Napoleon First Reactions and Review Roundup

Billie Melissa
·3 min read
1
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

Ridley Scott's latest film is a 158-minute epic about Napoleon Bonaparte and his relentless journey to power through the prism of his addictive, volatile relationship with his wife, Josephine.

The film, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Vanessa Kirby, premiered last night at Salle Pleyel in Paris, with stars in attendance now that SAG-AFTRA announced the strike is over.

Related: Netflix Geeked Week 2023: Here’s Everything Worth Watching

First reactions came flooding in after the embargo lifted last night, and they range from calling the film "compelling" to "pointless" in what seems to be a film that's dividing audiences before it's even hit theaters.

However, Rotten Tomatoes users seem to think highly of it, with the film sitting at a 79% rating from 28 critics reviews.

Here's some of what those critics had to say

Review roundup

  • HeyUGuys: Genuinely thrilling! Ridley Scott's incredibly precise and masterfully acted film is his finest since Gladiator. The very definition of a must-see film.

  • Variety: Napoleon ultimately suffers from the same problem as its subject: The film’s ambitions are greater than the people demand, as Scott bites off more than he can manage.

  • Hollywood Reporter: For all its brawn and atmosphere and robustly choreographed combat, this is a distended historical tapestry too sprawling to remain compelling, particularly when its focus veers away from the central couple.

  • Guardian: Scott has created an outrageously enjoyable cavalry charge of a movie, a full-tilt biopic of two and a half hours in which Scott doesn’t allow his troops to get bogged down mid-gallop in the muddy terrain of either fact or metaphysical significance.

  • Vanity Fair: Napoleon feels both hurried and ponderous, enlivened only occasionally by a wry and quickly vanishing gesture toward what it all might be saying.