75
Metascore
8 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100Film ThreatFilm ThreatEnough about the CGI tweaking, is this film really Lucas's unloved masterpiece? The film that got lost in the shadow of "American Graffitti" and "Star Wars" while, actually, being a better film?
- 80Washington PostDesson ThomsonWashington PostDesson ThomsonTestament to the emergence of a visually masterful filmmaker, capable of ingenious, low-tech special effects.
- 75Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertThe movie's strength is not in its story but in its unsettling and weirdly effective visual and sound style. (Review of Original Release)
- 75Boston GlobeBoston GlobeFor someone wanting to get noticed as a filmmaker, George Lucas couldn't have done much better than THX 1138, his 1971 feature debut that starts a limited run today in a new director's cut.
- 75San Francisco ChronicleSan Francisco ChronicleA nice gift for science fiction fans.
- 70Chicago ReaderJonathan RosenbaumChicago ReaderJonathan RosenbaumThe surprising thing about George Lucas's first feature (1971), a dystopian SF parable now digitally enhanced and expanded by five minutes, is how arty it seems compared to his later movies.
- 67Portland OregonianMarc MohanPortland OregonianMarc MohanIt's not a question of Lucas' right to revamp his own work -- the movie simply was much better without these absurd additions.
- 50Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam ArnoldSeattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam ArnoldReportedly, Lucas has been tinkering with this "director's cut" for nearly two years, so its sound and visual elements -- which were fairly impressive to begin with -- have been markedly enhanced, while new digital backgrounds give the film a more epic scale. Still, it's an extraordinarily unengaging and tedious affair.