A boy born in privilege (Christian Bale) scrambles to survive two years in a Japanese concentration camp. The film takes place in China during World War II, but there are no prominent Chinese characters. This is an intriguing example of Asian erasure.

| Original Score: 2/5 | May 3, 2024

... a perfect marriage of the director’s affinity for a child’s wonder and innocence, his grown-up understanding of the horrors of war, and his impeccable technique.

| Sep 9, 2023

In the context of Spielberg’s overall output from a quality perspective, “Empire” lands just below the halfway point. Had it been made by a first-time director, it would’ve been considered impressive; instead, it serves as a perfunctory transition piece.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Aug 29, 2023

Steven Spielberg recognizes the human story and tragedy behind Ballard's novel. [Full review in Spanish]

| Apr 11, 2023

Steven Spielberg's most underappreciated film is still an emotional wallop, as a boy navigates POW life during World War II, desperately trying to find purchase for his passion.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Apr 3, 2023

Empire of the Sun might be underappreciated but the film is in the upper tier of Steven Spielberg's filmography.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Dec 11, 2022

[Stephen Spielberg's] graduation to grown-up film-making.

| Aug 18, 2022

A sublime fable about childhood in contact with war where innocence triumphs over corruption. [Full review in Spanish]

| Jun 29, 2022

...the story is a chilly one, particularly for a filmmaker who had so shamelessly (and skillfully) plucked heartstrings.

| May 2, 2020

The great industrial product becomes a mediocre artistic object. [Full Review in Spanish]

| Apr 17, 2020

The case for war as a glorious adventure for a child has never been made more vividly than in Steven Spielberg's powerful new epic.

| Feb 27, 2020

What is most remarkable about Empire of the Sun then, is the almost seamless fashion in which a faithful adaptation... has nevertheless contrived to become a proto-Spielbergian affirmation of faith and optimism in the universe.

| Jan 28, 2020

Empire of the Sun is a great, overwrought movie that leaves one wordless and worn out.

| Dec 31, 2019

Christian Bale gives a most remarkable performance as Jim.

| Apr 9, 2019

John Williams' resonant and triumphant score superbly augments this simple and complex narrative

| Dec 18, 2018

The pseudomystical vagueness that seems to be Spielberg's stock-in-trade stifles most of the particularity of the source.

| Oct 26, 2016

The film's grave problem is a lack of central heating: We don't have a single character to warm up to.

| Oct 26, 2016

[Empire of the Sun] has too much childish buoyancy to serve the disturbing historical events it's ostensibly based on.

| Oct 26, 2016

Now considered a trial run for the more moving, horrifying and involving Schindler's List, Steven Spielberg's drama, set in China during the Second World War, is a glossy and rather tame affair.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 26, 2016

The sun sets on this Empire without convincing us that either Jim or Spielberg has come any closer to growing up.

| Oct 26, 2016