Gal Gadot in “The Runner.”
Prime Video
Rotten Tomatoes critics apparently have a big issue with movies starring Gal Gadot, with her new movie The Runner setting a record-low “rotten” critics’ score for the Wonder Woman star.
Directed by Kevin Macdonald, The Runner premiered on streaming on Prime Video on Wednesday, earning a 9% “rotten” critics’ score based on 11 early reviews before it briefly rose to 10% based on 22 reviews a short time later. As of late Thursday, The Runner fell to 7% “rotten” based on 29 reviews.
In the film, Gadot stars as Maia Marten, a high-powered attorney in London who receives a disturbing call during her daily morning run that her young son has been kidnapped. To get her son back, Maia is instructed to keep running and tell no one, or else her child will die.
While critics have been bombarding The Runner with negative reviews, Rotten Tomatoes users are reacting differently to the film, awarding it an improved, but still “rotten” Popcornmeter score based on 50-plus verified user ratings.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – AUGUST 27: Gal Gadot attends the Los Angeles premiere of Amazon MGM Studios’ “The Runner” at Harmony Gold on August 27, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
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‘The Runner’ Is The Sixth Film Starring Gal Gadot Deemed ‘Rotten’ In The Last Six Years
Including The Runner, six of the eight films Gal Gadot has starred in — not the DC films she has unbilled cameos in — have received a rotten critics’ score from Rotten Tomatoes critics in the last six years.
Gadot’s misfortunes with RT critics began with 2020’s Wonder Woman 1984, which earned a 57% “rotten” score based on 455 reviews.
The actress bounced back in 2021, however, with Zack Snyder’s Justice League, where her Wonder Woman — as well as the rest of the cast in the disastrous 2017 version of the film — were given the story the cast deserved. RT critics gave Zack Snyder’s Justice League a 71% “fresh” score based on 313 reviews, up significantly from the 39% “rotten” score (based on 411 reviews) the 2017 version directed by Joss Whedon.
Later in 2021, Gadot’s spy thriller Red Notice — in which she starred opposite Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Ryan Reynolds — was deemed 36% “rotten” based on 174 reviews. It is worthy to note that the film’s “rotten” reception on RT meant zip to audiences, who made Red Notice the most-viewed Netflix original film of all time from 2021 to 2025 with 230.9 million views in its first 91 days of release.
US actor Dwayne Johnson (L), Israeli actress Gal Gadot (C) and Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds attend the world premiere of Netflix’s “Red Notice” at LA Live in Los Angeles on November 3, 2021. (Photo by Patrick T. FALLON / AFP) (Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)
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Red Notice held the record until August 2025, when the streaming platform announced that its animated movie musical KPop Demon Hunters became the new most-viewed Netflix film of all time with 325.1 million in its first three months.
As part of a star-studded ensemble led by director and actor Kenneth Branagh, Gadot earned a “fresh” 62% critic’s score for her 2022 Agatha Christie-based murder mystery Death on the Nile, based on 292 reviews. The film, however, marked the last time a film featuring Gadot in a lead role yielded a positive score from the review aggregation website.
Gadot’s current streak of films that have been negatively received on RT began in 2023 with action movie Heart of Stone, which earned a 31% “rotten” score based on 134 reviews. The box-office bust Snow White was next, earning a 39% “rotten” score on RT based on 277 reviews in 2025, followed by the crime-noir thriller In the Hand of Dante, which had a 29% “rotten” score based on 56 reviews in the same year.
The Runner’s RT critics’ score is the polar opposite of Gadot’s 2017 DC superhero blockbuster Wonder Woman, which received a career-high 93% “fresh” critics’ score on based on 476 reviews.
For viewers who want to decide whether Gal Gadot’s The Runner is as bad as RT’s 7% “rotten” score implies, it is available to stream on Prime Video.
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