Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 26% based on 173 reviews, with an average rating of 4/10. The site's critical consensus states, "Like the sequels that preceded it, Rambo: Last Blood is content to indulge in bloody violence at the expense of its main character's once-poignant story." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 26 out of 100, based on 31 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale, while those surveyed by PostTrak gave it an average 3.5 out of 5 stars and a 56% "definite recommend".
The portrayal of the Rambo character was put under scrutiny. Writing for the Los Angeles Times, Kenneth Turan gave the film 3 out of 4 stars and was complimentary of the story's "surprisingly brooding examination" of Rambo: "Sure, Rambo is convincing when he ends up telling bad people, 'I'm gonna hurt you real bad', but there is also a kind of fragility that makes us worry about people putting the hurt on him." Peter Debruge wrote a negative review for Variety: "This character is a mess of contradictions, representing, on one hand, the permanent damage that military service can do to one's soul while simultaneously suggesting what the ideal soldier looks like." Rating the film 4.5 out of 10 for IGN, Witney Seibold lamented, "A character who was originally meant to stand as a symbol for the damage that war can do to a soldier is now best remembered as an unkillable human machine gun", but credited Stallone with "[managing] to give as soulful a performance as the part warrants".
The script by Stallone and Matthew Cirulnick received unfavorable reactions. In a negative review for The Hollywood Reporter, Frank Scheck said it "feels utterly tossed-off and generic, more resembling the pilot for a Rambo television series than a proper send off", but credited Stallone with "[keeping] a franchise afloat". Katie Walsh of the Chicago Tribune, who gave the film 1 out of 4 stars, called the script "barely a script at all" and the writing lazy; she added that story writers Stallone and Dan Gordon "trade on charged imagery rather than, you know, actually writing characters that fully express the spectrum of human morality". William Bibbiani of Bloody Disgusting said the script "has been reduced to its lowest common denominators, establishing characters quickly and then shoving them into a simplistic plot (that is to say, simplistic even by Rambo standards)", and rated the film 1.5 out of 5. Grading the film a D+ for IndieWire, Eric Kohn said Stallone as a co-writer "does a decent job at generating empathy for Rambo through furtive gestures, but Last Blood goes overboard to prove that he's tried to be a better man". While many called the plot of Last Blood derivative of Taken, web-based critic James Berardinelli called it "a Death Wish variant with a few callbacks to the trap-building of First Blood".
Critics reported being appalled by the brutality of the action scenes, with some comparing its amount of gore with that of a slasher film. Berardinelli said, "The body count is insanely high and the methods of death are worthy of a Halloween or Friday the 13th sequel", and gave the film 1 out of 4 stars. Debruge called the violence "horrible, gut-wrenching carnage to witness, and yet, it's been calibrated to elicit whoops and cheers from fans, who've faithfully followed along as Rambo evolved". Vince Mancini of Uproxx said, "It's so genuinely horrific I'm convinced there are real-life cartel videos celebrating the torture of rivals that are less gory", but recommended the film as a must-see. Conversely, Johnny Oleksinski of the New York Post said, "Rambo: Last Blood features what's easily the most violent movie scene of the year. It's awesome", but felt the narration, drama, and hackneyed backstory could have been edited out. Duncan Bowles of Den of Geek gave it 3 out of 5 stars, writing: "If you're not the kind of person who wants to weep with joy at the sight of Rambo tooling up, firing a bow, or rigging booby traps, then the film really isn't for you, but if you're after a solid display of carnage from a character you love, then there's plenty on offer." Many saw the climax of Last Blood as similar to that of Home Alone, which, by contrast, is rated PG.
The depiction of a crime infested Mexico and the stereotypical portrayal of most Mexicans and Latinos as criminals prompted critics to accuse the film of xenophobia and pandering to supporters of the Trump presidency. Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian called Last Blood a "massively enlarged prostate of a film [that] can only make you wince with its badly acted geronto-ultraviolence, its Trumpian fantasies of Mexican rapists and hilariously insecure US border, and its crass enthusiasm for rape-revenge attacks", giving it 1 out of 5 stars. Seibold wrote: "I understand that Rambo films have rarely been bastions of cultural togetherness, but in 2019, these broad stereotypes are offensive and dated and downright irresponsible." Kohn wrote: "In 2019's hypersensitive cultural environment, the depiction of murderous Mexican crime bosses and their cowering sex slaves encountering a literal white savior doesn't go down so easy." Mexican film critic Gerardo Valero, a "far-flung correspondent" for RogerEbert.com, also criticized the use of Spain doubling for Mexico, and that it was "impossible not to laugh at this group of Spanish actors trying to sound Mexican by cursing with every other word in this strange accent". He also wrote: "If this movie wasn't so dumb, I would have probably found all of this offensive." Addressing the complaints about the stereotypical villains, however, Bowles wrote: "The villains might be built from the stereotypical strain of pure evil from years past, but their reprehensibility is what makes the explosive payback work and the violence, despite some especially grim moments, never quite strays into the extreme stomach-churning highs from part IV."
David Morrell, creator of the Rambo character and author of the First Blood novel, tweeted that he disliked Rambo: Last Blood, calling it "a mess" and feeling "embarrassed to have my name associated with it". Morrell later told Newsweek:
I felt degraded and dehumanized after I left the theater. Instead of being soulful, this new movie lacks one. I felt I was less a human being for having seen it, and today that's an unfortunate message ... [Trackdown] is typical of ultra-violent 1970s exploitation "grindhouse" films, the technique of which Rambo: Last Blood resembles. The sets here look cheap. The direction is awkward. ... Rambo could be called John Smith, and the film wouldn't change. It assumes the audience is familiar with Rambo's background, whereas anyone under 40 will wonder what on Earth is going on with those tunnels.
