Most critics like Alphaville, and the positive reviews cluster around the same things: the marriage of film noir and science fiction, and the look of the thing. The praise goes to Godard’s decision to build a future out of present-day Paris, using night streets, modern office blocks and harsh contrast rather than sets, and several reviews single out the nighttime photography as the reason the film still holds up. A few also warm to the romance underneath the ideas, and to Godard folding his own philosophical preoccupations into pulp.
The spread is wide. The reservations come largely from the film’s first release: Variety finds it piquant but sketchy, more an adventurous attitude than a worked-out story, and The New York Times dismisses it almost entirely on account of its dubbing. Later reviews, from Empire onwards, treat those complaints as period noise and judge the film by its images, which is where the consensus has settled.