Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Cinemablend
Cinemablend
Entertainment
Sarah El-Mahmoud

First Reactions To Oppenheimer Are Online, And Audiences Should Brace For A Dramatic Epic

Cillian Murphy in Oppenheimer

Between the Dark Knight trilogy, and original movies like Inception, Interstellar and his last movie, Tenet, Christopher Nolan has built a solid reputation for himself as a filmmaker audiences love to follow. The writer/director’s latest achievement is a book-to-screen adaptation of the biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer, also known as the “father of the atomic bomb” and his story in concert with the creation of nuclear weapons. Ahead of Oppenheimer’s big summer release next week, the first reactions for Oppenheimer have rolled in. 

The movie has been highly-anticipated for a while, between Oppenheimer’s stacked cast led by Cillian Murphy as the titular character, but tons of big names are part of Christopher Nolan’s latest including Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr, Florence Pugh and so forth. Let’s start this round up with CinemaBlend’s own Sean O’Connell, who had this to say on Twitter about Nolan’s latest:  

O’Connell compared Oppenheimer to Oliver Stone’s 1991 film, JFK, which told the story of the investigation of John F. Kennedy’s assassination. He really dug it, pointing out the many strong performances in the movie before sharing how while the movie is “dense” with history, it’s also Nolan’s most “accessible” yet. O’Connell’s ReelBlend podcast co-host Jake Hamilton also had good things to say about the upcoming movie 

Oppenheimer sounds different than one’s typical Nolan movie because it’s not attached to some massive high concept like Batman, reaching into one’s dreams, being a world-class magician or turning time. It sounds more likened to 2017’s Dunkirk, which was a historical war film that depicted a historical event in the Dunkirk evacuation of World War II. As we continue with the first reactions, Total Film’s Matt Maytum was absolutely “stunned” by the movie:

Sounds like Oppenheimer could be the whole package. Take a look at The Sunday Times’ Jonathan Dean’s thoughts as well, who loved the movie too despite it being very doom and gloom, apparently… 


Now, Dean did have a gripe when it comes to how the female characters are portrayed in Oppenheimer, but all in all, he actually would place the movie in his top three from the director. AP’s Lindsey Bahr called the movie a “spectacular achievement” in filmmaking after seeing it in 70mm IMAX. Check out her thoughts: 

There’s not much on the negative side being said so far as the first reactions for Oppenheimer roll in. There’s been a lot of buzz around Nolan’s new movie opening on the same day as Barbie and it sounds like this popular double feature, deemed Barbieheimer will definitely be night and day from each other. Here’s another reaction: 

That’s a lot of good buzz surrounding Oppenheimer! We’ve heard Nolan liken it to a horror movie, and it sounds like as the filmmaker explores the important moment in history, we’ll all be shaking in our boots thinking about the pitfalls of mankind as we get chills about his filmmaking. You can see the movie in theaters on July 21. 

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.