1911
  • Studio: Well Go
  • Release Date: Oct 7, 2011
Metascore
37 out of 100

Generally unfavorable reviews - based on 13 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 13
  2. Mixed: 9 out of 13
  3. Negative: 4 out of 13
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  1. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Mark Olsen
    Oct 7, 2011
    50
    Throughout 1911 the sense of dutiful intentions blocks any building momentum. When an English-speaking character appears to declare that history is being made, it only underlines the obvious.
  2. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Sara Stewart
    Oct 7, 2011
    50
    Sweeping, if exhausting, historical epic set at the turn of the 20th century.
  3. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Stephen Cole
    Oct 6, 2011
    50
    If 1911 doesn't impress as historical spectacle, neither does it rank high as a Jackie Chan film.
  4. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: G. Allen Johnson
    Oct 6, 2011
    50
    Chan, though, is very good in an all-dramatic role as a rebel general. There's lots of battle scenes, well-filmed, but only one martial arts scene. It seems out of place, but is most welcome nonetheless.
  5. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Rachel Saltz
    Oct 6, 2011
    50
    What should be rousing stuff - a republic is born! the chains of feudalism thrown off! - remains a kind of lavishly illustrated history lesson. Even the irrepressible Mr. Chan (this is his 100th film) seems subdued.
  6. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Joe Neumaier
    Oct 7, 2011
    40
    This drama, as traditional as its subject was epochal, is earnest and studious to a fault. Rarely has a film about upheaval felt more like a textbook.
  7. Movieline
    Reviewed by: Alison Willmore
    Oct 6, 2011
    40
    1911 isn't propaganda but more a relentless, serious, fiercely nationalistic bit of historical mythmaking.
  8. Time Out New York
    Reviewed by: Nick Schager
    Oct 4, 2011
    40
    The star and co-director appears hopelessly out of place, trapped in a variety of awkward-fitting uniforms while forced to offer up laughably obvious battlefield advice ("Avoid gunfire!").
  9. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Maggie Lee
    Oct 4, 2011
    40
    Chan has not injected any of his playful charm or physical virtuosity into Wang Xingdong's and Chen Baoguang's insipid, poorly structured screenplay.
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  10. Slant Magazine
    Reviewed by: Bill Weber
    Oct 10, 2011
    38
    Adhering to what is apparently a formula for national superproductions, 1911 throws dates and names on the screen with unceasing speed and frequent irrelevance -- gratuitously identifying a walk-on as "German diplomat."
  11. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Mark Feeney
    Oct 6, 2011
    38
    It swoops, it pans, it noses around. The camerawork is almost as agitated as the editing. The directors seem to be trying to compensate for all the speechifying with as much random motion as possible.
  12. Variety
    Reviewed by: Justin Chang
    Oct 4, 2011
    30
    Resulting mish-mash of exposition and speechifying opts to summarize rather than dramatize; one spends nearly as much time reading indigestible lumps of onscreen text as one does listening to the often distractingly post-dubbed dialogue.
  13. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Nick Pinkerton
    Oct 4, 2011
    30
    If the success of epic storytelling were determined by the sheer number of unnecessary on-screen name tags, 1911 would be a masterpiece. But the small matters of characterization, audience identification, and scene-making are entirely absent here.

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
5.7 out of 10

Mixed or average reviews- based on 13 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 3
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 3
  3. Negative: 1 out of 3
  1. Gene
    4
    The first half of the movie, with violence, uprisings, and battles is a blast. Unfortunately, when things settle down into politics it takes a nosedive. There is no character development whatsoever, one minute they show a character that seems interested and conflicted, then they do a cut of two days later where's completely convinced of the right thing to do. That's about the whole second part of the movie. People arguing/deciding stuff, with the interesting character development only happening offscreen. I would have given the movie a better score if they shaved off the really painful final 30 minutes off of it.… Full Review »
  2. nate8
    2
    -overly focused on listing historical names, events, arguments -grandiose statements and undeveloped characters created shallow unbelievable personal interactions… Full Review »
  3. Dreskar
    6
    I am giving it a 6, mainly because the movie is rather enjoyable, especially if you are interested in history but it makes the cardinal mistake of too much information crammed into too little time. The movie would have definatly benefited from being split into two films and allowed for the story to better pace itself. As it stands it is almost a crash course in the fall of Imperial China and the rise of the Republic of China later to be replaced by one failed Imperialist movement, and then transformed to communism. The movie itself follows the uprisings trying to overthrow the Qhin Dynasty and the political struggles of the falling government as well as the rising one. The action is frantic and adds to the chaos of battle, yet you can still manage to tell what is going on though unfortunately allot of subtitles tend to fly by talking about battles and events we never get to see. Again as said earlier a two-parter would have been much better to tell this epic story.… Full Review »
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