Name : Brian Truitt / Alias : USA Today
While it lacks the wonder and nuance of earlier Pandas, there are enough new faces and wowing, Asian-influenced style to also keep parents amused for an hour and a half.

Name : Alan Scherstuhl / Alias : Village Voice
In studio movies, especially for children, all it takes to be great at something difficult is a good heart and a training montage. Go on, America, keep yelling at Common Core while parking your kids in front of this stuff.

Name : Justin Chang / Alias : Variety
A winning lightness of touch prevails in this delightful continuation of the durable DreamWorks franchise.

Name : Christian Holub / Alias : Entertainment Weekly
Just complicated enough to reward steady viewers and just simple enough for parent escorts to enjoy without much prior knowledge.

Name : Bill Goodykoontz / Alias : Arizona Republic
The "Kung Fu Panda" formula works, still, and if directors Alessandro Carloni and Jennifer Yuh don't reinvent the panda-as-martial-artist wheel, they avoid making the story seem stale.

Name : Michael Rechtshaffen / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
Refuses to panda to the lowest common denominator.

Name : Alonso Duralde / Alias : TheWrap
Between the witty screenplay, delightful visuals that jump back and forth between 3-D and 2-D animation, and a consistently game voice cast, this third serving never feels like a dull retread or a lazy cash grab.

Name : Cary Darling / Alias : Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com
The last third of the film, as it stuffs more and more in, feels less like a movie and more like cramming for a history exam at 2 a.m.

Name : Adam Graham / Alias : Detroit News
Call it a civil bore.

Name : Bill Goodykoontz / Alias : Arizona Republic
"Free State of Jones" is a well-intentioned slog through a potentially fascinating bit of Civil War history, brought to life only by Matthew McConaughey's performance, and then only occasionally.

Name : Ann Hornaday / Alias : Washington Post
An earnest but inert and unwieldy historical drama that, in its commendable attempt to rescue a forgotten figure from obscurity, too often looks and feels like "12 Years a Woke Dude."

Name : A.O. Scott / Alias : New York Times
A riveting visual history lesson, whose occasional didacticism is integral to its power.

Name : Peter Travers / Alias : Rolling Stone
If you think a thick, juicy slab of Civil War history can't be boiled down to 145 minutes of speechifying, stultifying cinema, then grab a seat. Even McConaughey is sucked dry of his usual acting panache.

Name : Richard Brody / Alias : New Yorker
The director and screenwriter Gary Ross illuminates immense historical spans with the true story of one man's revolt during the Civil War.

Name : Tirdad Derakhshani / Alias : Philadelphia Inquirer
Mixing elements from documentaries, biopics, war flicks, and Hallmark romances, Ross' film is a living history tour, but with gory special effects and a smoldering smattering of sex appeal.

Name : Todd McCarthy / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
A compelling and little-known story of the Civil War period is studiously reduced to a dry and cautious history lesson.

Name : Robert Abele / Alias : TheWrap
The movie doesn't entirely escape an arid, educational quality, coming off mostly as a curious hybrid of the best and the regrettable in right-side-of-history cinema.

Name : Kyle Smith / Alias : New York Post
If McConaughey's performance is a little too jut-jawed and noble, the script has plenty of force.

Name : Brad Wheeler / Alias : Globe and Mail
Instead of captivating us with swagger, McConaughey chooses to go grim and dogged. Director Ross does the same.

Name : Joe McGovern / Alias : Entertainment Weekly
Ross wants to shake up the format . but like so many directors who have tackled historical social issues before him, he confuses noble, cornball sermonizing for art.

Name : Stephanie Zacharek / Alias : TIME Magazine
The movie works as a quasi-historical ramble, thanks largely to Matthew McConaughey as Knight and the quietly valiant Gugu Mbatha-Raw as his second, common-law wife, the freed slave Rachel.

Name : Calvin Wilson / Alias : St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"Free State of Jones" aspires to greatness but fumbles badly.

Name : John Hartl / Alias : Seattle Times
"Free State" can't settle down and concentrate. The effect is sometimes exhilarating, but covering several decades of Southern history turns out to be an energy drain.

Name : J. R. Jones / Alias : Chicago Reader
American history is a mutable thing, shaped by our evolving sense of ourselves as a nation, which is why this Civil War drama, based on the little-known story of Newton Knight, seems so vividly modern.

Name : Jesse Hassenger / Alias : AV Club
Instead of building to a crescendo, the movie trails off. By the end, serious-minded adult moviegoers may find themselves longing for another product from the well-oiled sequel machine.

Name : Peter Rainer / Alias : Christian Science Monitor
It's a powerful story but, as written and directed by Gary Ross, it has a by-the-books straightforwardness that sacrifices nuance for homiletics.

Name : Michael Phillips / Alias : Chicago Tribune
From camera composition to production design, everything looks and feels fresh-scrubbed and somewhat staid, and you don't quite believe what you're seeing.

Name : Bruce Kirkland / Alias : Toronto Sun
Free State of Jones is a great opportunity lost.

Name : Lindsey Bahr / Alias : Associated Press
The Civil War and reconstruction were messy, and Free State of Jones wants to tackle it all. In the end, it's too much for any one film to handle compellingly with such specificity.

Name : Ty Burr / Alias : Boston Globe
"Free State of Jones" is a deeply strange movie, but that's fine - so is the history on which it's based.

Name : Bilge Ebiri / Alias : Village Voice
Diligent and informative but also fragmented and inert, it plays like a series of scenes and notes for a longer, more fleshed-out movie.

Name : Peter Howell / Alias : Toronto Star
A Civil War rebellion becomes an enervating movie by Gary Ross.

Name : Joe Morgenstern / Alias : Wall Street Journal
This screenplay is so arid in its didacticism, so pallid in its would-be passion, that it defeats [McConaughey's] efforts and our involvement, however much we may want to cut the film some slack for being about things of consequence.

Name : Owen Gleiberman / Alias : Variety
"Free State of Jones" is one of those historical dramas with a script that's big on crowning lines of moral fervor and not so big on nuts-and-bolts detail.

Name : Joe Dziemianowicz / Alias : New York Daily News
McConaughey's star turn is straight-up and persuasive. Gugu Mbatha-Raw is earthy and believable as Rachel, the slave Knight falls for and has a child with.

Name : Richard Roeper / Alias : Chicago Sun-Times
This is no history lesson, but it's mainstream Hollywood entertainment that respects the history and seems to invite discussion and debate.

Name : Rafer Guzman / Alias : Newsday
Strong work from McConaughey as a charismatic leader, but the film's meandering historical scope will test your patience.

Name : Mick LaSalle / Alias : San Francisco Chronicle
It's a good film, absorbing from beginning to end, but it's also important.