Amongst contemporary critics, however, "The New York Times" was not impressed: "All the money used to make 'At the Earth's Core' seems to have been spent on building monsters with parrotlike beaks that open, close, and emit a steady squawling as if someone were vacuuming next door. Close up, the monsters look like sections of rough concrete wall and the decision to film them in closeup is only one example of the total lack of talent or effort with which the picture is made...the movie is a kind of no-talent competition in which the acting, the script, the direction and the camera-work vie for last place." More recently, in more positive vein, BFI Screenonline said, "Extravagant, colourful and thoroughly preposterous, "At the Earth's Core" is utterly without pretension but has the exuberant charm of the best of its decade."