ReelViews by James Berardinelli

The film's look is impressive; it's the most successful rotoscoping effort to date (far surpassing Richard Linklater's duo of "Waking Life" and "A Scanner Darkly"), and causes every frame to drip atmosphere.

The New Yorker by Anthony Lane

One of the year’s more luscious releases, offering not just the sleekest car chase but the most romantic of rainstorms.

TV Guide Magazine by Maitland McDonagh

Gorgeous and menacing at the same time.

Philadelphia Inquirer by Steven Rea

The result is something both fluid and stark, cinematic and comic book-y, and incredible.

Variety by Lisa Nesselson

A melancholy actioner that shines a new light on film noir. A sort of "The Third Man" for the 21st century, chiaroscuro curio's level of graphic invention is exceeded only by its pleasingly mournful approach.

The A.V. Club by Noel Murray

Some kind of wonderment.

Boston Globe by Ty Burr

Stark eye candy of the first order, the film is saddled with the oldest story this side of "Blade Runner." Still, comic-book fanboys and graphic designers with time to kill should feel no shame in checking this one out.

Los Angeles Times by Kevin Crust

A visually wondrous experience in high-contrast black and white, bogged down by a slow, underwrought story and uninvolving characters. It would be easy to dismiss it as another great-looking film with little else to offer, but that wouldn't be entirely true.

Washington Post by Ann Hornaday

Volckman and Miance are undoubtedly superb draftsmen; what they need is a writer of comparable skill.

Entertainment Weekly by Lisa Schwarzbaum

Connoisseurs of digital animation, graphic novels, and the history of dystopian art will have plenty to discuss about Christian Volckman's visually striking, technically impressive black-and-white animated feature Renaissance…But no one will be talking about the movie's banal plot, the trite dialogue, or any of the indistinguishable characters who offer a bleak futuristic vision of cinema that's all style, no soul.

The Hollywood Reporter

Pitched as "animation for adults," Renaissance will find an audience among those in the 20-35 age group who enjoy graphic novels, but will disappoint anyone hoping for emotional or intellectual sustenance.

The New York Times by Stephen Holden

Over the course of 105 minutes, the brutal high contrast begins to strain the eyes. Effectively moody as it is, the style makes a convoluted story of corporate greed, high-tech espionage and science run amok even more difficult to follow.

Village Voice

For a little while, the film is dazzling. Then it's dizzying. Then it's just kind of . . . wearying. That's not because it's in black-and-white; so was "Sin City". There's just something terribly, tragically dull about Renaissance.

L.A. Weekly by Ella Taylor

The director is Christian Volckman, whose skills as an animator greatly exceed his grasp of an idea worth pursuing.