52
Metascore
11 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 75San Francisco ChroniclePeter HartlaubSan Francisco ChroniclePeter HartlaubThe visuals themselves are inconsistent, but never boring. The sidekicks seem considerably less painstakingly rendered than the leads. A few of the merchants have the unnatural look and jerky movements of Pirates of the Caribbean animatronics.
- 70The Hollywood ReporterDeborah YoungThe Hollywood ReporterDeborah YoungBilal is a grand-scale, fast-paced animated adaptation that is both empowering and inspiring in its call for social justice and equality.
- 70Screen DailyFionnuala HalliganScreen DailyFionnuala HalliganThis is a muscular story about the fight for freedom which is rich and vibrant and authentic. However, Bilal’s beefy approach also extends to scenes of torture and bloodthirsty battle sequences.
- 50VarietyJay WeissbergVarietyJay WeissbergThe dialogue is very clear-cut, devoid of all contractions so that people speak in unnatural ways, though perhaps it makes the conversations clearer, especially to audiences whose native language might not be English. More problematic are the never-ending platitudes, all tied to spreading the message of equality.
- 50The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyThe A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyBy reducing teachings to vague platitudes and inspirational truisms, Bilal robs its religious story of any sense of grace, leaving only those components of early Islamic history generally not considered off-limits for visual interpretation—that is, a lot of early medieval warfare and violence.
- Epic in its ambitions and often visually and emotionally strong, the film nevertheless suffers from a confusing narrative and a style of computer animation that blurs the lines between the real and the animated in a way that evokes the discomfiting artifice of “The Polar Express” (2004).
- 50Philadelphia Daily NewsGary ThompsonPhiladelphia Daily NewsGary ThompsonThe animators have figured out horses and falcons and snakes, but human body movements are stiff, awkward, and mechanical.
- 40Los Angeles TimesCharles SolomonLos Angeles TimesCharles SolomonMuch of the dialogue is too literal and undercut by its stolid earnestness, and many of the characters are left underdeveloped.
- 38Slant MagazineKeith WatsonSlant MagazineKeith WatsonThe animation feels like the result of the cold calculus of an algorithm rather than a human director with a personal vision.