Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 57% of 44 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.30/10. [17] Metacritic , which uses a weighted average , assigned the film a score of 61 out of 100, based on 12 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. [18]
Jeannette Catsoulis, writing for New York Times , described the film as, "an unintentionally comical sci-fi diatribe obsessed with beautiful bodies, bickering brothers and biblical symbolism". She continued, "the occasionally arresting visuals, though, are repeatedly undercut by dumb dialogue and often atrocious acting, the whole experienced through a wall of throbbing, squawking sound. This is not the movie to see if you are nursing a hangover". [19] Jacob Oller, writing for Paste , described it as "a little like a self-important Barbarella , full of half-hearted titillation and taking place in that indistinguishable gray area between a moonbase and a Hollywood sex dungeon", [20] while Nadir Samara, writing for ScreenRant , had a more positive review, praising the visual style, casting, and world-building. [21] Christian Zilko of IndieWire wrote "The film’s overarching vision manages to split the difference between the simplistic rules of an old monster movie and the endlessly complicated bioethics debates you can find in Silicon Valley on a daily basis. It often feels as if we’re looking into a world that began as a carefully manufactured setting for a 1950s Hollywood movie, but has evolved at the same rate as the real world and now exists as a parallel version of our future. But none of Alcazar’s myriad flourishes overshadow the film’s most troubling theme: no matter how much the world changes, we’ll never stop being terrified to leave it." [22]
Dennis Harvey of Variety wrote "Rather like the results generated by its titular substance, this movie has looks to die for, but whatever is on its mind feels at once obscure and unappealing." [23] Siddhant Adlakha of IGN wrote "A super-charged genre throwback that obscures its meaning but has an alluring visual texture, Divinity is completely unique in its conception of sci-fi dystopia, for better and for worse. When a mysterious pair of brothers unleashes their supernatural powers on the rich inventor of an immortality serum, all hell breaks loose, taking the form of spiritual revelry at the end of the world." [24] Howard Waldstein of Comic Book Resources wrote "Divinity might lack the necessary anchoring for some audiences, but it's well worth checking out. Inspiration can be found everywhere; sometimes, it takes some cinematic jostling to dislodge long-held beliefs. In a sea of sameness, it's nice to know that filmmakers are still taking huge swings with little regard for how it'll all pan out." [25] Carlos Aguilar of Los Angeles Times wrote "Alcazar argues in his sumptuous if convoluted tale, comes from its finite timeline." [26]
Dais Johnston of Inverse wrote "this experimental movie will be a great time for the sliver of the audience who can look through the superficial layers to mine some kind of deeper meaning. But any story that Divinity is trying to communicate is only buried beneath the film’s splashy stylings." [27] Chase Hutchinson of Collider wrote "Even as it may not rise to the level of other stunning science fiction visions from this year, there is still so much to appreciate in every single moment of Alcazar’s latest. It’s an experience you’ll only wish you could inject right into your veins even as it may end up leaving your head spinning and possibly painfully stretching from what you just witnessed." [28] Nick Schager of The Daily Beast wrote "It may be a calling card venture for Alcazar, but it’s an impressive one, and portends potentially big, and chillingly unhinged, things for his own cinematic future." [29] Richard Whittaker of The Austin Chronicle wrote "For a movie about our relationship with our bodies, there's surprisingly little intellectual meat on its pretentious bones." [30]
