When Spike Lee set out to make the Miracle at St. Anna, he wanted to make a film that highlighted the oft-ignored contributions made by black soldiers in World War II. He succeeded in making a black war movie, yes, but will the message come across if no one goes to see it? Because if potential movie-goers are putting a lot of stock in the film's terrible reviews, that's exactly what will end up happening.

The critics? They aren't loving Spike's Miracle. At all. Most of them appreciate the concept and intent, but most of them also think the execution was all wrong. Flaws and all, some, including Roger Ebert, still think it's worth the cost of a ticket. Will you see it?
New York Times:

Miracle at St. Anna,” directed by Spike Lee and based on a novel by James McBride, who wrote the screenplay, exists in part to make the obvious, overdue point that men like Hector (Laz Alonso) — Latino and in particular African-American soldiers — fought as bravely and as hard as the characters in those Hollywood combat epics. But setting the record straight after so many years and so many movies is not necessarily a simple undertaking, and this film sometimes stumbles under its heavy, self-imposed burden of historical significance… It should not be surprising that “Miracle at St. Anna” is occasionally corny and didactic. Every now and then, the action slows down to make time for a speech or a carefully staged argument about racial injustice.

Washington Post:

Directed by Spike Lee with an unusually heavy hand (even for him), "Miracle at St. Anna" is one of the most highly anticipated films of the season, in large part because it's the first major motion picture to represent the experience of black soldiers in World War II. That historic burden weighs heavily on Lee, who has made a film that seeks to do way too many things — correct a badly distorted record, deliver old-fashioned wartime goose bumps, offer a few salacious sexual asides, pull heartstrings and, oh yes, spin it all into a fairy tale of childlike spiritual transcendence — and winds up doing none of them well.

USA Today:

At times it calls to mind Saving Private Ryan, other times Flags of our Fathers and Life Is Beautiful. But it's never as good as any of those films.

It tries hard to be inspiring, but it has jarring tonal shifts, stereotyped characters and a lack of narrative perspective. A key character nurses a 40-year grudge, but the circumstances in which it is avenged stretch credulity… No doubt there's a great story to be told among the individual sagas of the Buffalo Soldier unit, but this one isn't it.

Toronto Star:

There is rarely redemption in one of Spike Lee's films, but there is always instruction. Lessons must be taught and Lee is the self-appointed teacher – and never mind if his grasp of the truth is sometimes as dodgy as those he damns.

Such is the case with the plodding Miracle at St. Anna, Lee's avowed setting to rights of his long-voiced grievance that war films, especially those concerning the Second World War, either ignore African-Americans or treat them as cannon fodder. He has beefs with everybody from John Wayne to Clint Eastwood.

Chicago Sun-Times:

There is too much, too many characters, too many subplots. But there is so much here that is powerful that it should be seen no matter its imperfections. There are scenes that could have been lost to more decisive editing, but I found after a few days that my mind did the editing for me, and I was left with lasting impressions. The story involves four African-American soldiers behind enemy lines in Italy in World War II. It's a story that needs telling.

Los Angeles Times:

The notion behind "St. Anna" is to create an epic World War II drama celebrating the largely forgotten exploits of African American infantrymen known as Buffalo Soldiers and to explore the complex dynamics of fighting for freedom in what was essentially a segregated Army.

To tell that larger story, however, another more plot-driven tale had to be found, and, as scripted by James McBride from his novel, the result comes up short. Pedestrian and awkward, this film is a disappointment not only in comparison with Lee's earlier epic, the underrated "Malcolm X," but also in comparison with another film with similar aims, Rachid Bouchareb's "Days of Glory."