VENICE - The 74th Venice film festival kicked off Wednesday with "Downsizing", a sci-fi drama starring a miniaturized Matt Damon, opening to enthusiastic early reviews.

Occupying a curtain-raising slot that has come to be seen as a strategic launchpad for films with Oscar ambitions, Alexander Payne's part satirical, part save-the-planet new work was hailed by the trade press as an intriguing and original breath of fresh air from the "Sideways" and "Nebraska" director.

The Hollywood Reporter said Payne had "hit the creative jackpot," while Variety welcomed a "ticklish and resonant crowd pleaser for grown ups".

London's Evening Standard was more reserved, praising the film as "often very funny" but bemoaning the abandonment of its initial satirical edge.

Set in the near future, the film is based on the premise that Norwegian scientists have found a way to literally reduce humanity's environmental footprint by downsizing humans to five-inch (12.5-centimeter) versions of themselves.

Soon however the technological breakthrough is being exploited for different reasons, as a means of enabling people to access a much more luxurious lifestyle than they could ever afford in the big world.

A combination of ecological and material motivations for being shrunk appeal to Paul Safranek (Damon), a kindly and well-meaning but stressed and frustrated occupational therapist from Omaha, and his wife Audrey, played by Kristen Wiig.

They sign up for the surgery but she gets cold feet at the last minute, leaving Damon to embark alone on his adventure in the miniaturized world he inhabits post-surgery.

Scripted by Payne, a two-time Oscar winner for his screenplays, and frequent writing partner Jim Taylor, the film will be hoping to emulate the success of "La La Land", "Birdman" and "Gravity", all Venice openers in recent years which went on to bag a bunch of awards.

Also unveiled on the opening day was "Nico", a bio-pic focusing on the final years of the Velvet Underground singer and Andy Warhol muse which is being shown in the festival's "Horizons" section dedicated to cutting-edge productions.

"Downsizing" is one of 21 films competing for Venice's top prize, the Golden Lion, which will be handed out on Sept. 9, along with a string of other awards including the first for films in a new competition for virtual reality productions.

As usual the international film line-up at Venice ranges from big-budget Hollywood productions, like George Clooney's sixth directorial outing, "Suburbicon", to new works by indie favorites Andrew Haigh and Warwick Thornton, via documentaries such as Chinese artist Ai Weiwei's epic look at the global refugee crisis, "Human Flow". - AFP