The film’s secret weapon proves to be Freddy Krueger-fingernailed witch Marique — imagine a cross between Madeline Kahn in History of the World: Part I and Lady Gaga — that should garner Rose McGowan a Razzie and an Oscar.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 7, 2024

Marcus Nispel's new project gradually decreases in intensity. The resolution of the conflict, announced since its inception, happens without surprises or shocks. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 2/10 | Sep 27, 2023

[The film] plays to the lowest possible viewer demands.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Mar 9, 2023

Visually, this new adaptation feels authentic, with gallons of blood spattering against tempered steel as muscular men wage war with beasts and each other alike.

| Original Score: 4/10 | Nov 30, 2020

I've never quite figured out the cinematic logic that allows for someone who kills multiple people in ultra-violent ways to become the film's hero.

| Original Score: 1.5/4.0 | Sep 5, 2020

What I got was an ultraviolent and bloody fantasy epic with an overwrought and underdeveloped back story, clumsy performances and gratuitous special effects, 3D and otherwise. In other words: perfect.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 21, 2019

[A] frenetic rush of energy embodied by the performance of Momoa, whose samurai training and choreographed planning of fight scenes has gone a long way to making his Conan a success.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 15, 2018

Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love Jason Mamoa. Who is this 'Arnold' person you keep talking about?

| Original Score: 7/10 | Nov 4, 2018

The creative team had a unified vision, the talent on screen was strong, and the creator's vision was honored. If only audiences had responded in kind.

| Nov 3, 2018

It is right that a new Conan film must look for its own identity, but one immediately notices that in the absence of Milius's saga-paced direction... and Schwarzenegger's special-effect physique, very little has been introduced to replace them.

| Jul 9, 2018

Here's the thing about this version of Conan. Even if you're regretfully sober when you venture into the theater, it is imminently forgettable.

| May 26, 2018

It's mostly just fights and fights and humdrum CGI and us in the audience wondering which of these big climaxes will be the last.

| Oct 13, 2017

Momoa doesn't have Arnold's 7-time-Mr.-Olympia-winning muscles, but they're still impressive. Plus he can sort of act. Arnold could sort of act too, but Jason can sort of act better.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 15, 2016

If I made it sound entertaining, I didn't mean to. It's not "so bad it's good," it's just really, really bad.

| Nov 16, 2015

In some ways, I even liked it better than the original because it didn't take itself so deathly seriously.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 24, 2013

Conan the Barbarian is shocking not merely for its blood and guts violence but for how surprisingly gripping and compelling it is, even muddy in 3D.

| Original Score: 6/10 | Mar 1, 2013

Conan the Barbarian is a hollow beat 'em up with shallow characters and, worst of all, below average action.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Oct 2, 2012

But Nispel and his trio of screenwriters do nothing with their simplistic premise, crowding the screen with too much digital imagery and making every villainous character look like they just stepped out of some macabre Saturday morning cartoon.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Jan 27, 2012

The film lacks any magic, and indeed any of the spirit that grabbed a cult audience for the original: the direction lacks any kind of showmanship, and the script is a dilluted version of what it undoubtedly could have been.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Jan 2, 2012

There is fun to be had here-not as much as there could be, but it kept me entertained, faults and all.

| Original Score: C | Dec 28, 2011