The consensus leans towards disappointment, with the reviews divided between mixed and negative assessments rather than outright enthusiasm. Praise clusters around the visual effects and the staging of the siege of Zion, which several critics find exciting even when the surrounding story fails to engage them. The more receptive reviews see a stronger second half after a tedious opening, while Hugo Weaving’s performance earns a favourable mention from Total Film.
The main reservations concern confusing or weak plotting, drawn-out action and a conclusion that offers too little dramatic satisfaction. The sharpest disagreement concerns whether the spectacle supplies enough emotional involvement: Slant Magazine finds affecting collective human drama in Zion’s defence, whereas The Guardian finds the battles dull and the ideas exhausted. Even the warmer assessments retain substantial caveats, particularly about the spiritual allegory and the romance; the divide is over how much the film salvages, not whether it fully succeeds.