" A princess with a curse, a case of mistaken identity and some of the worst special effects in a film by a world-class director."
-- John Anderson, NEWSDAY
" You can't help wondering how the same Fifth Gen filmmaker who made Yellow Earth and Life on a String could've fallen on such hard times, or justified such goofiness to himself."
-- Michael Atkinson, VILLAGE VOICE
" The over-the-top acting is forgivable, but the plot's incoherence is not."
-- James Berardinelli, REELVIEWS
" It suggests that talented Chinese directors are being led astray by the seductions of CGI and wirework fantasies."
-- Ty Burr, BOSTON GLOBE
" The producers should have allocated part of their huge budget for a couple of script polishes."
-- Colin Covert, MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE
"The Promise is one of those movies in which the individual sequences seem to surpass the overall achievement."
-- Robert Denerstein, DENVER ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS
" A mess of a movie."
-- Roger Ebert, CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
"In the midst of such unrelenting splendour, it's easy to nod gratefully -- and then to nod off."
-- Rick Groen, GLOBE AND MAIL
" Poor CG effects reduce Chen Kaige's martial fantasy to cartoonishness."
-- Kirk Honeycutt, HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
" The Promise is too full of frenetic disconnection and arbitrary comings and goings to connect meaningfully with the hearts and minds of its audience."
-- Stephen Hunter, WASHINGTON POST
" The Promise is sumptuous and beautiful and as silly as a sack of nose glasses."
，號稱斥資3億電影《無極》海外市場難收成本的狀況幾成定局。表面上這就是《無極》的海外之困，事實是個導火索，將整個中國製造的古裝動作片都帶入了尷尬境界 
，連眼下張藝謀、馮小剛也受牽連。
，第二周票房就下滑77%，跌出票房前20位。雪上加霜的是北美市場又被韋恩斯坦兄弟公司退貨 
，不敢只看片花就出手 
>>>>>)，當初《無極》遭遇退貨的事情我是最早知道的，大家都沒想到會有什麼樣的嚴重後果 
，在好萊塢的地位非常高，讓他白白損失100萬美金 
、中國電影騙人了 
”。馮小剛也立刻調整了整個後期製作的速度，甚至從賀歲檔抽身出來，全力趕工，讓全片儘快出爐。“全片對於我們來說非常重要，當然片商看到全片後給出的價格也會比片花高”，但這意味著投資方承受的資金風險也高了。為此，馮小剛放棄賀歲檔，失去內地最好的黃金檔期。王中磊對此表示，“很遺憾，但我們對小剛有信心，永遠都是好電影創造檔期，不是好檔期創造好電影”。 