| 91 |
Entertainment Weekly
This dazzling reverie of a kids-and-adults movie, an unusual collaboration between lord-of-the-cult multimedia artist Dave McKean and king-of-the-comics Neil Gaiman (The Sandman), has something to astonish everyone.
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| 91 |
Baltimore Sun
Mirrormask is a gorgeous psychedelic cameo of a movie.
|
| 80 |
The Hollywood Reporter
James Greenberg
If "The Wizard of Oz" were reborn in the 21st century, it might look a lot like MirrorMask. A product of the Jim Henson laboratory, the film is endlessly inventive with creativity to burn.
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| 75 |
Christian Science Monitor
At best, Helena's wiggy adventures recall such Jean Cocteau films as "Orpheus" and "Blood of a Poet." At worst, they resemble the Vegas act of Cirque du Soleil.
|
| 75 |
TV Guide
Though the story meanders, the film's look is nothing short of breathtaking.
|
| 75 |
San Francisco Chronicle
Richly inventive.
|
| 75 |
Philadelphia Inquirer
Not everyone's cup of tea, but a strong, heady brew.
|
| 70 |
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Episodic, detached, and lacking in drive, but packed with amazing, hallucinatory dream-imagery that makes real dreams look flat by comparison.
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| 70 |
Dallas Observer
The movie combines drawings, photos, hazy filters, superimpositions and computer effects into a pastiche both beautiful and disturbing.
|
| 67 |
Austin Chronicle
If you're not already smitten with all things Gaiman, you may well find yourself, like Helena, a stranger in a strange land.
|
| 63 |
New York Post
Kyle Smith
Too strange and disjointed to attract much of an audience, but its astonishing visuals showcase a major new talent: first-time feature director and book illustrator Dave McKean.
|
| 63 |
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
The surreal visuals are relentless, overpowering the narrative much as they do in the frames of comic books (sorry, graphic novels).
|
| 60 |
Empire
Helen O'Hara
A truly unique fantasy, McKean’s screen debut is tangled but promising.
|
| 60 |
Film Threat
Heidi Martinuzzi
What it makes up for with sheer visual magic it lacks in coherent plotline.
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| 58 |
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
What remains is a sumptuous-looking film that sniffs at but ignores deeper Freudian implications.
|
| 50 |
ReelViews
The narrative is simplistic and lacking in energy, and the characters are sketched instead of fully formed.
|
| 50 |
Chicago Sun-Times
Watching MirrorMask, I suspected the filmmakers began with a lot of ideas about how the movie should look, but without a clue about pacing, plotting or destination.
|
| 50 |
Chicago Tribune
It's hollow.
|
| 50 |
LA Weekly
Crafted by hand and computer, Mirrormask is as breathtakingly beautiful to behold as it is tedious to slog through.
|
| 50 |
New York Daily News
Like many dreams, you won't remember it when you wake up. The style obliterates any emotional attachment.
|
| 50 |
Chicago Reader
Like the recent Japanese import "Steamboy," this is worth seeing for the artwork alone, but it's so furiously overimagined it may leave you feeling dulled.
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| 50 |
Los Angeles Times
The teenager's journey through a nightmarish reverie presents hallucinogenic imagery that simultaneously dulls the senses and hot-wires the imagination, but it never fully engages emotionally.
|
| 50 |
The New York Times
Astonishing and frustrating, the fusion of live action and computer animation created by the Jim Henson Company in MirrorMask is an example of too much lavished on too little.
|
| 40 |
Variety
Emerges as an overproduced novelty pic that looks and feels more like a company promo reel than an engaging piece of storytelling.
|
| 40 |
Village Voice
The film galumphs along in static panels, prioritizing flash over thought, hyperextending a story that would barely sustain a children's picture book.
|
| 38 |
Boston Globe
Aggressive visual invention is rarely its own reward, and this movie does nothing to better the odds.
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| 30 |
Washington Post
So single-minded in its reach for fantasy, it becomes the genre's evil opposite: banality.
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