On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film had an approval rating of based on reviews with an average rating of . The website's critical consensus read, "Sherlock Gnomes is sadly, utterly stumped by the mystery of the reason of its own existence." On Metacritic, the film had a weighted average score of 36 out of 100, based on 14 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.
