Chris Pratt's The Garfield Movie hasn't done especially well on Rotten Tomatoes.
Out in cinemas this week, the lazy feline of the title enjoys an unexpected reunion with his long-lost father Vic, who takes him and best friend Odie on a high-stakes heist.
At the time of writing, the movie has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 56%.
Related: Garfield trailer debuts Chris Pratt's take on the iconic character
The animated movie also features vocals from Samuel L Jackson, Hannah Waddingham, Nicholas Hoult and Snoop Dogg. But reviewers think it seems to be missing the whole point of the iconic cat.
Below is a selection of those indifferent opinions from the press.
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"The rudimentary animation does the film no favours, nor does the lead vocal turn by Pratt, who strangely has become one of Hollywood's go-to animation stars with Onward, The Lego Movie and its sequel and The Super Mario Bros. Movie. His colourless vocal work here pales in comparison with his predecessors Bill Murray, who voiced the character in the two live-action movies, and Lorenzo Music, who played it brilliantly for so many years on television. The strange result is a Garfield without attitude."
"What's surprising about The Garfield Movie is that although it's based on a pretty cynical comic strip, its highlights are all sentimental. The flashbacks to Garfield's kittenhood are shameless gut punches of maudlin cutesiness, but eventually they tear down one's defences. Garfield's relationship with his father earns real sympathy by the end. What the film lacks in hilarious jokes — there's only a few (watch out for the used catapult salesman) — it makes up for with good nature."
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"The hectic plot may keep younger minds from wandering. Long before the film reaches its action-packed, train-based climax, however, adults will be questioning if its three writers have so much as seen an actual Garfield comic strip, given how removed their work feels from its activity-averse inspiration."
"The lasagna-obsessed feline with a near-pathological aversion to Mondays, who first came into popular consciousness in the late '70s as a comic strip, is a diluted version of himself in The Garfield Movie.
"Not only is his suave apathy mostly replaced by an excessive excitedness with only sporadic glimpses of his endearingly negative qualities, but this Garfield jumps off trains, stages a heist, and is subjected to trite physical comedy by way of numerous predictable action sequences. The ordeal mimics a rehashed plot from the dull The Secret Life of Pets franchise with Garfield forcefully plugged in."
The Garfield Movie is released in cinemas on May 24.
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Reporter, Digital Spy
Dan is a freelance entertainment journalist. Beginning his writing career in 2014, Dan's work first graced the pages of cult publications Starburst magazine and Little White Lies before moving onto Total Film, Digital Spy, NME and Yahoo Entertainment.
In the film and TV universe, he kneels at the altar of Jim Carrey, Daniel Plainview, Mike Ehrmantraut and Paulie Walnuts.
