I was shocked when I figured out the movie was actually about the conflict between Westinghouse and Edison and not Tesla and Edison.
The War of the Currents was fought between Tesla (a Serbian scientist) who was an idealist and did not care about money (died alone and penniless, refused to receive the NOBEL prize (1 000 000$) which was at the time an astounding amount of money) and a typical capitalist businessman -Thomas Edison.
JP Morgan and Westinghouse were the investors and should have been given equal parts in the movie (definitely not leading parts).
All in all the movie is just a well designed piece of propaganda trying to show the more humane side of Edison.
It is ridiculous when they say Edison never cared about money :D

Sadly this movie doesn't paint Tesla the true genius, we all know he was.
Edison stole his ideas, this movie is sadly historically inaccurate, shame it had so much potential to be great with the cast.

The movie was captivating. Direction, Cinematography, Story, Performances, and THE MUSIC was all awesome. I was so invested in the movie that I didn't want it to end. It was sort of a play, but there was something to it that kept on the edge of my seat for the entire time. I would highly recommend to watch it once, it's good. And the best part of the movie was The Unveiling at the end.

I went to see "The Current War" (Director's Cut) today and thoroughly enjoyed it. I then came home and checked out the IMDB reviews and was amazed at how many people disliked the film. The major complaint seems to be the Nicola Tesla was not given proper credit for his achievements. Others said the film was dull. Neither is true of the picture I saw. It may be that some people saw an earlier version that cut out much of the material about Tesla and had other scenes that slowed the film down that have now been excised. The film I saw was fast-paced, visually striking and certainly gave Tesla his due. My only complaint was that the director sometimes threw a little too much at us all at once, a mobile camera and a rather nervous score. There were also a lot of scenes with extreme lighting effects.

But that's appropriate because this film is about bringing light to the world. We don't realize how dark a place it was at night before the geniuses of electricity changed everything. And the pace of the film and the pulsating score remind us that this was a period of rapid changes in the way people lived.

Someone said that the film should have been about Tesla. But it's really about the conflict between Edison and Westinghouse, portrayed here as decent men who bend their principles because the nature of the culture that they are in puts them in completion and thus conflict with each other. Edison's desire is fame: he wants credit for everything and will not compromise with others lest he have to share the credit, (even though he admits that much of his work was based upon the work of others). Westinghouse wants to change the world, whatever it takes. (JP Morgan also appears with his grotesque nose: he's just interested in the money.) Tesla works for both men at different times. Edison fires him because Tesla wants to use Westinghouse's alternating current together with his designs to create the miracles. Westinghouse hires him because he recognizes his genius and wants to make full use of it. All though the film I kept wondering when they people would realize how much they could accomplish if they worked together. But that isn't how we do things.

Benedict Cumberbatch plays Edison superbly. He's now played Stephen Hawking, William Pitt, Sherlock Holmes, Vincent van Gogh, Khan Noonien Singh, Alan Turing, Dr. Strange and Thomas Edison. I wonder: Who was the greatest genius?

Overall appropriate movie for a family or group setting but not a date movie, unless the thirst yearns for specialized historical knowledge and high quality acting. Benedict Cumberbatch, Michael Shannon, Nicholas Hoult and Tom Holland lit up this movie! Very strong cast with engaging moments and great cinematography. No corny lines here!

The plot was progressive with a good balance of all the main components needed to be highlighted in this historical piece. There's not too much "nerd jargon" that the viewer would completely lose out the entertainment value of the premises of the movie. Assuming the breakthroughs/inventions were ALL true by their own inventors, one would learn a little more about each inventor besides his greatest achievements.

Great movie! Progressive plot with little to no twists to distract viewer.