51
Metascore
12 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 75McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreMcClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreThe Liberator may be a Cliff Notes version of South American history, but Ramirez breathes life into it and makes us care.
- 75San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleSan Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleNorth American viewers will have one advantage over their South American brethren — the capacity to be surprised. We knew how “Lincoln” was going to end, but The Liberator is a question mark all the way to the finish.
- The admittedly simple premise — that El Libertador fought the good fight, for a worthy cause — is refreshingly escapist. By only briefly addressing the complications of Bolívar's later life as a ruler, it lets us revel in the antiquated notion, if only for a couple of hours, that there are some battles worth fighting.
- 50The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloThe A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloIt’s an equally fiery, magnetic star turn, but being trapped in a stolid, unimaginative, and simplistic example of the genre — a typical historical biopic, in other words — saps a surprising amount of its strength.
- The film is vast and epic, featuring sprawling rivers, awe-inspiring landscapes, serious military campaigns, and the rich political and ideological history of the period. Still, without sufficient context, the films swirls grandly but without making much meaning.
- 50Arizona RepublicBarbara VanDenburghArizona RepublicBarbara VanDenburghHow disappointing that a movie about challenging authority should be such a slave to convention.
- 40Village VoiceInkoo KangVillage VoiceInkoo KangBolivar is eye-rollingly romanticized as a wonderful lover and an even better fighter in Alberto Arvelo's lushly produced, dully reverential The Liberator.
- 40The DissolveVadim RizovThe DissolveVadim RizovAt best, The Liberator is a commendably old-fashioned affair that goes light on CGI backgrounds and heavy on dazzling scenery. At worst, it’s a reminder of all the extras-heavy would-be epics that got tossed on film history’s slag heap.
- Even Ramírez cannot liberate this movie from a clichéd script.
- 38Slant MagazineSlant MagazineIt's sense of complexity is giving us masses of people moved by Simon Bolívar's words, and gorgeous sweeping vistas of the landscape backed by a stirring orchestra.