WWE News: WWE Studios' Latest Release 'The Day' Gets Bad Early Reviews

After some heavy promotion on both Raw and SmackDown, WWE Studios' latest release The Day hits theaters today, with initial critical reviews of the film being, eh, not too kind to the science-fiction drama.

The Day is an interesting experiment for the floundering WWE Studios in that it is the first finished movie the company has bought the distribution rights to. As this article notes, new WWE Studios President Michael Luisi acquired the film last year, after seeing it at the Toronto Film Festival and being deeply impressed.

So, WWE had little to do creatively with the film. This explains why there are no WWE stars featured and why no one's wife gets kidnapped by bad guys and has to be rescued during the course of the film.

Instead, the Doug Aarniokoski-directed film, which stars Lost's Dominic Monaghan and Ashley Bell from The Last Exorcism, focuses on 24 hours in the lives of a misfit group of survivors in a grim, scary post-apocalyptic America. 

Considering WWE Studios movies often open to scathing reviews, with the acting and poor storytelling bearing the brunt of the criticism, the initial hope was that the company buying completed films and distributing them, using their highly-watched TV shows for promotion, would produce better results.

Alas, judging by some of these early reviews, this isn't the case. By the looks of it, rather than jumping on the next big hit film, the company has lumbered themselves with yet another failed B flick that has limited appeal to movie-goers.   

Over at the New York Times website, Jon Caramanica critiques the movie's writing and directing, as well as slamming it for its overall lack of substance:

"

Like an animal warfare episode of “Wild Kingdom” but with less character motivation, "The Day" cycles through bursts of horrific violence only to end much as it begins: static, hollow and vague.

"

John Gholson of Movies.com trashes the film for its unoriginality:

"

"The Day’s cannibalization of other, better films is its downfall; there’s just not enough unique material here to nourish."

"

NY Daily News' Elizabeth Wietzman writes:

"

Towards the end, you might find yourself thinking, “Well, this could have been worse.” And you’ll mean it as a compliment.

"

She goes on to say: "There’s not much that can be said for the meager plot, or the tedious, unimaginative violence it inspires. What can be praised, however, is the cast, which elevates the film just beyond straight-to-DVD quality."

Village Voice's Chris Packham doesn't seem too down on the movie, but does spend most of his review picking apart the plot holes in the script, written by Teen Wolf scribe Luke Passmore.

Glenn Heath Jr. from Slant Magazine praised the performance of Bell as well the sense of atmosphere, saying he found The Day to be being "a nasty and skillful action film," but still slammed the movie for "going off the rails in the final stretch." 

Mark Olsen of the LA Times also gives a mixed review:

"

"The Day" is just good enough to engage audiences, but it falls well short of remarkable, leaving viewers wishing for a dawn that never breaks.

"

It will be interesting to see how The Day does, box-office wise, and if it justifies the company's new initiative of jumping on the bandwagon of finished or still-in-production movies instead of starting from scratch with their own people. 

The Hive and Dead Man Down are similar movies: Work was well underway on these films when WWE Studios came on board for both as co-financers. Although unlike The Day, they managed to slot in some wrestlers due to filming being on-going. David Otunga will be featured in The Hive; Wade Barrett has a role in Dead Man Down.   

While the company has been heavily promoting the film on TV and pay-per-view (Monaghan even had served as WWE's social media ambassador on Raw this past Monday), and the movie's actors have been active on the interview circuit, it's not exactly getting a wide release, only playing in a handful of theaters across the country.