Anthony Mackie’s New Action Epic Flops With Critics on Rotten Tomatoes

Well, it looks like Desert Warrior isn’t exactly the blockbuster Saudi Arabia was hoping for. You’d think a $150 million budget, Anthony Mackie in full action mode, and sand dunes as far as the eye can see would be a recipe for epic greatness. But sometimes the big swing just... misses.

The Guts and the Glory (Sort of)

Here’s the basics: Desert Warrior was directed by Rupert Wyatt (yeah, the Rise of the Planet of the Apes guy), who also wrangled an international cast: Anthony Mackie as a desert bandit, Aiysha Hart playing Princess Hind, Sharlto Copley, and Ben Kingsley somewhere in the mix. The story drops us into seventh-century Arabia, where Hart’s princess says a hard ‘no thanks’ to becoming an emperor’s concubine. Instead, she teams up with Mackie and his legendary outlaws to take on the bad guys. On paper, that’s got all the right ingredients — big-scale battles, a strong female lead, and, hopefully, some old-school sword-clashing spectacle.

What the Critics Are Actually Saying

In reality? Critics are mostly panning the film as more sandstorm than spectacle. Rotten Tomatoes is currently clocking the critic score at a rough 40% — not what you want from a movie positioning itself as Saudi Arabia’s ticket to the global film industry.

• Too Ambitious? – Mike McGranaghan at Aisle Seat didn’t sugarcoat it: 'There’s some good stuff in Desert Warrior, but you have to wade through a lot of nonsense to get to it.'
• Trying Too Hard to be Epic – Over at Flickering Myth, Robert Kojder summed up the problem: 'Rupert Wyatt’s stab at a sweeping historical epic is about as generic and epically dull as you’d expect from a movie literally called Desert Warrior.'
• At Least the Hero Works? – According to Glenn Kenny at The New York Times, the film does deliver one win: 'Rather than go big and get lost, it keeps you rooting for its female hero. And the film actually succeeds at that.'
• Spectacle, Sure — Just Don’t Expect a Classic – James Mottram from The National UAE shrugged: 'Desert Warrior doesn’t rewrite the rulebook for historical epics, but it has scale, some spectacle, and a very vivid Arabian setting.'
• It’s Not the Movie, It’s the Movie’s Context? – Monica Castillo at AV Club basically said the behind-the-scenes story is more interesting than what’s actually on screen: ‘It’s the circumstances around Desert Warrior’s production that make it such a weird part of Saudi Arabia’s cultural promo push.'
• Desperately Wants to Be Lawrence of Arabia – Russ Simmons at KKFI-FM just laid it all out: 'It wants to be Lawrence of Arabia, but falls short.'

Bigger Picture: An Expensive Statement Piece

This wasn’t just another big-budget action flick. Desert Warrior was made to put Saudi Arabia (and its ambitions for a booming local film industry) on Hollywood’s radar. But right now, with only critics weighing in and no audience score yet on Rotten Tomatoes, it’s looking more like an expensive PR project than an actual breakout success.

If you’re planning to check it out, you might want to keep expectations in check — or just be ready to watch a movie that’s as much about what’s going on off screen as what’s happening in the sand.