Leave The World Behind Rotten Tomatoes Score Has Critics & Audiences Divided

Leave the World Behind‘s Rotten Tomatoes scores reveal that critics and audiences are very divided on the movie’s merits. The divide is surprising, considering the film has been topping Netflix’s charts since its streaming release. The apocalyptic thriller follows the Sanford family, whose Long Beach vacation takes an unexpected turn when the United States is thrown into chaos. With technology malfunctioning and rumors of an attack, the Sanfords struggle to understand their situation and who they can trust. Its themes and star-studded cast have been attracting attention, but viewers don’t agree with its quality.

Leave the World Behind reviews have been tabulated by Rotten Tomatoes, but the scores show a large divide between audiences and critics. While it’s normal for audience and critics’ scores to differ by five to ten percentage points, the psychological thriller boasts a difference of 40% between the scores. As of the writing, the critic’s score stands at a solid 75%, while the audience score has sunk to a rotten 35%. The critical score is based on 117 reviews from certified film critics, while the audience score is based on over 2,500 reviews from internet users.

Why Are Audiences and Critics So Divided About Leave The World Behind?

The divide caused by Leave the World Behind is a bit unusual. Not only is it a bigger division than average, but it’s also uncommon for the audience score to be lower since critics tend to scrutinize movies more meticulously. One of the reasons for the divide is likely the ambiguous nature of Leave the World Behind and its ending. While critics might appreciate the room for interpretation and the thought-provoking themes about the impact of technology, audiences might be disappointed that the film doesn’t leave them with solid answers.

Some criticisms may also stem from how Leave the World Behind changes from the novel, especially the ending. Both versions of the ending are ambiguous and left to interpretation, but the adaptation ends on a more humorous and ironic note than the book and succeeds in making Rose’s (Farrah Mackenzie) story more challenging to predict. Viewers may be disappointed by the changes from the source material and may not be pleased with the abrupt ending and shift in tone.

Leave the World Behind also includes some frank discussions of racism and makes Amanda (Julia Roberts) more blatantly racist than in the book. It also delves boldly into topics about society’s over-dependence and even obsession with technology and touches on things like terrorism and unrest in America. Essentially, there is a lot of underlying social and political commentary in the film, and these are topics that naturally divide people. Between an ambiguous ending, changes from the source material, and covering of issues known to rile people up, it’s not surprising that Leave the World Behind is dividing viewers.