Napoleon
Columbia Pictures | Release Date: November 22, 2023 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
64
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 62 Critic Reviews
Positive:
34
Mixed:
26
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
We Got This CoveredSandeep SandhuNov 27, 2023
A beautifully shot film that doesn't quite conquer the big screen. Read full review
60
TimeStephanie ZacharekNov 22, 2023
It’s sometimes boring and pretentious and often a little silly, almost to the point—almost—of parody. But even with all its flaws tallied and noted like battlefield casualties, there’s still something mildly compelling about it. Read full review
60
The New YorkerAnthony LaneNov 22, 2023
If the movie falters, it’s because, as a bio-pic, it cannot do otherwise. Even the most expert of storytellers is defeated by the essential plotlessness of the form: one damn thing after another. Read full review
60
Rolling StoneDavid FearNov 21, 2023
Starting with the French revolution and ending with Monsieur Bonaparte’s no-bang-all-whimper exit from this mortal coil, the director’s sweeping, swaggering, occasionally stumbling history lesson is nothing more than an attempt to conjure up the road-show movie magic of yesteryear. Read full review
60
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeNov 20, 2023
A man, even a man as combative as Napoleon, amounts to more than the battles he has fought. And it is in this respect that the film is less successful. Read full review
60
ScreenCrushMatt SingerNov 16, 2023
At times, Napoleon is a costume drama. For long stretches, it is a bloody war film. And occasionally — in its best moments — it becomes a sordid and twisted love story about the unbreakable bond between two people: Napoleon Bonaparte, played by Joaquin Phoenix, and his wife Joséphine, played by Vanessa Kirby. Read full review
60
Screen RantGraeme GuttmannNov 16, 2023
It's a bold swing from the director and, despite it being tonally uneven and a bit messy, Napoleon can be still quite fun. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzNov 16, 2023
Napoleon isn’t a failure on anyone’s part. But it’s not a rousing success, either. It’s not really a rousing anything, which is the problem. Maybe Scott should have gone in even more on Phoenix’s quirks and mannerisms, which are the most purely entertaining things about the film. Whatever the case, it doesn’t quite measure up. Read full review
60
Time OutPhil de SemlyenNov 14, 2023
Ridley Scott delivers a spectacular but flavourless French history lesson. Read full review
60
Vanity FairRichard LawsonNov 14, 2023
Phoenix has always been good at depicting this kind of pathetic tyranny, deftly (and swiftly) shifting from bratty, toothless insouciance to genuine menace. The actor seems to get both the joke and the seriousness of the film, though I wish Scott were better at communicating that tone to the audience. Read full review
60
SlashfilmChris EvangelistaNov 14, 2023
The feeling persists that something is missing here. That Scott and company are merely lightly touching on things that require deeper exploration. Which brings me back again to that 4-hour director's cut. Read full review
56
TheWrapThelma AdamsNov 15, 2023
There’s spectacle aplenty — you, go, Sir Ridley Scott — but the overall effect of this dry, unintentionally funny epic is far from spectacular. Read full review
50
ObserverRex ReedNov 28, 2023
The result is a colossal bore that is never passionate, exciting, sexy or entertaining, with an ill-fated titled performance by Joaquin Phoenix that borders on catatonic. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangNov 23, 2023
Its glimmers of comic rage and generous helpings of battlefield carnage, though patchily entertaining on their own, never coalesce into a coherent reason for being. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreNov 21, 2023
One is left with the gnawing feeling that there isn’t much point to his Napoleon, that there are no messages/warnings for today in his narrative and that maybe his “take” on the character is more superficial than deep, more British monarchist than revolutionary and more set-pieces and romance than historically accurate and insightful. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsNov 21, 2023
Napoleon was many things, and with this dutiful career highlights reel, Phoenix and his director deliver glancing blows to as many aspects of the warrior-tyrant-genius-fool-lonely heart as cinematically possible in two and a half hours. Read full review
50
SlateDana StevensNov 16, 2023
As it is now, Napoleon plays more like a hastily compiled highlight reel of a life than the full-fledged historical epic its director seems to have intended. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineDerek SmithNov 16, 2023
More times than not, the film’s bursts of humor clash awkwardly with the far more frequent attempts at gravitas that the filmmakers strive for when our protagonist is in battle or engaged in political discussions. Read full review
50
VarietyPeter DebrugeNov 14, 2023
Dense without feeling rushed, then done without ever having really sprung to life, Napoleon seems determined to cover a great deal of ground over its not-insignificant running time. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyNov 14, 2023
For all its brawn and atmosphere and robustly choreographed combat, this is a distended historical tapestry too sprawling to remain compelling, particularly when its focus veers away from the central couple. Read full review
50
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiNov 14, 2023
It’s too bad Scott could not deliver a brilliant character study of one of the world’s great military leaders — and instead settled for letting a self-indulgent Phoenix fly over the cuckoo’s nest. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoNov 14, 2023
Say what you will about Scott’s most divisive movies—they’re usually big swings with big ideas. What’s so disheartening about “Napoleon” is how small it ultimately feels. Read full review
42
ConsequenceClint WorthingtonNov 16, 2023
Besides the gags, there’s little to grasp onto, and try as it might to echo Barry Lyndon’s naturally-lit tableaus, Scott’s film lacks that film’s acid-dry wit. Read full review
42
The Film StageFran HoepfnerNov 15, 2023
Napoleon is not a complete wash, mercifully, its strengths pooled in extended and gory battle sequences. You can feel Scott’s excitement at this material, how eager the film is to explain military strategy or blast a cannon through a soldier’s body. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)Alison WillmoreNov 22, 2023
Napoleon is not, thank god, a hagiography. But it has the faltering rhythms of a rough draft — it plays as though Scott gave up on trying to carve a good film out of what actually ended up on screen. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerNov 20, 2023
Try as he might to capture the political complexities of their relationship and how it was sacrificed because of the needs for an heir, Scott tells rather than shows (much as Napoleon's much-harped-upon mommy issues turn out to be a narrative and thematic dead end). It's all strategy, no tactics. Read full review
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