The music video received mixed to negative reviews from critics. Michael Slezak of "Entertainment Weekly" said "The moral of the story is, if you're going to build an entire video around a stripper pole, then you better work said pole like a nine-to-five. Drop it like it's hot...Alas, in the case of "Gimme More," I've seen sexier pole work during an afternoon of fly-fishing". Andrei Harmsworth of "Metro" commented "To her credit, the video is slightly less disappointing than her mimed performance of the track at the Video Music Awards last month but it is still smeared with the same smutty hallmarks". "Dose" said the video "sucks less than you think" and added "Spears appears lucid, sometimes happy, and awards-worthy editing makes her appear to be standing upright competently throughout". Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine said the lightning effects and digital body enhancement of the video "indicate a predilection toward maintaining an image that no longer reflects reality. It doesn't point to an artist who refuses to evolve, but rather one who doesn't know how—or isn't being allowed to." "IGN" writer Sketch Longwood called it one of Spears' hottest videos, adding that she "proves to be quite skilled in the art of teasingly slinking around." While reviewing the alternate version of the video in July 2011, Becky Bain of Idolator stated that "Spears's last few videos — particularly the joyfully silly clip for 'I Wanna Go' — more than makeup for the travesty that was the pop star's video for 'Gimme More'...The stripper concept was a poor choice, the barely-there outfits were ill-fitting, the 'choreography' was a joke, the editing was sloppy."