The general concensus? SATC has lost its sparkle, largely due to the fact that the movie is set mostly in Abu Dhabi rather than the foursome's natural habitat - the fifth character in the show - New York. Here's a run down of what the critics have been saying:
Rotten Tomatoes: 'Sex and the City loses steam in the transition to the big screen, but will still thrill fans of the show.'
Kate Muir, The Times: 'We all expected that Sex and the City 2 would be heavily airbrushed, but it seems that Carrie and her girlfriends have also had their brains Botoxed. The four smart New Yorkers have metamorphosed into lobotomised, gawping tourists, trapped by their stilettos in the sands of Abu Dhabi, laughing at women in burkhas and asking “What’s a souk?” Worse still, their costumes are a cross between Primark and Bollywood.'
William Thomas, Empire: 'This feels bigger and more cinematic than the first film, and sees a progression in the lives of the characters. But many of the jokes are beyond broad, and the Middle Eastern stereotypes are shockingly cack-handed.'
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian: 'I once watched Béla Tarr's Sátántangó, the legendary, gloomy black-and-white Hungarian film that lasts for seven and a half hours. Compared to the Abu Dhabi section of Sex And The City 2, Sátántangó zips past like an episode of Spongebob Squarepants.'
Keith Uhlich, Time Out London:'Taken in hand by this formidable foursome, the big, bad Middle East becomes a menopausal Westerner’s delight. One wrongheaded jaw-dropper follows another, from Samantha’s description of a gay manservant as ‘Paula Abdul’ to a comic climax in which the ladies escape an angry male mob by wearing hijabs and abayas given to them by like-minded Muslim women.'
Hadley Freeman, Daily Mail: 'Then there's the fashion. The women always wore designer clothes in the series, but the movies are little more than two-hour adverts, a point underlined by the fact that Parker is now the chief creative officer of Halston Heritage, a label that features heavily in the second film. A woman can love fashion without looking and behaving like an international call girl. In fact, the show made this very point in an episode involving an international call girl. Both movies have forgotten this and instead, we are left with Carrie squealing about Dior and Samantha wearing clothes that she seems to have stolen from Joan Collins and the whole thing adds up to Absolutely Fabulous without the fun'.
Click here to see the stars at the premieres around the world...
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