The Eagle 2011

Kathleen Murphy, MSN Movies: The Eagle fails to soar, thanks largely to Kevin Macdonald's unimaginative direction and Channing Tatum's charisma-challenged performance. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: Lumbering along for a bit less than two hours, which passes like three, it feels more like a chore than like an adventure. Read more

Keith Uhlich, Time Out: Do you like movies about gladiators? Well, lend me your ears: The Eagle will more than gratify your sword-and-sandal cravings. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Wild-eyed, long-haired Brits leap atop the Romans' shields as the soldiers blindly hack away, the bodies so close that you can barely tell the victor from the vanquished. The battles in the fog and rain have a hallucinatory power. Read more

Ted Fry, Seattle Times: Tatum and Bell deserve more than the lethargic narrative that follows them across such exquisite wilderness. Read more

David Germain, Associated Press: It's hard to go along for the ride when the characters act more like statuary than people. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: Macdonald falls back on decently choreographed action sequences and predictable confrontations that add violence and subtract depth. Casting Tatum in the lead doesn't balance that equation. Read more

Kerry Lengel, Arizona Republic: To its credit, the film does attempt to grapple with the ambivalence that Europe and America feel toward the Roman Empire. We admire its cultural achievements while condemning its brutality, and in that tension we see our own ideals and failures reflected Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: This is a movie that needs a great or gonzo performer to give it depth or heft. In Channing Tatum, it has an actor who gives it camp. Read more

Michael Wilmington, Chicago Reader: Exciting and even moving, this robust epic is filled with action, male bonding, and a terrifying sense of wilderness. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Too often in "The Eagle," in which the Romans are played by American actors and the Britons are played by Brits, Tatum comes off like "second Roman warrior from the left" rather than "Roman warrior the film is about." Read more

Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle: Anthony Dod Mantle's cinematography is kinetic when it needs to be, ruminative and pretty when it doesn't. It looks good. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: However you slice it, The Eagle is hokum, but modern-day Scots may get a kick out of the film's depiction of their ancestors as mud-caked hellions. Modern-day Romans will have to settle for less. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: The latest sandals-and-swords outing, "The Eagle" has landed . . . with a thud. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Alas, from its scruffy period melodrama to its repetitious battles and endless cross-country shots, this film is all grandiosity with no real heft. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: The director's documentary background informs his almost reportorial attention to landscape, fighting technique, and especially the wild, fascinating otherness of the peoples beyond the reach of Rome. Read more

Eric D. Snider, Film.com: Less epic than Gladiator, less ridiculous than last year's Centurion, less homoerotic than Top Gun (but just barely), this is perfectly acceptable matinee fodder. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: Engaging, if straightforward and one-dimensional. Read more

Sheri Linden, Los Angeles Times: If this episodic quest still manages to feel too flat and mild, at least it gives us the mysterious Highlands and the Celtic dirge of Atli Orvarsson's outstanding score. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Tatum has the strong-jawed good looks and stoic demeanor of a natural-born movie star. What he lacks is a sense of inner life, a spark of internal fire: When the camera trains on him, you can practically hear the wind whistling through his head. Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: The story sags in the middle, as our wanderers traipse through the highlands-not a happy environment for Tatum, who, before his journey even begins, looks all at sea in this distant age. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: It's even less interesting than "Centurion." Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: A long slog through ancient muck, so-so sword fights and dumb luck. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: A codpiece-and-crossbow saga of relentlessly exciting battle sequences sandwiched between tedious, unconvincing chatter about cantankerous centurions, fiery feudal warriors and camera-ready six-pack abs modeled by hunky pinups... Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: A muscularly entertaining adventure inspired by Rosemary Sutcliff's historical fiction The Eagle of the Ninth, hugely popular in middle schools in the mid-20th century. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: "The Eagle" is a rip-snorting adventure tale of the sort made before CGI, 3-D and alphabet soup in general took the fun out of moviegoing. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: "The Eagle" would be a lot more enjoyable if it weren't for the utterly incoherent action scenes and the side-of-beef performance from rising young hunk Channing Tatum as its supposedly brooding and wounded hero. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Channing Tatum plays Marcus Aquila with an earnest furrowed brow that could indicate gravitas or constipation. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: There's a predictable arc, as the two enemies have to overcome their mutual mistrust to survive. Read more

Stephen Cole, Globe and Mail: The Eagle makes for an okay parent-and-young-son film outing. But you'll want to get your youngster the Sutcliff paperback. Read more

Linda Barnard, Toronto Star: The greatest impediment of all is the square-jawed, flat-talking Tatum, who is so wooden he presents a fire hazard. Read more

Tom Huddleston, Time Out: Best of all is Anthony Dod Mantle's breathtaking photography: the Scottish Highlands have never looked so eerily, threateningly beautiful. Read more

Scott Bowles, USA Today: Despite some breathtaking scenery and documentary-like realism, The Eagle ultimately falls to some surprising contrivances that seem written by focus groups. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: A thunderous boys' adventure of the old-school type. Read more

Stephanie Merry, Washington Post: Becomes absurd precisely when Channing Tatum marches onto the scene as a Roman army commander. Read more