiling live-action Pete's Dragon for Disney. Serving here as his own editor, the director pays close attention to that extra beat or longer-than-usual take, by which we're pulled into a world and a rhythm not like most movies. The movie's more ruminative than exuberant. It’s also fully invested in making its own kind of magic, on its own time."

- Michael Phillips [Full Review]

Time

"A movie that’s both of its time and splendidly out of step with it, an act of necromancy in a CGI world."

- Stephanie Zacharek [Full Review]

RogerEbert.com - 4/4

"The fluid cinematography alternates between dreamlike and something deeply connected to Mother Nature. The Green Knight is about many things--and some of the best film writing of this year will unpack its themes in more depth--but a sense of man's relatively minor role in the grand scope of history and nature is essential, and Palermo beautifully captures the lush greens of the world around Gawain, as if the Knight himself is already everywhere."

- Brian Tallerico [Full Review]