That makes the first hour of the film an entertaining and briskly paced mixture of biography (We learn of Philippe self - teaching himself to walk the tightrope, as well as his career before his most famous performance) and planning (the logistics of how the wire should be set up, how to physically set it up, and how to get into and to the top of the towers without arousing enough suspicion for someone to call the cops). (markreviewsmovies.com)
It's almost crazy how flimsy and poorly constructed the first hour of the film is. (birthmoviesdeath.com)
Director Kathryn Bigelow has masterfully created unrest and mayhem in the first hour of the film, while effectively setting up the backgrounds of the primary characters. (metacritic.com)