The French have given decidedly mixed early reactions to Ridley Scott's film Napoleon, which premiered in Paris this week, with one historian even moved to describe the movie as 'very anti-French'.  

The first reviews of the picture have been unanimous in their praise of the huge-scale battle scenes that punctuate the piece, which is released worldwide from next Wednesday.  But some French critics and experts who saw early previews were less than impressed with the depiction of their most famous historical figure, played by Joker star Joaquin Phoenix.  

Historian Patrice Gueniffey told Le Point magazine that director its 85-year-old British director and producer Scott – renowned for making epics such as Alien, Blade Runner and Gladiator – "clearly doesn't like Napoleon."  

"We are treated to a caricature of an ambitious Corsican ogre, a sullen boor, who is also disgusting with his wife, Josephine," said Gueniffey, who also took issue with the "fanciful" statistics at the end of the film saying Napoleon was responsible for three million deaths.  

Spoiler alert: The film concludes with Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Waterloo, which Gueniffey took as proof of English-born Scott's "very anti-French and very pro-English" approach.  

Others felt that was unfair. "(Scott's) view of the man is not flattering but nor does it ignore what made his greatness," wrote reviewer Jean-Philippe Gunet on X, formerly known as Twitter. 

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There have been grumbles about the historical accuracy of some details. In a YouTube video, Emilie Robbe, a Bonaparte expert at France's Army Museum, argued that Napoleon never fired on the pyramids in Egypt, while British historian Dan Snow said Napoleon was not present at the execution of Marie-Antoinette, which opens the film.  

Scott has responded bluntly to such fact-checking. "Get a life," he said in the pages of the New Yorker. Some French critics were just a bit bored, however. "Far from the expected epic biopic, Napoleon proves too dull and didactic to live up to its subject," wrote Les Numeriques. 

Popular TikTok reviewer Mehdi Omais said it felt "more like a Wikipedia page than something deeply explored." Makers Apple are reported to have spent as much as $200million on a film budget to pay for some gargantuan battle scenes from Austerlitz to Waterloo. 

"My hat always goes off to Apple – it's not inexpensive and they took the risk," said Scott. It is the tech company's latest attempt to earn some Hollywood prestige, following hot on the heels of Martin Scorsese's equally pricey Killers of the Flower Moon. 

"To do a historical epic like this today with all these superhero movies going around... it's a big challenge," Scott added.

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