Name : Michael O'Sullivan / Alias : Washington Post
It's a kid's movie that grown-ups will like. As Marnie does on Anna, the movie casts a spell.

Name : Alonso Duralde / Alias : TheWrap
As a visual (and auditory) experience, When Marnie Was There offers so many other pleasures that audiences may well overlook the story issues. After all, even second-tier Studio Ghibli releases rank among world cinema's finest animated films.

Name : Jeannette Catsoulis / Alias : New York Times
Beneath its calm, exquisitely detailed surface, "When Marnie Was There" bubbles with half-formed ideas and undeveloped themes.

Name : Kerry Lengel / Alias : Arizona Republic
To those film lovers attuned to quiet moments and emotional nuance, this film has a shine all its own. The old-school hand-drawn animation celebrates sweeping landscapes and but also the telling detail, revealing character through spare gestures.

Name : Linda Barnard / Alias : Toronto Star
Showcasing the gorgeous hand-drawn work that is a hallmark of Japanese animation house Studio Ghibli, When Marnie Was There tells a story of youthful friendship tinged with melancholy and magic.

Name : Jesse Hassenger / Alias : AV Club
As a children's movie, it's uncommonly sensitive and complicated, rooted in relationships rather than dazzling action. But adults may notice its simple poetry turning, after a while, to suds.

Name : Kenneth Turan / Alias : Los Angeles Times
Though its curious narrative arc means you're never sure exactly where it's going, the film works up a considerable emotional charge by the end.

Name : Joe Neumaier / Alias : New York Daily News
The Ghibli studio is in transition, but "Marnie," despite some gentle moments of reflection, is a ghost shadow of its previous masterworks.

Name : Andrew O'Hehir / Alias : Salon.com
There are moments of hushed magic here, of moonlit, seaside and tree-shadowed visual poetry, that rival anything Ghibli has ever created.

Name : Boyd van Hoeij / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
A beautifully animated tale.

Name : Ella Taylor / Alias : NPR
Even without its moving parable of emotional repair, When Marnie Was There has all of Ghibli's exquisitely hand-drawn sense of place .

Name : J. R. Jones / Alias : Chicago Reader
Yonebayashi made his feature directing debut with The Secret World of Arrietty, adapted from the British children's book The Borrowers, and this emotionally resonant second feature takes its story from another such title.

Name : Peter Debruge / Alias : Variety
Yet another splendid escape from the increasingly strenuous glut of computer-animated offerings, this one designed to serve as family entertainment after the more adult-skewing likes of "The Wind Rises" and "The Tale of Princess Kaguya".

Name : Colin Covert / Alias : Minneapolis Star Tribune
This is a film defined by patience and attention, an adventure of emotional exploration.

Name : Peter Keough / Alias : Boston Globe
Yonebayashi has touched on the greater mystery underlying everyday life, a world pulsing with wonder and possibility, edged with a shadow of melancholy.

Name : Bilge Ebiri / Alias : New York Magazine/Vulture
When Marnie Was There may start off a bit awkwardly, but it'll have you bathing in your own tears by the time it's over.

Name : Sherilyn Connelly / Alias : Village Voice
With the retirement of producer Hayao Miyazaki, Studio Ghibli has put production on hold; When Marnie Was There may well be its last feature film. If so, it's a strong note to leave on.

Name : David Ehrlich / Alias : Time Out
Wistful and stirringly humane, When Marnie Was There isn't one of Ghibli's greatest films, but it's emblematic of their collective greatness. In a way, that's the most perfect thing it could be.

Name : Brad Wheeler / Alias : Globe and Mail
The artwork is simple and elegant; Anna's fragility and self-loathing is portrayed clearly.

Name : Walter V. Addiego / Alias : San Francisco Chronicle
If you feel any kinship with the disaffected, "When Marnie Was There" has much to tell you.

Name : Molly Eichel / Alias : Philadelphia Inquirer
While not a masterpiece, it is beautiful, nonetheless.

Name : Sara Stewart / Alias : New York Post
Subtle, sometimes really sad and honest about the struggles of adolescence, "Marnie" is a worthy last entry from Ghibli before the studio reportedly goes on hiatus.

Name : James Rocchi / Alias : TheWrap
A startlingly enjoyable and well-made action film leavened by humor and slicked along by style, made by, for, and about people who've seen far too many Bond films.

Name : Sheri Linden / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
Firth enters new territory with style and grace, anchoring a smart, high-energy movie that eventually runs out of steam.

Name : Peter Debruge / Alias : Variety
Whether it's "Alex Rider," "Agent Cody Banks" or "Spy Kids," plenty have tried to adapt the 007 shtick to younger characters, with demonstrably dopey results. In the end, the reason it works for Vaughn is that he's making the film for adults.

Name : Kyle Anderson / Alias : Entertainment Weekly
The only thing The Last Witch Hunter will successfully eradicate is insomnia.

Name : Ignatiy Vishnevetsky / Alias : AV Club
The Last Witch Hunter ends up crumbling into another generic showdown of murky fantasy effects and snatched artifacts, with a final shot that is literally framed around a door to possible sequels.

Name : Tom Huddleston / Alias : Time Out
What an ugly, idiotic mess this is.

Name : Alan Scherstuhl / Alias : Village Voice
Vin Diesel may not run smoothly, but he runs with purpose and conviction, and any line of dialogue processed through him comes out sounding like he believes it, even the sentimental ones.

Name : James Berardinelli / Alias : ReelViews
Unfortunately, a film needs more than Diesel's Stallone-ish appeal to succeed and that's where The Last Witch Hunter is found lacking.

Name : Inkoo Kang / Alias : TheWrap
"The Last Witch Hunter" aims for pulpy, comic-book fun, but it's never as fleet, funny, or detailed as it needs to be. If you're looking for something above middling in terms of plot, characters, [or] world-building, you'll need to seek it elsewhere.

Name : Alex Pappademas / Alias : Grantland
A feature film that feels like a longish TV pilot.

Name : Tom Russo / Alias : Boston Globe
Even with Diesel's oblivious self-miscasting - he's a producer on the film - "Witch Hunter" feels like genre material that might have found a way to work.

Name : Walter V. Addiego / Alias : San Francisco Chronicle
You . have to swallow a by-the-numbers plot buried under an avalanche of fast-and-furious but underwhelming CGI effects.

Name : Robert Abele / Alias : Los Angeles Times
One of those artlessly restless, exposition-dialogue fantasy-action slogs .

Name : Bilge Ebiri / Alias : New York Magazine/Vulture
Watching The Last Witch Hunter is like sitting by while someone else plays a game whose coolness eludes us.

Name : Bruce Kirkland / Alias : Toronto Sun
It is not even bad enough to be good camp comedy.

Name : Andrew Lapin / Alias : NPR
Some action heroes take themselves too seriously, or think they're making popcorn fun when they're really filleting us with endless rounds of ammunition. Not Diesel .

Name : Ben Sachs / Alias : Chicago Reader
The special effects are pretty neat, and the filmmakers utilize them smartly, delivering imaginative set pieces that are more visually compelling than the usual series of digital explosions.

Name : Richard Roeper / Alias : Chicago Sun-Times
The screenplay by a trio of writers is muddled and goofy and riddled with cliches.

Name : Soren Anderson / Alias : Seattle Times
It's the kind of roller-coaster Hollywood churns out seemingly in its sleep, oversaturated with effects shots and plot implausibilities. Ten minutes after you've seen it, you'll have forgotten all about it.

Name : Michael O'Sullivan / Alias : Washington Post
The special-effects-laden fight scenes are ho-hum, incoherent and badly lit. It's often hard to tell what some warlock or scorpion-like beast is doing and to whom.

Name : Kyle Smith / Alias : New York Post
The movie left me amazed - amazed that Nicolas Cage wasn't in it.

Name : Manori Ravindran / Alias : Globe and Mail
Seemingly at every juncture, the finality so necessary to up the stakes of this story is quickly snatched away in order to tease a sequel or two, leaving you wondering what the point of this supernatural exercise was in the first place.

Name : Guy Lodge / Alias : Variety
Too drab to succeed even as defiantly unvirtuous trash . stifles Diesel's rough-hewn charisma via a sludgy, impermeable oil spill of CGI effects - in the service of largely unspectacular hocus pocus.

Name : Rafer Guzman / Alias : Newsday
The dependable Diesel and a fine cast keep this hokey action flick mostly entertaining.

Name : Stephen Dalton / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
Fast and furious on the surface, shallow and conventional beneath, Diesel's bid to carve himself another billion-dollar franchise is off to a good start with this mainstream crowd-pleaser.

Name : Andy Webster / Alias : New York Times
A smorgasbord of empty calories, the Vin Diesel vehicle "The Last Witch Hunter," for all its overstuffed visuals, leaves you hungry. But not for more.

Name : Peter Howell / Alias : Toronto Star
The Last Witch Hunter is so drenched in CGI effects, it looks as if it's been dunked in a vat of lacquer.