Metascore

Generally favorable reviews - based on 40 Critics What's this?

User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 238 Ratings

  • Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey Jr.
  • Summary: Based on the actual case files of one of the most intriguing unsolved crimes in the nation's history, Zodiac is a thriller from David Fincher, director of "Seven" and "Fight Club." As a serial killer terrifies the San Francisco Bay Area and taunts police with his ciphers and letters, investigators in four jurisdictions search for the murderer. The case will become an obsession for four men as their lives and careers are built and destroyed by the endless trail of clues. (Paramount Pictures) Collapse
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 35 out of 40
  2. Negative: 0 out of 40
  1. 100
    Its most impressive accomplishment is to gather a bewildering labyrinth of facts and suspicions over a period of years, and make the journey through this maze frightening and suspenseful.
  2. 100
    Fincher gets it all right, and Donovan's hippie-dippy "Hurdy Gurdy Man," which bookends the story, has never sounded so hauntingly menacing.
  3. 80
    The more unpleasant aspects of the case are minimized in favor of telling the story and highlighting the effects of the case on these four men. It drags in spots, but even if Fincher hasn't hit it out of the park, Zodiac is easily a stand-up triple.
  4. Never takes off, but it never collapses. At times, it becomes frustrating -- for example, about 30 minutes are spent pursuing a lead that goes nowhere.

See all 40 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 85 out of 97
  2. Negative: 6 out of 97
  1. StevenR.
    9
    Excellent film. The atmosphere and attention to detail effectively recreate one of the most interesting and unsolved serial killer cases in U.S. history. Fincher did an excellent job with the story. Expand
  2. CRL
    8
    This is a hard movie for me to rate, for a myriad of reasons. Zodiac is based on a true story; Robert Graysmith's book of the same name. To be able to take such a convoluted story and condense it into a movie is an achievement in itself. The acting is fantastic from all parties, with Jake Gyllenhaal playing the main role of both naive cartoonist and possessed civilian-detective to a fault. The script is good; it even manages to throw in a laugh here or there, and the cinematography, at some points, is excellent. Then there's the plot, which could easily be separated into two (and a half) parts. There's the beginning, while the murders are happening and the case it hot, which to me, this is easily the weaker portion of the film. The story at that point is slow and laborious, with too many people saying too many different things each with not enough airtime. The middle (the half part) is the three seconds the film takes to jump four years, during which it becomes a cold case. Then comes the end, which is entirely focused on Robert Graysmith's (Gyllenhaal) hunt for the Zodiac Killer. Not only then does Zodiac become suspenseful, but it almost reaches the Olympian heights of Fincher's other serial killer thriller, Se7en. In the end, the pros outweigh the cons, and leave you with a movie that is a bit too long and just maybe a bit too true... but nonetheless an entertaining and sometimes fascinating film. Expand
  3. I thought it was good and it did keep your interest through out the film. Yet it didnt offer anything new to the legend that is the Zodiac. Just was really just a re-telling of an old theory that was fitted for the big screen. The star studded cast definently raised this film above what it should have been and the acting was solid through out. Overall it was worth the watch if you want to understand the Zodiac more but if you are familiar with it then chances are you wont learn anything new. Expand
  4. AnonymousMC
    0
    Oh my god, total snorefest. I wish I would have spent that two and a half to three hours doing something productive instead of watching this piece of junk. You watch a guy read books and talk to people for 99.9% of the movie, the other 0.1% is seeing the actual killer do something. Expand

See all 97 User Reviews

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