Hunter Killer reviews: What are critics saying about Hunter Killer?

Hunter Killer follows the story of American submarine Captain Joe Glass, played by Gerard Butler.

Deep under the Arctic Ocean Captain Glass is on the hunt for a US sub in distress.

Glass discovers a secret Russian coup is in the offing, threatening to dismantle the world order.

With crew and country on the line, Captain Glass must now assemble an elite group of Navy SEALs to rescue the kidnapped Russian president and sneak through enemy waters to stop WWIII.

Here’s what critics have to say about the movie.

Overall the critical response to the submarine movie was sub-par (get it?), though not wholly negative.

IGN’s Lucy O’Brien couldn’t quite find a justification for the movie’s existence in her review.

She wrote: “Cardellini is far too good for the material but does a lot with a role that could have been sleepwalked through, and though I’m not sure what Oldman is doing in this movie, he brings the requisite authoritarian ‘angry guy’ vibe to heighten the stakes.”

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O’Brien lamented the lack of humour, and said: “Hunter Killer remains resolutely serious, and misses the opportunity to have a little fun in among the action.”

On the definitely ‘unkind’ end of the spectrum was the Telegraph writer Robbie Collin.

Collin called the film a “stupid stinker” and gave it only one out of five stars.

Den of Geek’s Duncan Bowles was more moderate in his opinion, and called it “a fun 90s throwback” but equally refers to Gerard Butler’s “loyalty to making solid b-grade blockbusters”.

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He added: “It’s a pretension-free throwback that delivers exactly what you’d expect from the trailer: undemanding fun, intermittent action and a whole lot of shouting.”

David Ehrlich at Indiewire gave it only two and a half out of five stars, and the Independent gave it a slightly better three out of five.

Geoffrey Macnab at The Independent wrote: “Connoisseurs of cheesy, gung-ho, boys’ own action films will find plenty to relish in Hunter Killer.”

Rotten Tomatoes has yet to aggregate the oncoming reviews, but a good guess is in the 30% range, given the two and three-star marks it is getting.

Nikki Baughan at The List gave it a single one star and called it “lumbering”.

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The opening line to her review reads: “Essentially a two-plus hour advert for the global benefits of all-American jingoism, Hunter Killer is as blunt as it is bland.”

Baughan also points out the severe lack of women in the movie (despite women being an active and integral part of the military).

“Of the three who have small speaking roles, one is the submarine’s communications officer, relaying above-ground messages to the captain; one is an NSA agent (a woefully underused Linda Cardellini) fighting to make herself heard; and one is the President of the United States, who appears in a brief scene to give her approval to plans made by the men in the room.”

She noted: “While such gender politics may be somewhat accurate in the context of the US military history, it is an appalling oversight in modern filmmaking.”

The only positive point Baughan found was in the filmmaking, which accurately depicts the claustrophobia those in a submarine must feel.

Hunter Killer is out in UK cinemas on October 19, 2018.