New movie starring Anne Hathaway and Matthew McConaughey savaged

It boasts an acclaimed cast and director, but Serenity has been roasted as “painfully dull” — forcing one of its stars to address the backlash.

Serenity might boast a cast of award-winning actors and an acclaimed director but it hasn’t stopped critics from labelling it as “obnoxious and painfully dull”.

The movie starring Anne Hathaway, Matthew McConaughey, Diane Lane and Jason Clarke was released in the US this week and people haven’t been too kind.

Dubbed a “daringly original, sexy, stylised thriller,” Serenity stars Hathaway as Karen, a woman who tries to persuade her fishing boat captain ex-husband Baker to get rid of her current husband (Clarke).

Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway in a scene from Serenity. Picture: Graham Bartholomew/Aviron Pictures via AP

The movie, directed and written by Steven Knight doesn’t have a release date yet in Australia but but you can always enjoy the very confusing trailer — seriously watch it for yourself now.

The film currently holds a dismal 22 per cent rating on Rotten Tomatoes and critics haven’t held back in savage reviews.

“People who can enjoy laughing at something made in dead earnest, who can appreciate, in a perverse way, a phenomenal, jaw-dropping mess, may find an experience close to pleasure in this strange, misbegotten, three-headed freak of a movie,” the San Francisco Chronicle’s Mick LaSalle wrote. Ouch.

The Washington Post’s Michael O’Sullivan described it as cheesy with “all the appeal of microwaved nachos” and its dialogue as “bad, to the point of self-parody” while giving it only half a star.

“Obnoxious and painfully dull, Serenity is an early candidate for worst film of 2019,” The Only Critic’s Nate Adams concluded.

Not even Hathaway can save this movie it seems

Others were (slightly) kinder, with Vulture’s David Edelstein conceding it wasn’t “reliably terrible” but “you get embarrassed for the people involved”.

Hathaway herself has addressed the criticism, writing on Instagram that she was aware “for some it just doesn’t work”.

“That’s cool — there is no failure, only learned events, not everyone has to like everything, and the critical response doesn’t change my feelings about the movie,” she continued.

“However, other people’s time and money are not to be taken for granted, so I just want to be clear: I endorse the movie, many critics don’t.”