Critical response
According to the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 86% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 250 reviews, with an average rating of 7.3/10. The site's critics consensus reads, "The Lost City of Z's stately pace and visual grandeur hearken back to classic exploration epics, and Charlie Hunnam turns in a masterful performance as its complex protagonist." At Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 78 out of 100 based on 44 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter described the film as "a rare piece of contemporary classical cinema." Dan Callahan in his review for TheWrap said that "The Lost City of Z feels like a clear artistic advance for Gray, who proves himself here as one of our finest and most distinctive living filmmakers." Owen Gleiberman, writing for Variety, called the film "a finely crafted, elegantly shot, sharply sincere movie that is more absorbing than powerful." Joshua Rothkopf in his review for Time Out wrote that "the grandeur of this movie is off the charts ..." Mark Kermode of Kermode and Mayo's Film Review stated that while the film had numerous flaws, such as ineffective elliptical storytelling and Hunnam's uncharismatic performance, "it is a film which is haunting me more than I thought. ... it did feel like it was trying [to] break out of being just that narrative into something else".
Explorer John Hemming criticized the movie's publicity for claiming that Fawcett was one of Britain's greatest explorers, arguing that this was an insult to the many true explorers, and that Fawcett was a racist, a "nutter", and a dangerous incompetent who "never discovered anything", but caused the loss of many lives.
Joe Morgenstern, a movie critic from The Wall Street Journal, compares the book to the movie by stating "Mr. Hunnam's Fawcett is attractive, and animated when circumstances demand it, but thanks to a clumsy script, not very interesting." In contrast to the book being more interested in the facts along with David Grann's findings.
Peter Travers, a film critic for Rolling Stone, rates The Lost City of Z three and a half stars out of four stars and describes the movie as "haunting and visionary, a potent provocation that gets under your skin." He then notes the complementary elements of The Lost City of Z being "exotic adventure, and the psychological terror that brushes Gray's metaphorical heart of darkness."
Dan Jolin, a freelance journalist, rates The Lost City of Z a four out of five stars on Empire. He states that though Fawcett's story is "a difficult story to end. ... Gray excels, going out on an oblique but elegant note." However he does note that The Lost City of Z may "test your patience" because of the scenes being prolonged to enhance the main character, Percy Fawcett.
Neil Soan, a reviewer, rates The Lost City of Z a three and a half stars out of five stars for The Times of India. In accordance to the role of the main character, Percy Fawcett, Soan believes "Charlie Hunnam adds ample substance to Fawcett" but he also points out that some main personality traits were lackluster. He concludes in his review that though the movie falls short on important scenes, "The lost City of Z an unbalanced but fascinating watch."
Manohla Dargis, a writer from The New York Times, writes that Charlie Hunnam was "mesmerizing" upon his main role of British explorer, Percy Fawcett. She believes Mr. Gray "Effortlessly expands his reach as he moves across time and continents and in the process turns the past into a singular life." She also notes the "lapidary details" that have helped polish The Lost City of Z into something more.
Anthony Lane, a film critic for the New Yorker, believes that the "right person for the role" is actually Robert Pattinson. The way he presents himself in the film as an "Unlikely figure, yet you still follow his every move" which is similar to how someone could think about Percy Fawcett. Despite this, Lane believes The Lost City of Z to be "beautiful, mournful, and measured."
Robbie Collin, a film critic from The Daily Telegraph, describes 'The Lost City of Z' as "a film transporting, profound, and staggering in its emotional power as anything I've seen in the cinema in years. He believes Charlie Hunnam suitably carries the role of Percy Fawcett with his "persuasiveness" demonstrated in roles prior to 'The Lost City of Z'.
David Sims, a staff writer at The Atlantic, writes that "The Lost City of Z is a miraculous movie at once moving, intimidating, and gorgeous to behold."
