U2360° at the Rose Bowl was well received by critics.
The Irish Times gave the film 4 out of 5 stars, mainly praising the staging in the film and how it "houses everything required to make a good band seem great". Scotland's
Daily Record said that the release was not U2's best "but still pretty damn good". Inthenews.co.uk compared the release to U2's performances of the 1980s and the more powerful vocals of the time, but said that the band "make up for it with a revolutionary stage, top-rate musical ability and plethora of instantly recognisable tracks".
Andrew Mueller of
Uncut felt that the concert was well-translated onto a home video release, and praised the political aspects of the film, but called the final song of the film—"
Moment of Surrender"—an "[i]ll-chosen closer" and "overlong and under-realised".
Entertainment Weekly called the concert set "groundbreaking", and ranked
U2360° at the Rose Bowl at number one on "The Must List" for the week prior to its release. Raoul Hernandez of
The Austin Chronicle said the band "redeems its stillborn
No Line on the Horizon with this two-saucer
Close Encounters of the Third Kind", adding, "As disembodied as the two-hour Universal Studios ride becomes, U2 fires on all boosters". The
Associated Press felt the video release of the concert was much better than its original live stream on
YouTube, and stated that the concert showed the band "well-rehearsed and in good form", although criticized how Bono's voice was "audibly
hoarse" in several songs.
The Sydney Morning Herald said that the concert's songs from
No Line on the Horizon "stand out for freshness" and referred to the performances of "
MLK" and "
One" as a "lovely interlude". Cameron Adams of various
News Limited-published papers cited "
The Unforgettable Fire" and "Moment of Surrender" as highlights of the concert, and said of the concert as a whole, "In a word: Enormous."
Q gave the film a maximum score of four stars, saying the video proves that "The Claw is indeed breathtaking", and that "U2 are far too experienced to let themselves be overshadowed by the world's most expensive
Doctor Who prop. It's the songs rather than the spectacle that drives the show." ==Track listing==