The reviews lean mixed, and nearly everyone agrees on the same point: this is a film to look at rather than to follow. Michael Mann’s nighttime photography of Miami draws the warmest words, with Empire going so far as to call the city itself the film’s true star. Most critics also credit the brooding atmosphere and the bursts of action with holding the crime drama together when the plot will not.
Where they part is over what lies beneath the surface. The larger group finds the story thin, sometimes opaque, and stretched across too long a runtime. The spread is wide. The New York Times admires the moody reinvention of the series, while The Guardian calls it a major disappointment despite the cinematography. Total Film enjoys the urgency between Farrell and Foxx; The Guardian finds their chemistry weak. Radio Times singles out Gong Li’s trouble with her lines, and The Skinny objects to the score and the unresolved ending.
