Critical response Reviewers generally praised
Magellan as a
slow cinema film.
The Hollywood Reporter's Jordan Mintzer remarked that the film was "exquisitely crafted" and may be one of Diaz's most accessible works for its relatively short runtime, while emphasizing that its austere, meditative style still places it firmly within
the director's body of work. Jonathan Romney of
Screen International characterized it as a "sardonic, detached but compelling study", while Josh Slater-Williams of
IndieWire similarly considered it as one of the director's "most fascinating achievements", calling it a "hypnotizing historical and spiritual epic" and praising its immersive qualities across decades of history, something he argued few such stories successfully achieve.
Variety's Guy Lodge described the film as "stunningly mounted" and "politically rigorous", noting that it is comparatively short for Diaz, but still "no artistic compromise", with the spirit of slow cinema intact. Other critics emphasized
Magellan's visual style and scope, with particular praise for the cinematography of Tort and Diaz. The cinematography uses a
tableau vivant style and
chiaroscuro, which the
New York Times's Manohla Dargis compares with
Renaissance art. The film is also composed of "muted colors", in contrast to Diaz's prior black and white films. Several reviewers commented on the use of mundane imagery to emphasize the violence present in the film, The cinematography prefers to depict violence only to its aftermath, which
The New Yorker's Justin Chang argues it decolonizes the viewer's gaze by removing the "visceral excitement" presented in violence. Dargis also asserted that the camera's minimal movements and square framing, which "tightly focuses the viewer's gaze", also yield a strong impact when the camera moves.
Clarence Tsui of the
South China Morning Post considered the film's stationary shots to reflect Magellan's megalomania.'''' The film's lack of music and melodrama presents slow cinema at its "most viscerally rigorous and patient", according to a
Los Angeles Times review. For Romney, Garcia Bernal's "muted performance [...] vividly evokes the physical and mental wear and tear on a voyager's being." After a comment on the film's limited dialogue,
The Philippine Star's Le Baltar considers that the film refuses to be expository and exhaustive. The film received an honorable mention in
The New Yorker magazine's Best Films of 2025 list.
Historical accuracy The portrayal of Mactan chieftain Lapulapu as a myth drew mixed reactions from historians. In an article published on
The Freeman, two unnamed Cebu-based historians strongly disputed Diaz's claim and said Lapulapu's existence is attested by Enrique of Malacca and Antonio Pigafetta, and that the account of Pigafetta, who witnessed the Battle of Mactan, is reliable. Other historians, including one
The Freeman cited, said Lav Diaz had taken "
artistic license". At an invitational screening,
Ambeth Ocampo said Diaz had made a film, not a "doctoral dissertation", and criticized the anonymous historians in
The Freeman article for commenting on a film they had not seen.
University of San Carlos associate professor George Borrinaga, in the same
The Freeman article, said the film is a means of encouraging discussions about Lapulapu and that the lack of primary sources other than Pigafetta persuaded Diaz that Lapulapu is a myth; Borringa advised viewers to take the claim with a "grain of salt". Diaz anticipated criticisms of "
historical revisionism". Some critics described the use of Cebuano language in
Magellan as excessively modern.
The Asian Cut Paul Enicola wrote in his
Toronto International Film Festival review: "More contentious is the use of Cebuano here, which occasionally veers into modern registers that jar against the historical setting". He added as a fluent Cebuano speaker, he found it distracting, though not a significant issue in his viewing experience. An article by
&Asian quoted a few Cebuano-speaking moviegoers, who said the film's language is rather "anachronistic" due to its "minimal" borrowings from
Hiligaynon and Tagalog.
Accolades ==See also==