‘Oppenheimer’ First Reactions Praise Christopher Nolan’s ‘Most Impressive Work Yet’: A ‘Spectacular Achievement’ and ‘Total Knockout’

Universal Pictures has finally unveiled Christopher Nolan‘s atomic bomb epic “Oppenheimer” at a world premiere event in Paris. First reactions to the nearly three-hour drama are pouring in and are strong across the board, with the film being called a “spectacular achievement” and “audacious.”

Writing for The Los Angeles Times, former critic Kenneth Turan hailed “Oppenheimer” as “arguably Nolan’s most impressive work yet in the way it combines his acknowledged visual mastery with one of the deepest character dives in recent American cinema.”

Matt Maytum, deputy editor of Total Film, said Nolan’s latest left him “stunned,” adding, “[It’s] a character study on the grandest scale, with a sublime central performance by Cillian Murphy. An epic historical drama but with a distinctly Nolan sensibility: the tension, structure, sense of scale, startling sound design, remarkable visuals. Wow.”

Associated Press film writer Lindsey Bahr called the movie “a spectacular achievement in its truthful, concise adaptation, inventive storytelling and nuanced performances from Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jr., Matt Damon and the many, many others involved.”

“Totally absorbed in ‘Oppenheimer,’ a dense, talkie, tense film partly about the bomb, mostly about how doomed we are,” The Sunday Times writer Jonathan Dean posted. “Happy summer! Murphy is good, but the support essential: Damon, Downey Jr & Ehrenreich even bring gags. An audacious, inventive, complex film to rattle its audience.”

“Oppenheimer,” based on the 2005 book “American Prometheus” by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, tracks the creation of the atomic bomb during World War II through the eyes of theoretical physicist and Manhattan Project leader J. Robert Oppenheimer. The director’s longtime collaborator Cillian Murphy gets his first leading turn in a Nolan tentpole thanks to “Oppenheimer,” which also stars Matt Damon as Manhattan Project director Gen. Leslie Groves Jr. and Robert Downey Jr. as Lewis Strauss, a founding commissioner of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. Emily Blunt, Florence Pugh, Benny Safdie, Michael Angarano, Josh Hartnett, Rami Malek and more also star.

Bird previously raved about Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” adaptation during a conversation at the Institute for Advanced Study last month.

“I am, at the moment, stunned and emotionally recovering from having seen it,” Bird said. “I think it is going to be a stunning artistic achievement, and I have hopes it will actually stimulate a national, even global conversation about the issues that Oppenheimer was desperate to speak out about — about how to live in the atomic age, how to live with the bomb and about McCarthyism — what it means to be a patriot, and what is the role for a scientist in a society drenched with technology and science, to speak out about public issues.”

Notably, “Oppenheimer” is Nolan’s first R-rated release since 2002’s “Insomnia.” It also marks his first collaboration with Universal Pictures following his exit from Warner Bros., where he spent over a decade helming films such as “Interstellar,” “Inception” and his “Dark Knight” trilogy.

“Oppenheimer” opens in theaters nationwide July 21 from Universal Pictures.