60
Political chicanery and psychological mystery entwine with some stunning underwater sequences but don’t gel entirely satisfactorily.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
75
Its greatest asset, and another trait it shares with Mann and Fincher's work, is a careful attention toward the particulars of its milieu in a way that doesn't call attention to those period touches.
60
Pioneer features underwater sequences so breathless they’ll thrill even James Cameron (director Erik Skjoldbjærg made the original Insomnia) but Petter’s truth-chasing is at times too frantic and melodramatic.
80
Wall Street Journal by Joe Morgenstern
What’s admirable about Pioneer is its succession of interesting environments, both below and above the water’s surface, and the quietly appealing figure at the center of the international intrigue.
70
Los Angeles Times by Kenneth Turan
As far as conspiracy thrillers go, Pioneer is as paranoid as they come.
40
With no compelling characters in sight, and a director whose formal acumen begins and ends with forbidding locations (in this case, underwater), Pioneer has to lean on its drab story.
40
The Telegraph by Mike McCahill
The more tangled the plot becomes, the more hackneyed Skjoldbaerg’s tactics get.
50
The New York Times by Nicolas Rapold
Mr. Skjoldbjaerg, who also tapped Norwegian history with his bank robbery re-enactment “Nokas,” doesn’t convey a creeping atmosphere of moral rot so much as an irksome glumness.
80
The tension never lets up.
60
Time Out London by Trevor Johnston
Pioneer delivers insidious, shadowy tension, while it’s genuinely surprising to find yourself so engrossed – story glitches notwithstanding – in key issues like compression sickness and divers’ gas supply.