Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man First Reviews: Everything You Want in a Peaky Blinders Movie

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Four years after the series finale of Peaky Blinders, the show is back this month with a feature-length film titled Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man. The first reviews have arrived online and are as positive as fans could hope for, with now-Oscar-winning actor Cillian Murphy reprising his role of Tommy Shelby in the movie with another great performance. He’s the main reason to return to the property, or to introduce yourself if you’ve never watched Peaky Blinders before.

Here’s what critics are saying about Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man:

Is it a must-see continuation?

This is Steven Knight’s gangster rock opera at its finest.
— M.N. Miller, FandomWire

An experience as bloody, tense, and satisfying as fans could ever hope to see.
— Jeremy Mathai, Slashfilm

The Immortal Man, while obvious at times, also gives you everything you could want in a Peaky Blinders movie.
— Greer Riddell, Collider

The Immortal Man is an entertaining slice of British pulp that knows exactly what it is.
— Damon Wise, Deadline Hollywood Daily

The Immortal Man is a more than fitting coda that will leave longtime fans satisfied… [but] optional for those not inclined to tune in.
— Giovanni Lago, Next Best Picture

The Immortal Man [is] a flashy but ineffective feature-length continuation of the show.
— Rory Doherty, AV Club

Does it feel necessary?

It’s as essential as it gets — doing for Peaky Blinders what El Camino did for Breaking Bad.
— Jeremy Mathai, Slashfilm

The Immortal Man is a far better film sequel to six seasons of television than it should’ve been.
— Giovanni Lago, Next Best Picture

Trim, accessible, and refreshingly coherent, the film accomplishes what the final two seasons could not: it tells a proper story, it follows a straight line, and it gives its cranky, chain-smoking lead a genuinely thrilling send-off.
— Chris Wasser, Irish Independent

The Immortal Man reaches for moments of greatness, and once or twice gets there.
— Chris Bennion, Daily Telegraph

There is a feeling that this movie coda wasn’t strictly necessary… but the film also delivers something new and pretty engrossing.
— Tori Brazier, Metro

Season six already did the necessary work.
— Clarisse Loughrey, Independent

Will it live up to fans’ expectations?

It should certainly please fans ready to bid farewell to the original generation of the Peaky Blinders in style.
— Tori Brazier, Metro

Fans of the Peaky Blinders’ shootouts won’t be disappointed by The Immortal Man’s culmination, but whether the film truly matches the spirit and excitement of the original six-season run remains debatable.
— Greer Riddell, Collider

[Once] the pacing picks up, bringing the film more in line with fan expectations and tapping into the energy that made people love it in the first place.
— Giovanni Lago, Next Best Picture

Fans expecting some sort of spectacle-filled blockbuster will inevitably be let down… Some may find themselves wishing for a full-length season instead.
— Jeremy Mathai, Slashfilm

Do you have to watch the show first?

Fans of Steven Knight’s impeccably scripted show will find The Immortal Man familiar enough for comfort, but strangers won’t be too overwhelmed.
— Damon Wise, Deadline Hollywood Daily

It’s dutiful fan service, sure to satisfy legions of cultists cosplaying in tweed, but not unapproachable to viewers who aren’t entirely au fait with the show.
— Guy Lodge, Variety

It goes without saying that those with a prior knowledge of Tommy Shelby and his eternally bad mood will have a better understanding – and, possibly, a better time – with The Immortal Man. Still, newcomers won’t find too much to complain about.
— Chris Wasser, Irish Independent

It is far more demanding for those watching who have not experienced the television series, as Knight intended it purely as a reward for those who have committed years of their lives to this story.
— Giovanni Lago, Next Best Picture

The Immortal Man is not a good entry point into Peaky Blinders for the same reason it is not rewarding for existing fans: It traffics only in the late stages of Shelby’s arc, but offers nothing new to those who have already been there, done that.
— Rory Doherty, AV Club

How does it compare to the show?

Series creator and credited screenwriter Steven Knight… returns to the Peaky Blinders universe without missing a beat.
— Jeremy Mathai, Slashfilm

The sheer style and ambition that made the series iconic are still there.
— M.N. Miller, FandomWire

The Immortal Man… doesn’t try to reinvent the Peaky Binders template so much as slightly expand its stylistic scope and serve as a bridge to a new phase.
— Nick Schager, The Daily Beast

It carries the essence of the original Peaky Blinders, but the victories don’t land with the same satisfaction when your lead character is so clearly wanting out.
— Greer Riddell, Collider

This is Tommy Shelby and the Peaky Blinders playing their greatest hits…Those peaks just aren’t as razor-sharp as they used to be.
— Chris Bennion, Daily Telegraph

Does it work as a standalone film?

It’s a surprisingly contained drama that unfolds like an extended Peaky Blinders episode.
— Jeremy Mathai, Slashfilm

The Immortal Man works perfectly well on its own terms.
— Damon Wise, Deadline Hollywood Daily

The film is closer to something like El Camino, the sequel to Breaking Bad, in how it feels less like a standalone experience than it does an extended epilogue.
— Chase Hutchinson, TheWrap

How is the screenplay?

The story here is more straightforward than expected.
— M.N. Miller, FandomWire

The Immortal Man has an efficient, businesslike way with the story at hand, however silly it might be.
— Guy Lodge, Variety

Knight has turned Tommy into Batman… There are echoes of Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises.
— Chris Wasser, Irish Independent

Making Tommy an aspiring author was probably a stretch… but it does allow for some lovely lines about the PTSD still afflicting Great War veterans such as Tommy.
— Kevin Maher, The Times

The use of a memoir as a framing device isn’t a particularly original idea.
— Damon Wise, Deadline Hollywood Daily

Knight has a knack for short, snappy dialogue that can be quoted for years to come, but some of the father-son exchanges here feel overt.
— Greer Riddell, Collider

Does it feel like a movie?

Director Tom Harper stages [one] sequence with a widescreen flair that’s more overtly cinematic than (if still faithful to) the TV series.
— Nick Schager, The Daily Beast

The Immortal Man serves as a handsome reminder of what always felt quite cinematic about the series… It all looks expensively grimy, carrying the show’s general air of disreputable prestige.
— Guy Lodge, Variety

Tom Harper’s direction and George Steel’s cinematography stick to the IP: the period detail is sumptuous, the vibe is achingly cool, bomb-blasted Britain shimmers magnificently.
— Chris Bennion, Daily Telegraph

Crucially, The Immortal Man feels cinematic, from WW2 bomber POVs and the explosion that rocks the Birmingham Small Arms factory to the sonorous tolling of Nick Cave’s “Red Right Hand,” the show’s theme. It also comes with big-screen-worthy performances from a terrific cast.
— James Mottram, NME

This is a dark movie in every sense of that word, with frequent candle-lit scenes staged at night and hardly a joke to be found. Luckily, cinematographer George Steel never allows this to stray into Game of Thrones territory, always prioritizing clarity through evocative blocking and downright painterly framing.
— Jeremy Mathai, Slashfilm

Harper tries to inject the story with more style—carefully composed eerie images, a flashier edit, more severe and swooping low angles. It’s more, but not necessarily better.
— Rory Doherty, AV Club

How is Cillian Murphy’s performance?

It almost goes without saying that Cillian Murphy is magnificent.
— Ian Sandwell, Digital Spy

Murphy, returning to the role for the first time since his Oscar win for Oppenheimer, remains Peaky Blinders’ ace card. His performance is everything you want and expect – composed, sharp, soulful, witty.
— Chris Bennion, Daily Telegraph

Cillian Murphy has never been better in this role, slipping into the character’s skin with a profound weariness and resolve.
— Jeremy Mathai, Slashfilm

Murphy brings an unexpectedly emotional flourish to the role, even after 13 years and 36 episodes.
— Damon Wise, Deadline Hollywood Daily

Murphy remains as captivating as ever.
— Chase Hutchinson, TheWrap

The Academy Award winner is as charismatic as ever, and his performance grips you until the very end.
— Greer Riddell, Collider

Murphy – leaving everything on the field – makes it worth our while.
— Chris Wasser, Irish Independent

Is Barry Keoghan a good addition to the cast?

Keoghan brings both menace and vulnerability to the role of Duke. The character is a constant contradiction, a work in progress maybe, but Keoghan accepts the challenge.
— Chris Wasser, Irish Independent

Barry Keoghan is an excellent addition to the world, despite some slight accent wobbles.
— Ian Sandwell, Digital Spy

Wandering accent aside, it’s an explosive performance from Keoghan, who channels the vim and ego Murphy brought to the role in the early seasons.
— Nikki Baughan, Screen International

Though perfectly cast as the next Shelby in the line of succession, Barry Keoghan can only do so much to generate a lived-in sense of history between Duke and his estranged father.
— Jeremy Mathai, Slashfilm

He’s a natural fit for Peaky Blinders. In fact, it’s a little too natural – Duke’s a cookie-cutter Keoghan role, the rogue element who ends up humbled with his face down in the mud (literally this time).
— Clarisse Loughrey, Independent

Keoghan struggles to give heart to a character who is only ever shown as a two-bit hoodlum. He lends Duke a touching vulnerability but little else.
— Chris Bennion, Daily Telegraph

How is Tim Roth’s villain?

Dull.
— Chris Wasser, Irish Independent

The Immortal Man sags in the villain department… Director Tom Harper needed to better utilize Roth’s limited screentime by making him more memorably nasty.
— Rory Doherty, AV Club

Tim Roth’s John Beckett sadly falls short of any of the classic Peaky Blinders antagonists of old, lacking the depth of Sam Neill’s Major Campbell, the fiery screen presence of Adrian Brody’s Luca Changretta, or the sheer maliciousness of Sam Claflin’s Oswald Mosley.
— Jeremy Mathai, Slashfilm

Roth plays a fantastic antagonist — just as memorable as any previous Peaky villain whose story has unfolded over a full season. He is brutal, he adopts a voice with an eerie cadence, and you’ll be desperate for his demise.
— Greer Riddell, Collider

Tim Roth’s Beckett is another compelling antagonist for the series who, despite his Nazi allegiance, ends up having more in common with Tommy than you’d think.
— Ian Sandwell, Digital Spy

Roth is reliably watchable, all earthy magnetism and skin-crawling bonhomie.
— Chris Bennion, Daily Telegraph

Does it have any other problems?

This one-off film appeals to the worst tendencies of television movies, along with a trying first half that struggles to juggle what it’s trying to set up for a satisfying second half.
— Giovanni Lago, Next Best Picture

The film falters in returning to its roots… While many will view this as a full-circle moment, the themes are not layered enough to overlook the obvious faults.
— M.N. Miller, FandomWire

The sight of Tommy continuing to tap away at the keyboard while riding on a canal barge is borderline laughable.
— Damon Wise, Deadline Hollywood Daily

**Is it a worthy conclusion to this era of Peaky Blinders?**

While neither Tommy nor the film itself was ever likely to be immortal, the closing frames prove to be a fitting sendoff for him as well as his long, sad saga.
— Chase Hutchinson, TheWrap

Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man avoids becoming a needless continuation of a series that already wrapped up neatly, and is instead an excellent ending to this particular chapter of the story.
— Ian Sandwell, Digital Spy

It’s a goodbye that captures the muscular-and-melancholic spirit that has long been this franchise’s trademark—and will hopefully continue to be going forward.
— Nick Schager, The Daily Beast

Perhaps it’s not as emotional as you might hope, but this sombre final chapter of Peaky Blinders still wraps things up as tightly as a burial shroud.
— James Mottram, NME

It’s a fittingly grandiose denouement to Shelby’s grand-guignol career, but the effort to turn him into a last-minute SAS Rogue Hero falls a little flat.
— Chris Bennion, Daily Telegraph

Should you see it on the big screen?

If you feared that this would be a TV movie or just a feature-length episode, it’s absolutely a ‘proper’ movie and one that you wouldn’t regret seeing on the big screen if you can.
— Ian Sandwell, Digital Spy

It’s a film well worth a trip to the the cineplex.
— Jeremy Mathai, Slashfilm

Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man opens in theaters on March 6, 2026 and will be available to stream on Netflix on March 20, 2026.

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