Wolf Totem 2015

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Worth seeing just for a spectacular sequence depicting the wolves chasing a herd of prize horses toward a frozen lake during a blinding snowstorm - which appears to have been shot with minimal computer-generated fakery. Read more

Maggie Lee, Variety: Despite its magnificent natural vistas and some pulse-pounding action in stunning 3D, Wolf Totem boils down to a familiar environmentalist allegory that doesn't move or provoke too deeply. Read more

Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, AV Club: The movie lacks the kind of animating vision that would make its big-screen National Geographic covers ... into something more. Read more

Barbara VanDenburgh, Arizona Republic: Whether it's the expanse of rolling hills and frozen lakes or close-ups of a baby wolf's soft fur, the camera hugs each texture with awe. Read more

Peter Keough, Boston Globe: Annaud's adaptation of Jiang Rong's Chinese novel is a visual wonder but a dramatic dud, a cut-and-paste mess of plot snippets, illuminated by the occasional inspired visual conceit. Read more

Boyd van Hoeij, Hollywood Reporter: The animal footage looks fantastic but the humans are mere cardboard characters and their interactions with the wolves and each other don't prove all that illuminating. Read more

Sheri Linden, Los Angeles Times: There's no denying the beauty of the film's imagery, violent and tender, or the emotional power of the final moment in the boy-and-his-dog love story. Read more

Ben Kenigsberg, New York Times: Characters seem carved from a much larger narrative. The landscape and painstakingly trained wolves are the true stars. Read more

Tirdad Derakhshani, Philadelphia Inquirer: Epic in scope, yet at the same time intensely intimate in its handling of its protagonist's inner life, it's a unique wildlife tale that sets a tribe of humans against a majestic pack of wolves. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Annaud uses its ultra-realistic Imax 3-D images to frame excellent filmed theater, a well acted, compelling yarn. Read more

John Semley, Globe and Mail: Something ends up lost in translation. Its aspirations of looking and feeling recognizable end up uncomfortable and embarrassing. Read more

Steve Tilley, Toronto Sun: Annaud creates a vivid sensory experience that simply doesn't make much of an emotional impact. It's all fur and no fangs. Read more

Alan Scherstuhl, Village Voice: Wolf Totem itself becomes a pitched battle for supremacy between the breathtaking glories of nature and the grinding banality of man. Here, as ever, nature loses. Read more

Mark Jenkins, Washington Post: Wolves, horses and sheep are the principal players in the movie's set pieces, which are powerfully staged and tightly edited, if sometimes oversold by James Horner's bombastic score. Read more