Most critics respond strongly to Paul Greengrass’s restrained, intensely immediate reconstruction, praising its seriousness and attention to human decisions under pressure. The praise centres on the stripped-down docudrama approach: jagged camerawork, overlapping dialogue and cross-cutting make the confusion palpable without relying on conventional dramatic flourishes. Several reviews find that the avoidance of hindsight, sentimentality and jingoism gives the depiction of passengers, crew and officials its force.
The disagreement concerns what this realism explains, and whether reconstruction alone is enough. Empire admires the command-centre sequences but finds the treatment of the hijackers’ motivations limited; Slant Magazine goes further, judging the film ideologically muddled and its frenetic camerawork exploitative rather than illuminating. The spread is therefore substantial despite the predominantly positive response: most critics see sensitivity and discipline in Greengrass’s methods, while the strongest dissent questions the ethics of turning these events into an immersive experience.