The release ofNapoleonis just around the corner, and after the film’s debut at its world premiere in Paris, the first reviews and the Rotten Tomatoes score have surfaced online. And both tease a new epic adventure fromRidley Scott, with some brilliant performances from Joaquin Phoenix and Vanessa Kirby. Awards season is approaching, and the competition is getting fiercer. After directors like Christopher Nolan and Martin Scorsese wowed audiences once again withOppenheimerandKillers of the Flower Moon, Scott seeks to become another strong contender for the next Academy Awards withNapoleon, the biopic of the famous French military leader and politician.
With an incredible cast led by the Oscar winner andJokerstarJoaquin Phoenixand Oscar nominee Vanessa Kirby,Napoeleonreconstructs part of the life of the titular character, exploring his relationship with Josephine, and showing some of the most epic battles he fought while trying to carry out his plan to conquer as much territory as he could.
At the time of writing this article, the film has a score of 80% onRotten Tomatoes, and early reactions tease a visually epic and explosive movie, with memorable performances, but some flaws in the script.
The True Story Behind Ridley Scott’s Napoleon, Explained
Though Ridley Scott’s Napoleon may take creative liberties, it is still, in fact, based on real history. Here’s the true story behind the film.
Napoleon Is As Epic as it Is Fun, Reviews Declare
ScreenRant’s Graeme Guttmannteases a complicated love story:
“To say Napoleon is a love story may sound strange, but in many ways, the film is driven by the conqueror’s erratic desire — for victory, for Josephine, for a male heir, and France. That France often loves him back is a wonder in itself, but Scott’s film does not seem to say the same. It does not lionize the figure nor does it crucify him. Napoleon doesn’t even really try to tell the history of France’s most tumultuous period with any sort of coherence. Instead, like the man himself, Napoleon is a confounding film, as exciting as it is plodding and as self-aware of its flaws as Napoleon was blind to his own.”
Ross Bonaime from Collidercelebrates Phoenix’s and Kirby’s performances:
“Napoleon is a grand film, both in terms of Scott creating a story with a size we’ve rarely seen from him, and the bold, large choices made by a completely game Phoenix. Between films like Napoleon, The Last Duel, and 2015’s The Martian, we’re still getting peak Scott, and it’s hard to watch Napoleon and not think that Phoenix and Kirby are two of the best actors working today. It’s fascinating to watch this trifecta work together here. Napoleon might’ve been a notoriously small emperor, but there’s nothing minuscule about what Scott is doing with Napoleon.”
Nicholas Barber from BBC says the movie is epic and fun, but it sadly fails to deeply develop its main character:
“Scene by scene, his proper, old-fashioned historical epic is terrific fun. But it lacks insights into who Napoleon is or what he wants, where he comes from or why he is such a success. Nor does it delve below the surface of the geopolitics around him. It is never clear why he is fighting a particular battle or signing a particular treaty, and because it isn’t clear, it is difficult to care about their outcomes.”
Empire’s Catherine Bray thinks the movie is kind of a contradiction:
“The marketing forNapoleondid a bang-up job of making Ridley Scott’s take on the French emperor’s rise and fall look very grandiose and serious. But that’s not exactly what the film is like: this is a historical epic which is constantly on the lookout for subtle ways to undercut historical epics.”
Variety’s Peter Debruge believes the film forgets about its protagonistby focusing on the big battles:
“If the goal was to reevaluate Napoleon’s career in the context of whatever power Josephine held over him, then surely it could have been done with fewer battle scenes and a sharper depiction of the who’s-controlling-whom dynamic between them. In the end, Napoleon seems less enamored with his subject than any previous telling of his exploits, referencing the 3 million lives lost under his campaigns. Scott may be skeptical of the man, but he can’t resist the desire to re-create some of history’s most notorious conflicts, and his psychology is sacrificed for the sake of spectacle.”
David Ehrlich from IndieWire describes it as unexpectedly fun:
“Watching Napoleon — or at least the choppy and somewhat formless 157-minute version of it that will be released into theaters in advance of the much longer director’s cut that fans will invariably claim as a masterpiece at a later date — I couldn’t help but feel like Scott may have been caught off-guard himself. There’s no doubt he knew the film would be funny, but he seems to have been surprised by how far that funniness would take it, and/or unwilling to concede how little everything else would matter.”
Napoleonis scheduled to be released in the United States on July 08, 2025, by Sony Pictures Releasing, before streaming on Apple TV+ at a later date. Check out the trailer below:
