The Tempest 2010

Kathleen Murphy, MSN Movies: In contrast to Shakespeare's gift for weaving words into enchanted worlds, Taymor's Tempest leeches most of the magic out of his language... Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: Ms. Taymor's overscaled sense of stage spectacle can be impressive and effective, even moving, but her three-dimensional, high-volume compositions translate awkwardly into the cosmos of cinema. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: A tiresome mess that's completely bereft of a quiet moment in speech or manner, The Tempest aches for the wisdom of discipline. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Although it falls off precipitously, it's better to have Julie Taymor's The Tempest than not: The first half-hour is nearly as unfettered as Shakespeare's language. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: A movie that veers from ethereal beauty (its closing credit sequence, as a book of magic softly drowns in a dark sea, is a stunner) to mystifying cheesiness. Read more

Keith Phipps, AV Club: Taymor seems to have assembled an interesting cast and colorful costumes and chosen a fitting locale-some scenic, forbidding corners of Hawaii-and hoped for the best. Occasionally she gets it. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: The best sequences in "Tempest'' are all quiet, not that there are many of them. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Primarily an exercise in eccentric (and, I would argue, empty) spectacle. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: A pretty frustrating adaptation of Shakespeare's play, one that dog-paddles around in ever-more-frenetic circles, searching for a way inside the material. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Normally I'd watch Helen Mirren in anything, even if she was just putting out the laundry or reading the phone book. But, given the roteness of her line readings here, it might have been better if the phone book rather than Shakespeare was her text. Read more

Lawson Taitte, Dallas Morning News: Julie Taymor's The Tempest adapts Shakespeare to the screen with boldness and imagination. Bard buffs are likely to love it, despite the liberties it takes. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Theatrically ambitious, musically busy, and in the end cinematically inert... Read more

Deborah Young, Hollywood Reporter: Far less daring than her 1999 Titus, which took an electrifying, stylized approach of a lesser-known play, The Tempest in comparison looks disappointingly middle-of-the-road. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: Too often the visual effects in The Tempest' look like something that would have seemed high-tech during the early days of MTV. Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: Taymor, by turning Prospero into a woman while retaining an "imperialist" view of Caliban, will no doubt simultaneously please and enrage left-wing critics. The rest of us can enjoy the movie's strengths... Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Mirren, of course, is wonderful - in those few scenes when the CGI stops. But those rare moments are separated by tedious songs and far too many close-ups of Ariel laughing, laughing, laughing. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: Taymor's visual pyrotechnics (used better in her 1999 Shakespeare adaptation "Titus") come across as forced, dampening any warmth in Shakespeare's final play. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: A surprisingly unengaging and charmless fantasy from a director whose previous films ("Across the Universe," "Titus," "Frida") were, despite their other issues, never boring. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: The costumes designed by Sandy Powell - leather gowns and military uniforms, Renaissance in silhouette and detailed with zippers - are the film's most arresting element. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: These gifted actors sometimes seem to be saying the words as someone with a chain-saw cuts firewood in the next room. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: I found myself wishing that Taymor would turn off the sound and fury and let The Tempest speak for itself. My wish wasn't granted. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: It's unimaginatively staged and poorly acted by everyone involved, especially Russell Brand, who has never seemed so lost. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: The effects are dazzling, the cast is stellar, the play is timeless, the movie is wretched. Read more

Kate Taylor, Globe and Mail: Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: Just another example of middling, muddled Shakespeare. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: With so much going for it, why does The Tempest become a mere storm in a teacup? The reasons are many. Read more

Cath Clarke, Time Out: You expect Nicolas Cage to pop up from behind a sand dune on a Harley brandishing a rocket launcher. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Smaller parts aren't on par with the lead role, and special effects are overdone and cheesy. At times, the essence of Shakespeare's poetry is drowned out. Read more

Leslie Felperin, Variety: So kitschy, yet curiously drab and banal. Read more

Ernest Hardy, Village Voice: There's sound and fury, but the result is more drizzle than tempest. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: Most plays-turned-movies try to open things up. Taymor still thinks like a theater director, ending up with a "Tempest" that takes place in a teapot. Read more