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Dragonfly
Metascore
25 out of 100

Generally unfavorable - based on 33 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 33
  2. Mixed: 9 out of 33
  3. Negative: 22 out of 33
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  1. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: William Arnold
    67
    In Costner's best moments, he makes us absolutely believe this character and feel his pain.
  2. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Jay Carr
    63
    At least Dragonfly isn't contemptible or altogether dismissible. But it doesn't use Costner well, and it even more unforgivably wastes Kathy Bates.
    All this critic's reviews
  3. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Wilmington
    50
    A sappy, often absurd disappointment, another would-be inspirational romance that, like Costner's overwrought "Message in a Bottle," is impossible to swallow.
  4. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: David Sterritt
    50
    Costner is convincing as the hero, ably supported by Joe Morton as a short-tempered supervisor and Kathy Bates as a feisty neighbor. Dragonfly has little chance of "Ghost"-like popularity, though.
  5. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Mick LaSalle
    50
    Meandering and inert. Yet as an etching of an emotion and a vehicle for Costner, the movie makes a case for itself.
  6. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Staff [Not Credited]
    50
    When Kevin Costner goes into sensitive-guy mode, beware.
  7. Charlotte Observer
    Reviewed by: Lawrence Toppman
    50
    Eventually, though, the movie turns into a "Touched By An Angel" knockoff that dares us not to reach for a hankie while we succumb to its comforting message.
  8. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Shawn Levy
    42
    A nitwit script, full of pedestrian dialogue and building to a laughable climax, dooms the picture.
  9. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    40
    Though the film springs an okay twist at the very end, there's a good chance you won't be awake to see it.
  10. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Curt Fields
    40
    Comes across more like an above-average TV movie you might see on the Lifetime channel.
  11. New Times (L.A.)
    Reviewed by: Luke Y. Thompson
    40
    Joe Morton, Linda Hunt and Kathy Bates show up in supporting roles, only to have Costner's flagging energy drag them down, too.
  12. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Foreman
    38
    Hollywood movies are rarely as contemptuous of the audience as Dragonfly, with its half-witted, treacly New Age sappiness and its mechanical borrowings from other, better supernatural thrillers.
  13. ReelViews
    Reviewed by: James Berardinelli
    38
    This is a tedious and insulting motion picture. The only ones likely to be surprised by the payoff are those who understandably dozed off fifteen minutes into the proceedings.
  14. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Rick Groen
    38
    Dragonfly has more plot than a figure-skating competition, and just about as much credibility.
  15. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Chris Kaltenbach
    38
    Painstakingly painful.
    All this critic's reviews
  16. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Kimberley Jones
    30
    Very little here begs to be paid attention to.
  17. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Stephanie Zacharek
    30
    Dragonfly wants desperately to be the spiritual heir to "The Sixth Sense," but it's not even as effective a thriller.
  18. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Paul Malcolm
    30
    Despite the film's aspirations to soul healing, its uplift remains mechanical, like an escalator's.
  19. Variety
    Reviewed by: Joe Leydon
    30
    Costner's earnest performance is a major plus for Dragonfly, keeping the picture grounded in some semblance of reality even as it becomes progressively more fantastical.
  20. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: Joe Morgenstern
    30
    Costner has never been further from the lively, engaging actor he can be, or at least once was.
    All this critic's reviews
  21. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Rene Rodriguez
    25
    No atmosphere, no tension -- nothing but Costner, flailing away. It's a buggy drag.
  22. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jack Mathews
    25
    A stinker of epic proportions.
    All this critic's reviews
  23. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Steven Rea
    25
    A syrup-thick New Age ghost story of the same sappy stripe and mawkishness as another Costner foray, "Message in a Bottle."
  24. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Lisa Schwarzbaum
    25
    Preposterous-for-no-good-reason supernatural tale.
  25. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Michael Dequina
    20
    It's performances like these that make it so easy to forget that, when he wants to, Costner can indeed act and be an appealing star.
  26. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Scott Tobias
    20
    Awash in cheap shocks and corny sentiment, Dragonfly aspires to be an inspirational thriller about one man's spiritual journey, but it takes little time for him to reach his destination. All that's left for him and the audience to do is solve a riddle unfit for the back of a cereal box.
  27. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Michael Atkinson
    20
    The climax comes at you like a thrown cream pie, but given its faux-mythic nerve, it's tolerable. Too bad this latest station in Costner's ongoing self-crucifixion is such small potatoes until then.
  28. Slate
    Reviewed by: David Edelstein
    20
    Linda Hunt's spooky nun speaks of "a hundred levels of consciousness" between death and full, earthbound awareness: Where on that continuum do the executives who green-lighted Dragonfly reside?
  29. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Stephen Hunter
    20
    Hatched by screenwriters watching "The Sixth Sense" on methamphetamines
  30. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Rosenbaum
    20
    Costner has an uncanny aptitude for gravitating toward the dopiest projects in sight, but this time he's outdone himself.
  31. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kevin Thomas
    10
    Appalling, shamelessly manipulative and contrived, and totally lacking in conviction.
  32. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Dana Stevens
    10
    As the movie dragged on, I thought I heard a mysterious voice, and felt myself powerfully drawn toward the light -- the light of the exit sign. I have returned from the beyond to warn you: this movie is 90 minutes long, and life is too short.
  33. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    0
    I could puke.
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