25
Peter Webber's historical drama is blunt about its stylistic ambitions while at the same time failing to meet them, and the effect is one of sad ineffectuality.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
40
Director Peter Webber, who once mined social unease from the painterly "Girl with a Pearl Earring," is out of his depth; this is a movie in desperate need of a no-nonsense Howard Hawks.
50
The Playlist by Kevin Jagernauth
The movie is never without forward momentum, it's just too bad when just when it's ready to go to interesting places, we jump back to Bonner and Aya's pedestrian romance.
30
Given its true-life basis, the story is already devoid of suspense regarding Hirohito’s ultimate fate, and Fellers’s inquiry is made more sluggish by dramatically inert conversations with Japanese officials.
67
Entertainment Weekly by Owen Gleiberman
Emperor explores the delicate postwar dance of revenge, justice, and realpolitik, yet its focus on the issue of Hirohito's guilt or innocence (did he order the attack on Pearl Harbor? Or did he, in fact, oppose the Japanese military machine?)
75
The real star of the film is the magnetic, forceful and charismatic Matthew Fox, who steals the entire film as easily as if he were pitching a softball.
63
McClatchy-Tribune News Service by Roger Moore
Tommy Lee Jones gives us a saltier version of MacArthur than the image-conscious general ever let on to.
50
Film.com by Stephanie Zacharek
Emperor may not be the most dazzling of history lessons, but it never treats the past as a dusty, deserted place.
67
Tampa Bay Times by Steve Persall
Emperor is also one of those movies in which the most intriguing occurrences are revealed by "what-happened-to . . ." title cards at the finale.