'The Shape of Water' won the Oscar for best picture but some critics still hated it

Guillermo del Toro's "The Shape of Water" won four Oscars: best picture, best director, best original score and best production design.

The film, which has a 92% rating on Rotten Tomatoes (and an audience score of 78%), has received mostly positive reviews.

But some critics hate it.

A lot of the negative criticism stems from a lack of fleshed-out, three-dimensional characters, leaving some wondering if Del Toro sacrificed character development for stunning visuals.

A few negative reviews haven't stopped the success of this movie so far, but they are still interesting to look at.

Here are some of the worst reviews of "The Shape of Water" from critics:

"The movie's worldview is as easy to like as the protagonist and her friends, but del Toro lays it on so thick that there's no room for counterargument or even independent thought."

Chicago Reader

"The more I try to find some kind of justifiable meaning and relevance, the more I find 'The Shape of Water' a loopy, lunkheaded load of drivel."

New York Observer

"I felt nothing for the characters which makes the premise of rooting for the misunderstood a moot point."

The Sun

"The Shape of Water has been made with a level of craftsmanship that should be the envy of most filmmakers, but the impudent, unruly streak that so often gives del Toro's films their pulse has been airbrushed away."

Slant Magazine.

"Ultimately, this is a film from a group of terrific talents that never quite comes together the way you'd hope. It's just too fluid to wholly take shape."

New York Post.

"The Shape of Water is beautifully crafted on a technical level, just like del Toro's other films, but it's no more communicative than Pacific Rim. And like Crimson Peak, it renders the idea of romantic melodrama oddly abstract."

The Week

"The story goes exactly where you think it will. It's an utterly lovely, complacent movie, too comfortable with itself to generate real dramatic tension."

Vulture

"This mash-up of alien and immigrant hardship, in which lonely Elisa finds sexual release with a sea creature, is pervy, ridiculous, and humorless."

The National Review

"Rather than engaging with the genre in a meaningful way, [Guillermo] del Toro's film is boring, broad, and unoriginal, without any magic or charm."

PopMatters

"If we can't believe in the characters, how are we supposed to care?"

Daily Express (UK)

"Enchanting and annoying in equal measures."

The ARTery

'The Shape of Water' won the Oscar for best picture but some critics still hated it

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