It Might Get Loud: Critic Reviews

It Might Get Loud is a marvelous rock doc that manages to be wistful, tasty, and jam-kicking at the same time.

For rock geeks of any age or taste, the lore in this documentary will be catnip.

A bizarre follow-up to the fifth biggest cinema documentary of all time, and one that's as testing on the patience as a 10-minute guitar solo with extra tremolo.

It's a pleasure to watch these men perform. These are real-life guitar heroes. But it would have been a treat to see more of them talking shop.

Depicts wood, lacquer and hardware the way Hugh Hefner depicts Miss September. Guitar nuts will be turned on, but everyone else will have a good time, too.

This is not a history of rock 'n' roll guitar. It's a movie-fantasy version of the "favorite music" section on Guggenheim's Facebook page.

Marketed as a guitar summit between The Edge, Jimmy Page, and Jack White, Davis Guggenheim's affectionate, intermittently insightful behind-the-music doc is more electric triptych than meeting of the minds.

What Guggenheim really does is make the case that each man deserves his own movie; this one feels like an especially well-produced VH1 special.

The multigenerational threesome gathers in a spacious but cluttered studio to swap riffs, war stories, tips and inspirations.

While that sounds like a fantasy for rock aficionados, the scenes lack dramatic tension or cinematic enlightenment. It just kind of happens, and then the all-star jam fades to black, leaving few remnants of the filmmakers' initial intentions.

Why isn't the film better? Guggenheim doesn't seem to have prodded his subjects in any interesting directions.

Guitar heroes, real or imaginary, will think they've died and gone to heaven.

Rockers out there, it's time to turn off Guitar Hero and turn on to the heroes of guitar in It Might Get Loud, a six-string "summit" featuring virtuosos of the '60s, '80s, and aughts.

For guitar geeks, the sight of Page, Edge and White together in one room will be enough. Others, however, can't help but wish it might have gotten a little louder.

Should cast a spell even in a tone-deaf theatrical marketplace.

For rock fans, hearing many Led Zeppelin and U2 classics on a theater sound system is worth the price of a ticket.

Rock fans and Guitar Heroes in the making will get a charge out of visiting where the happy accidents that put guitars into each man's hand happened. And the playing isn't bad, either. Loud. But good.

Davis Guggenheim's contrived documentary is a largely unrewarding essay on the mystique of the ubiquitous electric guitar...

The trouble is, once you get past the historical information and chummy interviews, you have to put up with the inevitable risk of any ad-hoc jam session: It Might Get Boring.

Mortals will tremble as guitar gods assemble for this remarkable rock 'n roll film.

Does this sound like rock heaven? It is.

The film culminates as the three finally come together on an empty soundstage in Hollywood for a conversation and a raucous jam session that is remarkable for its intimacy and its passion.

Guggenheim's depictions of his subjects' artistic development will strike universal chords in anyone who finds meaning in creativity.

The mood's too good-spirited, and in that there are great pleasures - not least the sound-of-mind thinking of three rockers putting paid to the tired cliche of burbling rock gods trapped in their own shadows.

The film might have benefited from a trim and a more linear approach, but mostly it fulfils its role as an illuminating homage to both the protagonists involved and, above all, the guitar as popular music's most timeless icon.