Netflix viewers brand Spaceman ‘awful’ as new Adam Sandler film climbs rankings

Reactions to the new Adam Sandler film have been brutal

Spaceman, the latest film starring American comedy magnate Adam Sandler, has received scathing reviews from Netflix viewers.

In the film, the Uncut Gems star, 57, plays Czech astronaut Jakub Procházka, who is sent on a mission to the edge of the solar system shortly after the collapse of his marriage to his wife Lenka (played by Maestro’s Carey Mulligan).

But viewers have been damning about the film’s premise and puzzling choice of supporting actor... a giant CGI spider.

When Sandler’s character encounters the oversized spider – voiced by There Will be Blood’s Paul Dano – they are initially wary of each other. But the astronaut comes to realise that the spider, named Hanus, might have some therapeutic wisdom to impart.

Paul Dano as a CGI spider in ‘Spaceman' (Netflix)

Netflix fans seem to be unconvinced by the film’s premise, with viewers branding it as “awful” and “plain stupid”.

“Spaceman is beyond awful. It’s not psychological, it’s just plain stupid,” wrote one person on X/Twitter user.

Another added: “I sat through several hours of Adam Sandler in #Spaceman last night. It was [a] dirge. Plus the alien was a giant therapist spider.”

Sandler in ‘Spaceman’ (© 2023 Netflix, Inc.)

One fan was brutal enough to call it “one of the WORST” movies they had seen.

However, some were more diplomatic, with one viewer writing that the movie had “great performances, interesting ideas and heavy themes” but was “bogged down by its slow pace”.

Meanwhile, another said that while the film has a “silly premise”, it tackles moving themes.

“What feels like a silly premise turns into an unbelievably sad and touching movie that I highly recommend to anyone wanting to watch this weekend.”

Another joked: “Didn’t know I needed a giant friendly talking spider in my life but thanks Spaceman.”

Speaking to The Independent about voicing the CGI spider in Spaceman, Dano said he signed on because he thought the premise “sounded crazy enough to be something”.

“When I heard that it was Adam Sandler on a spaceship talking to a giant spider, I was like… OK,” he said, laughing. “It sounded crazy enough to be something.”

In The Independent’s two-star review of Spaceman, film critic Geoffrey Macnab writes that the film suffers from an identity.

He says that the movie is “another of those films about astronauts a long way from home who have unresolved personal business back on planet Earth”.

“We’re never quite sure if we’re watching a relationship drama, a Tarkovsky-like meditation on human solitude or another Gravity-like saga about an astronaut trying to survive.”

Spaceman is streaming on Netflix