Bill Skarsgard's New Netflix WWII Adaptation Debuts To Stellar Audience Rotten Tomatoes Score

Published Nov 2, 2026, 11:38 AM EST

Ryan Northrup is a Senior Staff Writer on ScreenRant's Movie & TV News team, where he has authored nearly 5,000 articles, including features and reviews. A graduate of McMaster University, Ryan began his career in public relations before attending Vancouver Film School. There, he built lasting industry connections and optioned a feature film screenplay.

The Mosquito Bowl's audience score on Rotten Tomatoes just redeemed the movie.

Directed by Peter Berg, the Netflix World War II movie follows four star college football players who enlist in the Marines after the attack on Pearl Harbor and unite for one last game before the Battle of Okinawa. The Mosquito Bowl cast includes Bill Skarsgård, Nicholas Galitzine, Ray Nicholson, and Tom Francis. Despite the strong cast, the early critics' response hasn't been positive.

After earning a disappointing 35% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes from 20 reviews, The Mosquito Bowl has now proven far more popular with audiences, sporting a 91% Popcornmeter, as of writing. This latter score, however, was generated from only 50+ viewer ratings, meaning it could still fluctuate fairly significantly over the coming days and weeks as more people get a chance to watch the film.

Based on The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II by Buzz Bissinger, Berg's Netflix film premiered at AFI Fest on October 22 before hitting theaters in the U.S. on October 30. As a Netflix movie, The Mosquito Bowl is slated for a fairly limited theatrical run, with a Netflix release scheduled for November 25. The film, then, won't reach its widest audience until later this month.

Still, the Rotten Tomatoes scores paint a mixed picture for Berg's latest. Though criticism varies, many reviews touch on the film's lack of originality in terms of its depiction of World War II combat. The movie features desaturated visuals and plenty of gritty war violence that doesn't feel particularly novel, and some reviews note that the exploration of the characters at the heart of the story feels somewhat surface level.

In ScreenRant's The Mosquito Bowl review by Liz Declan, the film is awarded only a five out of 10 score. For Declan, the film features an excess of gory violence, focusing more on portraying the visceral horrors of World War II combat than on telling a compelling story. Declan writes:

Those looking for blood, gore, and nightmarish violence will find it here in spades. For those hoping for a realistic depiction of war that also delivers a complex narrative and a fair bit of football, The Mosquito Bowl misses the mark. And, for this critic, the über-violence that makes up most of the runtime served only to make the movie quite unpleasant to watch. At times, in fact, it felt downright miserable.

Audiences, however, clearly don't agree with the critical consensus. "Great story. Excellent acting," one audience member writes. Another calls the movie "Intense and moving," while a third calls it "a very human story about pulling together as a team."

In other audience reviews, one praises The Mosquito Bowl's "powerful storytelling," while another calls it "One of the best movies of the year." One viewer even directly calls out critics, writing: "After reading some of the reviews from critics, I wonder if we watched the same movie."

Choose the movie with the higher Rotten Tomatoes score.

The response to The Mosquito Bowl paints a curious picture about Berg's next high-profile project: the Call of Duty movie. Taylor Sheridan is penning the script for the anticipated video game adaptation, which is slated for release on June 30, 2028. Berg is also no stranger to war and action, previously directing projects like American Primeval (2025), Patriots Day (2016), and Lone Survivor (2013), all three of which also earned high Rotten Tomatoes audience scores.

It's still early days for The Mosquito Bowl, but the initial audience response suggests Netflix could have another hit on its hands when the film eventually starts streaming later this month. Poor reviews often don't stop Netflix originals from achieving impressive viewership success, making the World War II movie one to keep an eye on.