43
Metascore
28 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 67Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumEntertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumTheatrically ambitious, musically busy, and in the end cinematically inert - clearly reflects the authorship of myth-loving director Julie Taymor.
- 67The A.V. ClubKeith PhippsThe A.V. ClubKeith PhippsThe best thing about Taymor's Tempest is also the worst: It's not stunning but it is sturdy, a handsome-enough showcase of a film that never really comes to life. It plays like a challenge politely declined.
- 50Boxoffice MagazineJohn P. McCarthyBoxoffice MagazineJohn P. McCarthyCompact if not cohesive, this is an Age of Aquarius-meets-"Mamma Mia"! distillation of The Tempest.
- Far less daring than her 1999 "Titus," which took an electrifying, stylized approach of a lesser-known play, The Tempest in comparison looks disappointingly middle-of-the-road.
- 50VarietyLeslie FelperinVarietyLeslie FelperinA Tempest so kitschy, yet curiously drab and banal.
- 50USA TodayClaudia PuigUSA TodayClaudia PuigThe film simply doesn't come together fluidly. Smaller parts aren't on par with the lead role, and special effects are overdone and cheesy. At times, the essence of Shakespeare's poetry is drowned out.
- 50San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleSan Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleNot a mediocre film. It is, by turns, a great and awful film.
- 40Village VoiceErnest HardyVillage VoiceErnest HardyThe film lacks a pulse. There's sound and fury, but the result is more drizzle than tempest.
- 40The New York TimesA.O. ScottThe New York TimesA.O. ScottMs. Taymor's overscaled sense of stage spectacle can be impressive and effective, even moving, but her three-dimensional, high-volume compositions translate awkwardly into the cosmos of cinema, which turns her pageantry into mummery and the physical exuberance she likes to draw from performers into mugging.
- 20Time OutJoshua RothkopfTime OutJoshua RothkopfA tiresome mess that's completely bereft of a quiet moment in speech or manner, The Tempest aches for the wisdom of discipline.