Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World Reviews
L.A. Weekly
The seafaring adventure Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World has few 30-foot waves going for it, and very little else that would excite anyone but geeky 12-year-old boys who like to make sailing ships out of matchsticks.
Fresno Bee
A handsomely staged snapshot of an era ... yet the film is so deliberately atmospheric that it tends to lose sight of its driving action.
| Original Score: C+
Princeton Town Topics
Too closely cropped to allow for the expansive feel of an oceanic epic, and fails to develop any meaningful relationships among its characters.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1/4
Top CriticSeems fated to disappoint everyone except the slick magazines that put it on their covers.
Movie Eye
...curiously dull and staid...spells trouble for an elaborate and adventurous film that desperately relies on its action-oriented swashbuckling tendencies
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
Critic Doctor
While the work and expense clearly shows in every frame, it winds up being in the service of a film not quite worthy of it.
Slant Magazine
It's unfortunately dull--the kiss of death for a movie that's supposed to swash and buckle.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
Shadows on the Wall
The details and the epic scale are great, but the story isn't good enough to make it work.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/5
Mixed Reviews
The mirthless atmosphere and laid-back narrative strip Crowe and his aquatic drama of any fun it could have had.
Full Review
| Original Score: C
Ozus' World Movie Reviews
Escapist entertainment.
Full Review
| Original Score: C+
Film Threat
This film is so boring that I stopped paying attention 30 minutes into the story. If you want sedation via celluloid, this is where to go.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1/5
Panorama
Master and Commander possède toutes les qualités qu'il est possible d'avoir dans les domaines techniques et artistiques (...) mais est terriblement ennuyant.
| Original Score: C+
tonymedley.com
The film shows how wonderful it is to be a Hollywood Captain instead of a real captain.
Full Review
| Original Score: 5/10
Cinemaphile.org
To say that I disliked this movie is an understatement. I loathed it.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1/4
Flak Magazine
In 2003, what our psychic diet needed most wasn't blood and bombast. No, it needed films to reawaken our respect for life and love of peace.
Eclipse Magazine
"Master and Commander" is stylishly made, well acted, but it commits the ultimate sin of being "blah." There's a whole lot of "Swash" but very little "Buckling."
Full Review
| Original Score: C-
Peterborough This Week
As far as tall-tale watery epics go, this insomnia cure should have taken a few pages from the swashbuckling script of Pirates of the Caribbean
Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5
ReelTalk Movie Reviews
That, even in time of war, routine at sea is like this -- infrequent intense action, but mostly boring drudgery -- still does not make it cinematic entertainment.
DustinPutman.com
The film's languid pacing quickly grows tedious, and the movie itself, unfortunately, becomes a bore.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
