eXistenZ: Critic Reviews

[It's] meant to have a whiff of the philosophical, even if its intellectual ambition seems mostly limited to spelling affectations.

It's good art direction in search of an idea.

The Matrix is mainstream sci-fi, but eXistenZ, written by Cronenberg, is much stranger; it creates a world where organic and inorganic are not separate states, but kind of chummy.

I just don't happen to like puzzle films of any kind, but I must credit Mr. Cronenberg with more intellectual depth than most of his fellow pessimistic movie pranksters.

Because of the potential of the idea and Cronenberg's reputation as a film maker, it's a real disappointment to watch eXistenZ fall apart the way it does.

Jennifer Jason Leigh is an ideal Cronenberg heroine, projecting a personality that is smart, wary and capable of obsessiveness.

It's a disturbing, disorienting sensation -- puzzles within puzzles, games within games -- that continues right up to the last shot.

Experienced gamers should find much to savor through the films unique assessments on the nature of reality.

[Cronenberg is] a laughing existentialist here, a philosopher who sees the comedy in disorientation.

Dark, delirious fun.

Brave moviegoers and fans of writer-director David Cronenberg will find funny dialogue and grotesquely engrossing scenes in his latest sci-fi horror tale.

Fans may find certain similarities between eXistenZ and Videodrome bothersome, but both films are the real thing.

An evolution for the filmmaker that will reach maturity in the quiet, devastatingly economical eloquence of Spider.

a genuinely jolting yarn... Cronenberg eventually succeeds in making the audience feel as disoriented as Allegra...

Cronenberg's commentary here, though grotesque, belies a certain intelligence.

The premise is solid, the script is clever and well-thought-out, and the movie is consistently engaging...

Bringing a light touch to the grave issues of mortality, illusion, identity, and technology that have obsessed him throughout his career, Cronenberg turns them into a diverting, disorienting, ultimately inconsequential hand of solitaire.

A s-fi thriller that challenges us to ponder the propensity we all have for surrendering ourselves to cheap thrills as a substitute for the boredom of reality.

The only visual jolts come from Cronenberg's trademark images of grotesque amphibians and oozing intestines, and these creepy-crawly moments are merely repulsive, not provocative.

In the hands of anyone else, the notion of computer game terrorists would be ludicrous, and even Cronenberg fails to explain their motives, using the film instead to indulge in surreal exercises of dream logic.

...too clever for its own good. Once you catch on to the gimmick...it isn't half as entertaining.

The story is such a mind trip that most of the audience will be equally and pleasantly confused.

Jennifer Jason Leigh, who in the past loved to play the absolute cynic with curled lip and gutteral voice, has never looked and sounded sexier.

Cronenberg has created an emotionally weightless intellectual exercise that's fun to parse but little fun to watch.

Leigh has not turned in a performance as mischievous and alluring in quite some time.