Scarlett Johansson's Major looking suspiciously at something in Ghost in the Shell

After over 30 years of waiting, Scarlett Johansson's Ray Gunn is nearly here and critics are weighing in on the film.

Hailing from The Incredibles' Brad Bird, the animated sci-fi thriller is led by Sam Rockwell as the eponymous private detective living in the retrofuturistic world known as Metropia, who finds himself pulled into a twist-filled case surrounding megastar Venus Nova, voiced by Johansson. Alongside its Oscar-winning and Oscar-nominated leads, the ensemble Ray Gunn cast includes Tom Waits, Matt Berry, Bobby Cannavale, Alan Tudyk and Kathryn Hunter, among many others.

Ahead of its December 18 release on Netflix, Ray Gunn has made its world premiere at the 70th BFI London Film Festival, and reviews have begun rolling out, netting the film an early Rotten Tomatoes score. With 12 reviews calculated at the time of writing, the animated neo-noir sci-fi thriller, which Bird has described as being inspired by everything from Blade Runner to Chinatown and The Big Lebowski, has an 92% approval rating on the review aggregate.

The impending arrival of Ray Gunn marks a notable one for a multitude of reasons, the most notable being that Bird first originated the concept in the late '80s and intended to produce the film shortly thereafter, only to then turn his focus to The Iron Giant, whose box office failure led the writer/director to acquire the rights to the neo-noir mystery to take it elsewhere, eventually landing at Skydance Animation. Additionally, the film marks Bird's first feature directorial effort in nearly a decade, the last being his long-awaited Incredibles II.

With Ray Gunn securing an 92% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, it further affirms Bird as having one of the more impressive filmographies from a director, as he still only has one "Rotten" rating across his seven feature films, that being the George Clooney-starring Tomorrowland adaptation. The rest of his films, meanwhile, have been situated in the 90-percentile range with critics, as can be seen in the chart below:

Title	Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score	Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score
The Iron Giant (1999)	96%	90%
The Incredibles (2004)	97%	75%
Ratatouille (2007)	96%	87%
Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol (2011)	94%	76%
Tomorrowland (2015)	49%	50%
Incredibles 2 (2018)	93%	84%
Ray Gunn (2026)	92% (as of 10/10/26)	TBD

Even with its very-Fresh score of 92%, it is worth noting that Ray Gunn isn't universally winning over critics, nor are the Fresh ratings on Rotten Tomatoes all glowing. Only 1 of its 12 reviews have fallen on the Rotten side of the spectrum, while others, including ScreenRant's own Ben Gibbons with his narrowly positive 6/10 review, are commending the neo-noir thriller for its ambition and animation, even if finding its story lacking in parts:

As much as Ray Gunn attempts to deliver a meaty story that feels like a step up from Bird's previous work, there is a distinct sense of missing Pixar magic. Twists rarely land in the way that they are intended until the final act, and even still, that doesn't always feel earned. In other moments, the twists only serve to weaken the overall competence of characters like Ray, and undermine the story.

Given there is still quite some time before Ray Gunn makes its way to Netflix, including getting a major screening at the 15th Montclair Film Festival on October 17 and an early theatrical release on December 4, it will be interesting to see whether other critics concur with those who just saw the film at BFI London, or if it finds its score steadily decreasing.

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Scarlett Johansson’s Netflix Blade Runner Replacement Debuts To Stellar Rotten Tomatoes Score