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Dark Matter
Metascore
49 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 16 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 16
  2. Mixed: 10 out of 16
  3. Negative: 2 out of 16
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  1. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Maureen M. Hart
    75
    The film does a fine job of displaying the contrasts between these tense, formalized Chinese students and the faux populist American academics.
  2. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    75
    Hypnotic, culturally pertinent drama.
  3. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Stephen Holden
    70
    Dark Matter, with its view of cutthroat politics and competing egos inside a university, is also laudable in its refusal to soft-pedal the viciously petty side of the academic fishbowl.
  4. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: J.R. Jones
    70
    First-time director Chen Shi-Zheng shows great sensitivity to the pressure and isolation felt by Chinese brains at American universities, and the relationship between Liu and Quinn provides a rare look at the intellectual serfdom of graduate study.
  5. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Joe Neumaier
    60
    Director Chen Shi-Zheng's film has a graceful energy, and three strong performances help make this serene drama - and its shocking conclusion - quietly moving.
  6. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Zack Haddad
    60
    This is a great film, to a point. Unfortunately the ending doesn't deliver, making the entire feature an exercise is wasted potential. But maybe that's the point.
  7. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: Peter Rainer
    58
    Chen Shi-Zheng, well regarded as an opera and theater director, makes his feature film debut.
  8. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Lou Lumenick
    50
    An unsatisfying drama that premiered at Sundance '07 and was supposedly delayed because of the Virginia Tech shootings.
  9. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Ty Burr
    50
    The final act of Dark Matter is grim but unconvincing, and the shortfall leaves an ugly, exploitive taste in your mouth.
  10. Variety
    Reviewed by: Justin Chang
    50
    Never fully succeeds in burrowing under its protagonist's skin, despite conspicuous effort.
  11. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Gregory Kirschling
    42
    Liu Ye is too inexpressive for his role's demands, and the movie doesn't build to his downfall: It just zaps itself there.
  12. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Josh Rosenblatt
    40
    It's hard to ask for juicier, or more timely, subject matter than high-pressure academic ambition turning violent, but to map the descent of a genius into madness isn't a task to be taken lightly.
  13. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Andrew O'Hehir
    40
    Dark Matter has neither the technical command of an art-house film nor the manufactured intensity of a grade-B thriller, yet it's also too cheap and dirty to feel like a Hollywood-scale drama.
  14. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Mark Olsen
    40
    It is easy to see the film as two movies crammed together, neither of them being very good.
  15. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Nick Pinkerton
    30
    First-time filmmaker Shi-Zheng Chen shows little aptitude for accurately transcribing the textures of human interaction; there's not a single credible performance here, not excluding Meryl Streep as a faculty Sinophile, doing that thing where she grinds every line through a gauntlet of tremulous inflections.
  16. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Reyhan Harmanci
    25
    If only it weren't based on a true story. It might have been a good movie.
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