Most critics welcome Marley as a detailed, moving portrait, with praise clustering around the interviews and archival performances. Access to friends, family and bandmates gives the account intimacy, while the concert footage conveys the pleasure and conviction in his music. The reviews also value the attention to his early career, religious beliefs and political commitments. For the more enthusiastic critics, the breadth helps explain both the musician and his cultural reach.
Length is the recurring reservation, including among admirers: several reviews find that the detail becomes exhausting or slows the film down. There is also concern that the music needs more uninterrupted space. The spread runs from enthusiastic praise to mixed responses, with no outright negative verdicts. Slant Magazine finds the portrait overly romanticised, though it values Rita Marley’s more complicated perspective; HeyUGuys argues that the reverence leaves Marley himself insufficiently understood.