Oppenheimer: Critics Have Shared Their First Reactions To The Film, And You'll Want To Book A Ticket Already

Reviewers have had a first look at Christopher Nolan’s much-anticipated biographical thriller.
Florence Pugh and Cillian Murphy in Oppenheimer
Florence Pugh and Cillian Murphy in Oppenheimer
Universal

Oppenheimer has been met with a wave of positive first reactions after film critics got their first look at Christopher Nolan’s much-anticipated epic.

The big-budget biographical thriller tells the real-life story of Robert J. Oppenheimer, who is known as “the father of the atomic bomb” due to his work with on the Manhattan Project in developing the first nuclear weapons during World War II.

Full reviews for the movie are still under embargo, but journalists have been allowed to share their initial thoughts on social media, after attending preview screenings over the last few days.

Oppenheimer has already been hailed as “a truly spectacular achievement” and “an audacious, inventive, complex film” from critics at Associated Press and The Sunday Times, with the cast’s performances also being called out for praise by many others too.

Check out some of the first reactions from the critics below...

#Oppenheimer left me stunned: a character study on the grandest scale, with a sublime central performance by Cillian Murphy. An epic historical drama but with a distinctly Nolan sensibility: the tension, structure, sense of scale, startling sound design, remarkable visuals. Wow

— Matt Maytum (@mattmaytum) July 11, 2023

Christopher Nolan’s #Oppenheimer is truly a spectacular achievement, in its truthful, concise adaptation, inventive storytelling and nuanced performances from Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jr., Matt Damon and the many, many others involved —- some just for a scene.

— Lindsey Bahr (@ldbahr) July 11, 2023

A sign that French audiences loved #Oppenheimer is that they stayed in front of the Grand Rex theater long after the film ended to debate about it!

— Elsa Keslassy (@ElsaKeslassy) July 11, 2023

#Oppenheimer is my film of the year.

Christopher Nolan makes 3 hours fly in stunning form. Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr. are incredibly strong.

The story is chilling in the tragic sense of World War II’s lack of humanity and on intimate human levels.

Stunning and scary. pic.twitter.com/TkxJeGfd5E

— BD (@BrandonDavisBD) July 11, 2023

OPPENHEIMER is...incredible. The word that keeps coming to mind is "fearsome." A relentlessly paced, insanely detailed, intricate historical drama that builds and builds and builds until Nolan brings the hammer down in the most astonishing, shattering way.

— Bilge Ebiri (@BilgeEbiri) July 11, 2023

Totally absorbed in OPPENHEIMER, a dense, talkie, tense film partly about the bomb, mostly about how doomed we are. Happy summer! Murphy is good, but the support essential: Damon, Downey Jr & Ehrenreich even bring gags. An audacious, inventive, complex film to rattle its audience

— Jonathan Dean (@JonathanDean_) July 11, 2023

I was skeptical, but Oppenheimer has stuck with me since seeing it last week. Yes, it's 3 hours, but in a dense-Scorsese way and the last 20 minutes (why Emily Blunt clearly took the role) bring its three narrative threads to a moving conclusion. (1) pic.twitter.com/dEC4hLlYiF

— Gregory Ellwood - The Playlist 🎬 (@TheGregoryE) July 11, 2023

Oppenheimer, which clocks in with a run-time of three hours, is released on the same day as the eagerly-awaited Barbie movie later this month, with many fans planning a double screening of the two films already.

US company AMC Theatres has stated that 20,000 people have booked in to see both movies on the same day.

Cillian Murphy, who plays Robert J. Oppenheimer in the film, also insisted he will “100 per cent” be going to see the Barbie movie, telling IGN: “I can’t wait to see it.

“I think it’s just great for the industry and for audiences, that we have two amazing films by amazing filmmakers coming out on the same day. You can spend the whole day in the cinema – what’s better than that?” he said.

Oppenheimer is released in UK cinemas on Friday 21 July. Watch the trailer below.

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