Hulu’s New Sci-Fi Movie From Iconic Genre Director Is an Instant Hit, but Critics & Audiences Are Divided

With a cast that boasts names like Kate McKinnon, Rashida Jones, and Daveed Diggs, as well as the director that brought audiences one of the most beloved movies of all time in WALL-E, it’s shocking that this new sci-fi film has such a wild disparity in its critics’ and audience ratings—a 54 point difference between the 18% critics gave it and the 72% it received from casual viewers. So while this slow-burning sci-fi might have swept the #2 spot on Hulu‘s Top Ten Most Watched list, there’s some disagreement about whether or not it deserves those viewed hours.

In the Blink of an Eye centers on three distinct storylines that span thousands of years, beginning with the Big Bang and progressing linearly through both time and space. Audiences get everything from DNA strands to a Neanderthal family coping with their realities, to the modern day, and then on to the future. It’s ambitious; full of choices that rightfully raised eyebrows, but, according to audiences, it pulled those choices off, creating something that was both visually stunning and emotionally inspiring. And that’s high praise for Andrew Stanton, whose only other live-action contribution to film was John Connor (but the guy who gave us Finding Nemo and WALL-E shouldn’t be discounted by one bad sci-fi flick).

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Critics found the movie more boring than poignant, claiming that its long timeline made the characters we were meant to relate to feel little more than skin-deep and shallow at best. Manuel São Bento of Movies We Texted About graded the film a C+, saying, “The fragmented structure prevents the human connection that Stanton so strongly defends from deeply materializing, resulting in a sincere visual essay that’s admired more for its intention than its final result.” According to critics, In the Blink of an Eye was too ambitious for its own good, and every tool it used to inspire viewers’ care fell flat, making the movie more spectacle than anything else—a style-over-substance production.

But general audiences disagree with this take, claiming that the lack of action and focus on interpersonal communication doesn’t make it boring, shallow, or hard to follow. The movie’s simplistic approach is where its beauty lies. “Just an amazing film of humanity and how amazing we truly are, mixed with Love, loss, and all the emotions humans have to deal with all throughout time. The critics were absolutely wrong on this film. It was beautiful, and it was the first movie in a long time that made me cry. The movie was not meant for the weak or simple-minded,” said one audience member. The film is immersive in a way that so few of its contemporaries are, relying on the audience to choose where to put their emotional buy-in.

Did you enjoy In the Blink of an Eye? Or did you share the critics’ opinion? Let us know your thoughts in the comments. And don’t forget to check out the ComicBook forum to see what other sci-fi fans are saying about the movie.