Oppenheimer Reviews: Here’s What the Critics Are Saying

Acclaimed director Christopher Nolan returns to the biggest screens possible this weekend with what is easily his heaviest and most mature film to-date. Oppenheimer tells the harrowing story of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the gifted scientist who created the atomic bomb. Touting an impressive A-list cast, a three-week exclusive hold on IMAX theaters, and one of the most tragic and terrifying stories in modern history, Oppenheimer is poised to be a one-of-a-kind theatrical event.

The reviews for Nolan’s new film began rolling out on Wednesday and they have been overwhelmingly positive. So far, over 140 reviews have been logged on Rotten Tomatoes, with 92% of those critics giving Oppenheimer the thumbs up. Of course, the Rotten Tomatoes score itself never paints the full picture. 

Many of the reviews have been praising both Nolan and his cast, combining for one of the best movies of the year. Some have even gone as far as to call Oppenheimer a masterpiece from Nolan, a director who has multiple films that could fall into that category.

Below, you can check out some excerpts from a few of the Oppenheimer reviews that have been published so far.

Patrick Cavanaugh – ComicBook.com

“With Oppenheimer, Nolan orchestrates a talented symphony of performers at the top of their game to explore an overlooked corner of history, treating it with nuance and respect while lesser hands would lean into melodrama. The movie is a tribute not only to the true-life figures who pushed the limits of science forward, but also to those who suffered the consequences of those forward-thinkers’ quest for fire.”

You can read the full review here.

David Ehrlich – IndieWire

“Like The Prestige or Interstellar before it, Oppenheimer is a movie about the curse of being an emotional creature in a mathematical world. The difference here isn’t just the unparalleled scale of this movie’s tragedy, but also the unfamiliar sensation that Nolan himself is no less human than his characters.”

You can read the full review here.

Chris Evangelista – /Flim

“Oppenheimer is a huge, thrilling, scary experience. There are touches of lightness – it’s not all misery, I promise. But what makes the movie sing is the way it drops a ton of information on us in such a succinct, exciting way. We hang on every word; we marvel at every shot. It’s not just a movie, it’s a spectacle. A film that asks tough questions and then dares to not give us any easy answers. Like Oppenheimer himself, it’s a conflicting movie with an unknowable core. It’s also one of the best movies of the year.”

You can read the full review here.

Siddhant Adlakha – IGN Movies

“A biopic in constant free fall, Oppenheimer is Christopher Nolan’s most abstract yet most exacting work, with themes of guilt writ large through apocalyptic IMAX nightmares that grow both more enormous and more intimate as time ticks on. A disturbing, mesmerizing vision of what humanity is capable of bringing upon itself, both through its innovation, and through its capacity to justify any atrocity.”

You can read the full review here.

Rachel Leishman – The Mary Sue

“Visually stunning, as all of Christopher Nolan’s work is, Oppenheimer is one movie that really stays with you. You will leave the theater with the flashing red lights of the bombs going off and the pain of all those lost souls, just as Oppenheimer wore on his own mind and conscience, but knowing that we have the chance to take Nolan’s warning to heart.”

You can read the full review here.

Justin Chang – Los Angeles Times

“That might be a rare failing of this extraordinarily gripping and resonant movie, or it could be a minor mercy. Whatever you feel for Oppenheimer at movie’s end – and I felt a great deal – his tragedy may still be easier to contemplate than our own.”

You can read the full review here.

Caryn James – BBC.com

“Oppenheimer is Nolan’s most mature work, combining the explosive, commercially-enticing action of The Dark Knight trilogy with the cerebral underpinnings that go back more than 20 years to Memento and run through Inception and Tenet.”

You can read the full review here.

Jon Negroni – InBetweenDrafts

“Still, Oppenheimer is a return to form that Nolan desperately needed, and perhaps we needed as well. Because it proves that blockbusters can still be the bomb, without being nothing but box office bombs.”

Read the full review here.