The Long and Curious Case of Benjamin Button

In The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, a man is born in his eighties and ages backwards. It was directed by David Fincher, and written by Eric Roth and Robin Swicord.
Lou Lumenick of The New York Post gave the movie a 100, citing "world-class story telling" and though Lumenick is not a fan of Brad Pitt (who plays Button in the movie) he enjoyed him in this role. He states that Pitt gave a "deeply soulful and affecting" performance due to the digital effects that allow Cate Blanchett, who plays Daisy, to play widely varied ages throughout the movies. He does rebuke the movie for being too long, saying it "doesn't need to be nearly three hours long", but in the end he raves about The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
Another positive review received by Benjamin Button was written by Claudia Puig of USA Today. She tells readers the film is "at its best when spinning fantastic yarns of Benjamin's bizarre, long life". She calls it a "cinematic curiousity", though also reprimands the film for it's length and emotional uninvolement, and being "folksy and predictable".
Though she calls it an ambitious piece, Ann Hornaday of The Washington post also accuses Benjamin Button of having "self inflated importance" and agrees, again, that it is far too long. She even wonders what "visionaries like Tim Burton...would have done with the film"; a sort of rebuff to the direction of David Fincher. Hornaday says the movie plays it too safe, and that it should be a film that "let's its freak flag fly".
Kimberley Jones of The Austin Chronicle wonders how this movie might have been created from F. Scott Fitzgerald's mild, short book by the same name. She calls the film "unmotivated" and complains, again, about the length of the film. Jones says that Fincher focused far too much on when Blanchett and Pitt were the same age, rather than focusing on when Pitt was portraying a young man in an old man's body, which she found more emotionally stirring.
And finally, in a rather brutal assault, Mike LaSalle of The San Fransico Chronicle states that the movie doesn't really have anything to say. LaSalle calls Button "uninteresting person to whom something medically interesting has happened" and says "this is the worst choice the screenwriter could've made". He does praise the movie's visuals, stating they are "flawless" but beyond this he does not have anything positive to say.
Throughout the varying degree of criticisms about The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, one thing remains the same. All the critics found the movie too long, and complained that the same story could've been told in a short film. Overall, it seems like a pretty good film.