Review Roundup: Benedict Cumberbatch Stars in THE IMITATION GAME

Benedict Cumberbatch stars in the British historical-thriller THE IMITATION GAME, which hits theaters today! The film is based on Andrew Hodges' biographical novel 'Alan Turing: The Enigma'.

Based on real events, the film explores the life of computer scientist Alan Turing, who was one of the leading players in cracking Nazi Germany's Enigma Code. Though his work helped bring the Allies to victory, he was later prosectued by the government for his homosexuality.

THE IMITATION GAME stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, Mark Strong, Charles Dance, Allen Leech, and Matthew Beard.

Let's see what the critics had to say!

A.O. Scott, New York Times: Just a few years ago, this film might have felt radical and counterintuitive, like a daring, inspired leap from one era to another, or an excavation of the hidden history of the present. Instead, it has the shiny, hollow ring of conventional wisdom. It's kind of perfect, and also kind of stale.

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: It's an undeniable pleasure to dig into a crackling spy thriller dished out by experts. THE IMITATION GAME is an immersive true story that laces dizzying tension with raw emotion.

Richard Corliss, Time: Critics won't need a Turing machine to pick one of the most smartly judged, truly feeling movies of the year or its most towering, magnetic performance.

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: Named after a paper Turing wrote about artificial intelligence, "The Imitation Game" does not lack for conventional elements. But they are handled with such depth and emotion by a top cast that includes Keira Knightley, Mark Strong and Charles Dance that we end up impressed by the level of intelligent storytelling it provides.

Scott Foundas, Variety: "The Imitation Game" never quite trumps the sense that Turing's life was a messier, more complex enterprise than we're allowed to see here. But the movie is undeniably strong in its sense of a bright light burned out too soon, and the often undignified fate of those who dare to chafe at society's established norms.

Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly: I suspect some people will find The Imitation Game's tidier plot contrivances and on-the-nose metaphors to be too conventionally Hollywood, or grouse that Turing's rougher edges have been sanded down to achieve a genteel, for-your-consideration polish. I can think of worse sins.

Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian: THE IMITATION GAME has one or two war-movie cliches and all the business about Soviet spying is cumbersome and unconvincing; the film creates a problem for itself with that. It is a problem for which Cumberbatch's performance is an almost complete solution.

Scott Mendelson, Forbes: THE IMITATION GAME is a pretty solid film that defies its obvious formula by highlighting the moral contradictions of our not-so-ancient history.

Dana Stevens, Slate: Throughout The Imitation Game, there's a sense the filmmaker is trying to shield viewers from the story's most difficult parts-whether it's the horrors of war, the technical complexity of the Enigma code and its solution, or the bleakness of Alan Turing's final fate. I wish Tyldum had trusted the audience enough to let us in on the worst.

Jacob Krastenakes, The Verge: Cumberbatch is thrown into the middle of a functional thriller and given the leeway to show us Turing and how a genius and a troubled man works. It's pretty great to watch him do just that.

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