Writing for "Time Out", author TCh said, "The most striking aspect of this fun, old-fashioned disaster movie is the novelty of seeing the most familiar of backdrops used as a creative resource in its own right." He commended how "Jones and Heche work hard to dig up an emotional rapport from next to nothing" while also praising how the "slow but inexorable progress of the lava makes for more suspense than the usual slam bang firework display." Not entirely impressed was Margaret McGurk writing for "The Cincinnati Enquirer". She called the film "depreciating entertainment value of the natural-disaster trend" while also mentioning how the "High-caliber special effects are still fun, but all this lock-step storytelling is wearing thin." But in a hint of commendation, McGurk thought "on its own escapist terms, "Volcano" dishes up a textbook serving of low-I.Q., high-energy entertainment." Describing a comical position on seismic activity, Marc Savlov of "The Austin Chronicle" said "Volcano" was a "laughably ridiculous take on what we all secretly dream of: Los Angeles, washed away in a huge, molten tide of cheese — uh, lava, I mean." Savlov added, "Screenwriters Jerome Armstrong and Billy Ray have crammed the script with topical references to the L.A. riots, Rodney King, racial inequality, sexism, the ineffectuality of the 911 system, and reams of very, very bad dialogue. So bad, in fact, that the screening audience I viewed "Volcano" with seemed to enjoy it immensely, hooting and hollering and laughing as though it were an old episode of "Mystery Science Theater 3000"."