No story line with a plot and climax… no real character development… I was happy for it to be over

You can and should skip this movie. Fell asleep twice and yet, missed nothing. Excellent performance by Vanessa Kirby. Unbelievably bad performance by Joaquin Phoenix, rotten script, rotten editing job. Ridley Scott fails to capture the epic nature of the character or the changing battlefield. Nothing compelling, inspiring, or charismatic to redeem or invest in the movie.

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.

David Fear

Rolling Stone

We don't need another hero, but when it comes to the man at its center, Napoleon could have used a lot more oomph.

Ann Hornaday

Washington Post