Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody earns mixed reviews from first wave of critics

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One of the surprisingly few movies hitting theaters over the Christmas holiday weekend - Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody - is not finding a warm welcome from critics.The first wave of reviews surfaced on Wednesday morning - just days before the film hits theaters on Friday, garnering just a 41% rating from the first 32 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.While many critics are praising the powerful performance of Naomie Ackie - who fans have bashed for looking nothing like the singer - as the famed singer, they are also bashing the formulaic story that lacks any depth.

Reviews are in: One of the surprisingly few movies hitting theaters over the Christmas holiday weekend - Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody - is not finding a warm welcome from criticsWhile many critics are praising the powerful performance of Naomie Ackie as the famed singer, they are also bashing the formulaic story that lacks any depth.

Critics: While many critics are praising the powerful performance of Naomie Ackie as the famed singer, they are also bashing the formulaic story that lacks any depth.

One of the positive reviews is from Variety's Owen Gleiberman, who added this film felt like a different sort of biopic because Houston's struggles with substance abuse and her tumultuous marriage to Bobby Brown were always in the public eye, adding, 'Yet as you watch, you may realize how much there is to the story you didn’t know, and how transporting it is. 'I Wanna Dance With Somebody is the kind of lavishly impassioned all-stops-out biopic you either give into or you don’t — and if you do, you may find yourself getting so emotional, baby,' he added.