Featured Image Credit: Universal Pictures
Topics: Oppenheimer, Film and TV, Christopher Nolan
Jess Battison
Topics: Oppenheimer, Film and TV, Christopher Nolan
With not long to go until the movie finally hits cinemas, critics have had their say on Christopher Nolan’s latest masterpiece.
Oppenheimer, which lands on the big screen this Friday 21 July, tells the story of American scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer (played by Cillian Murphy) and his role in developing the atomic bomb which was used in World War II – something he earned the title as the ‘father of the atomic bomb’ for.
With a run time of a staggering three hours, it also stars Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jr., Florence Pugh and Matt Damon.
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And, like we didn’t see this one coming, it’s been an absolute hit with the critics who’ve been lucky enough to watch it already.
Oppenheimer impressively debuted on Rotten Tomatoes with a whopping score of 96 percent.
The American site compiles reviews for film and television to build its trusted Tomatometer.
Oppenheimer obviously doesn’t have an audience score yet but debuted with a combination of 49 reviews has put it with the particularly high rating.
This is already climbing though, as at the time of rating the reviews are up to 63 and the score at an even higher 97 percent.
Critics are absolutely raving about Nolan’s movie, writing comments such as: “The acting is uniformly brilliant.” And others say it’s ‘visually stunning’, ‘gorgeously photographed’ and ‘masterfully edited’.
Another also includes: “The film maker's technique generally counterpoints any caveats and script imperfections.”
One even went so far to say: “Oppenheimer isn’t just an epic masterpiece but one of the most important films of the year.”
While the critics do note the ‘complex themes’ of the story, a handful say ‘it’s not without its problems’.
Plus, many are calling it Murphy’s ‘career best performance’.
There’s not any more press being done from the cast now as the Hollywood stars take part in the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike.
However, in previous interviews, Murphy warned the film will ‘knock people out’ with how ‘provocative and powerful’ it is.
In an interview with The Guardian, the Peaky Blinders star described Oppenheimer as ‘sometimes like a thriller, sometimes like a horror’.
In a Facebook post, Nolan’s fellow filmmaker - screenwriter and critic Paul Schrader - gave the new movie his stamp of approval.
Schrader penned the script of Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver, and also directed the likes of American Gigolo, Master Gardener and The Card Counter.
He wrote of the film on his Facebook page: "OPPENHEIMER. The best, most important film of this century. If you see one film in cinemas this year it should be Oppenheimer.
"I’m not a Nolan groupie but this one blows the doors off the hinges."