RottenTomatoes.
75% after 63 reviews (https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/maxxxine)
West might have saved the best entry to last, with MaXXXine a neon tinted Hollywood nightmare filled with ambition, cut-throat action, and an excellent depiction of the final girl. 8/10
The result is an erotic cataclysm of gnarly kills, an aesthetic to die for, and another powerhouse performance from Mia Goth. 8.5/10
Director Ti West goes three for three, serving up a horribly watchable new episode in his outrageous black-comic franchise of aspirational horror porn, this time set in 80s Hollywood. 8/10
MaXXXine is not a good as Pearl, but it is better than X, which fumbled its hag-horror influences. This film is nasty, funny, and cogent about the era it’s set in. 8/10
It doesn't reach the heights of Pearl, but Ti West goes three for three with the conclusion to his terrific X trilogy. He once more changes up the cinematic style along with the era, going much bigger this time with a vivid recreation of 1980s Hollywood. 8/10
MaXXXine demonstrates that the trilogy never really had all that much going on, depth-wise... But Goth does her own synthesis of the characters she’s played across the titles, and the result is alternately disturbing, touching, and downright triumphant.
The style is impeccable. The substance, not so much. Perhaps after Pearl, MaXXXine is simply a victim of heightened expectations, but it has little of its predecessor's mischief or steely psychological brinksmanship. 6/10
Stylish and fun, but the weakest of the trilogy
If MaXXXine stopped basking in its own self-congratulatory cleverness for a moment, it might have had a decent film in there somewhere. 4/10share
MaXXXine doesn’t have the commanding intensity of its two predecessors, operating better as a conclusion to a captivating character arc than it is a particularly impressive film. 6/10
West's X trilogy will likely go down in history as one of the most prolific horror endeavors of the decade. Everyone will undoubtedly have different favorites and, while MaXXXine may rank last here, it is guaranteed to have some hardcore fans. 7/10
Maxxxine strikes its poses, cracks some skulls, and gets unexpectedly goofy, yet its pastiche sometimes feels skin-deep. West tries to have it all ... only to undersell competing features due to overstuffed ambitions. 7/10
A dramatically inert pseudo-slasher with nothing interesting to say, despite its gestures towards other, better films. 5/10
Doesn’t quite stick the landing for this otherwise exemplary horror trilogy, though it offers enough fun gory moments that those who loved X and Pearl might forgive the wonky ending.
Sometimes clumsily but more often not, MaXXXine has things to say about the objectification and humiliation of women in Hollywood, as actors and directors, and, alongside that, the belittling of horror as a genre too.
Even worse, the film’s expected gross-out violence is subpar, rarely offering the liberating rebuke to the era’s uptight handwringing.
It delivers some of the series’ most extreme kills as well as its best uses of glittery costumes, bloody testicles, and feminist subversion for a whirlwind joy ride that doubles as a societal lambasting.share
>feminist subversion
Yawn. We've had this since the 70s.
I sometimes feel that I'm too old to enjoy movies now. I'm well-versed in cinema from the 30s to the present day, and I've seen many cycles of the various genres. It's hard to get excited when you feel like you've seen it all before. When a film like X is so highly praised by critics despite it bringing nothing new to horror, it's natural to be dismissive. Perhaps it's fun for the kids who haven't seen all the older movies being copied, but for me there's nothing in it.