Oppenheimer

★★★1/2

Mild Spoilers

Directed by Christopher Nolan
Written by Christopher Nolan, Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin

Oppenheimer is the biopic about J. Robert Oppenheimer, the “father of the atomic bomb”. He didn’t exactly invent the atom bomb, but he definitely spearheaded its development with a bunch of very smart scientists, and as a theoretical physicist, he was also no slouch himself. The efforts of Oppenheimer and his team ultimately let to the detonation of the only two atomic bombs in history on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, causing catastrophic military and civilian casualties in the name of saving more lives, events which have also changed the world forever.

Oppenheimer is an ok film, good even. Commendable performances, incredible cast (including Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey, Jr., Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Kenneth Branagh, Florence Pugh, and a lot of very familiar faces), and “arguably” an interesting story to tell – it is about the atomic bomb, for which the danger and implications of its mere existence still lingers in our consciousness today. Yet, why am I still feeling a little disappointed?

Firstly, the IMAX thing. In my opinion, there is nothing in the film that justified an IMAX presentation. Sure, the film looks prettier and all, but I refused to believe that you went in thinking only that, and not that you’re about to see the craziest, mind-blowingly accurate depiction of an atomic bomb explosion ever put on celluloid. I’m sorry to report that the “money” shot that everyone was waiting for was nothing more than a few seconds of a normal looking flaming mushroom shot against a completely black sky with no foreground or background elements used to emphasize its scale. It just… came and went.

Second: There are way too many characters, especially when they start throwing around multiple names in later scenes that I mixed up who they were really talking about. It’s made worse when some secondary characters were referred to by both their first and last names. The key characters were really Oppenheimer, Lewis Strauss (Downey, Jr.), General Groves (Damon) and Kitty Oppenheimer (Blunt). I get that Florence Pugh’s Jean Tatlock had some significance in Oppenheimer’s story, but I don’t know if it was really necessary to allocate so much screen time for this character other than to show off some superfluously sexy scenes that I felt was a bit derogatory and exploitative also, because Tatlock was after all a real person.

Fourth: I’ve not seen a single trailer and I still felt like the marketing was being a little misleading. This is not some taut and tense thriller of any sort, but really a courtroom drama I kid you not. Downey, Jr.’s Strauss is the only straight up antagonist in the film, heading a campaign to discredit Oppenheimer with a vendetta.

Third: See what I did there? I put the fourth point first before the third… just because, and this movie is like that, but worse. The film jumps across at least three or four time periods for no discernible reason. I think even they started to realize it was too confusing and employed black and white shots to differentiate between the time periods. Even that didn’t help, because normally a black-and-white scene would denote an earlier time period, but they used it for a period ahead of the main timeline, which later also reverted to colour without giving any cue. Or was that just Strauss’ scenes? I don’t know, I’m confused!

Last (or is it First?): Imagine Michael Bay or Tony Scott directing courtroom scenes, or even the dramatic ones – that’s what Nolan did with some of the talky bits. Hard cuts to close-ups and loud sound cues and bombastic music ad nauseam to emphasize the AGONY Oppenheimer is FEELING about the ACCUSATIONS and INSINUATIONS being thrown at him, because ARE YOU FEELING LOUDLY THE IMPORTANCE OF IT NOW? I found this a little odd coming from a confident and assured filmmaker like Nolan, who was never shy about letting his dialogues just play out as they were.

Maybe I’m just nitpicking too much. Maybe upon second viewing it will finally reveal itself as the masterpiece that it truly is. Or maybe it’s just an above-average, streaming-budget-looking courtroom drama that they tried to pass off as a cinematic event for the ages, and I’m just simply miffed that I actually paid IMAX prices to watch it.

Overlord

★★★★

No spoilers, but the movie doesn’t really have any twists

During World War II, a group of paratroopers are on a mission behind enemy lines to blow up a German radio tower, unbeknownst that the Nazis are conducting strange experiments in a secret lab below it.

Overlord is a good war movie. It takes itself pretty seriously on that front. If this had been based on true accounts of the experiences of paratroopers during the war, this would have been a very decent one. But since this was marketed as a horror movie, it’s no spoiler that our heroes will face off a few monstrosities conjured up by the aforementioned laboratory. The problem with this movie is that there were too little of the horror elements. This isn’t the Wolfenstein movie adaptation you were waiting for. If you removed that element entirely from the film, it still works perfectly as a war film. According to IMDb, the original script actually had more horror action, but they toned it down in the script rewrite.

Don’t get me wrong, the film is really well put together, even the horror parts. Nice VFX and practical effects. It is relentlessly thrilling and nerve-wrecking. There are a few really cool long takes that predates Sam Mendes’ 1917. The acting performances were pretty good, and you can tell that director Julius Avery knows what he’s doing. My big gripe was that the pay-off in the end wasn’t satisfying enough and felt too small-scale.

After the movie ended, I was wondering who the “overlord” was because he never appears or was mentioned about. Thanks to IMDb trivia, it’s actually the real-life code name for the Battle of Normandy. Sorry, spoilers if you haven’t seen world history.

Some familiar faces here. Wyatt Russell plays the co-lead and leader of the squad. You’ve seen him as John Walker in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Bokeem Woodbine is a character actor that you’ve seen in a lot of movies like The Rock and Spider-Man: Homecoming and he has a small role here. I was surprised to see Joseph “Eddie Munson” Quinn from Stranger Things 4, but don’t too excited as he only has a few lines. Pilou Asbæk, who is Batou in the live action Ghost in the Shell, is the big baddie. The protagonist is actually played by Jovan Adepo, who has been in Denzel Washington’s Fences, the Watchmen series and the recent mini series adaptation of The Stand. I read that there were other actors from Game of Thrones, but I haven’t seen that show, so I don’t know who they are.

Originally published on my Facebook page, here.

Obi-Wan Kenobi (Disney+ series)

★★★1/2

No Spoilers

Directed by Deborah Chow

Writers: Joby Harold, Hossein Amini, Stuart Beattie, Hannah Friedman, Andrew Stanton

Obi-Wan Kenobi is a 6-episode series on the Disney+ streaming service that tells the story of the titular Jedi Knight ten years after the events in Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith, and several years before the story in Episode 4: A New Hope begins. The Star Wars films are heavily referenced in this show, so prior experience with the Star Wars films, or at least Episodes 1 to 3 will be beneficial towards your enjoyment of this series. Since you need to be subscribed to Disney+ to watch this series anyway, every Star Wars films will be available to you on the channel to catch up on. (I can confirm that the animated series and spin-offs are not mandatory viewings, though there are minor references.) Mild spoilers from hereon if you have not seen the films.

After the execution of Order 66, Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) has gone into hiding on Tatooine for the last ten years while keeping an eye on a young Luke Skywalker from afar. An unexpected call from former ally Senator Bail Organa (Jimmy Smits) prompted Kenobi to abandon his post to conduct a search and rescue for a very important person. Hot on his trail are the Inquisitors, Jedi hunters trained by Darth Vader (Hayden Christensen) himself.

After having gone through all nine Star Wars films, and not even counting the spin-offs and other Disney+ series, I can finally say that I’ve surrendered myself entirely to the unending plot holes and continuity errors in the saga. There have been so many of them that it’s pointless to get upset but just roll with it. The Obi-Wan series might just be the biggest offender of the bunch; creating many situations and character interactions that jar with future events that have already been featured in earlier films or series. If you’re a stickler for such things, you’re going to have a field day with this one.

It also suffers from a bit of bloat, especially in the first three episodes. They could have made this a flab-free feature-length film by trimming down or eliminating certain scenes.

Some of you thought the action was bad, but I thought they were ok. What caught my attention more were the strange moments when characters could have easily overcome obstacles but didn’t, but it really depends on how much of it that you noticed. For example, the guard post thing completely went over me until I saw the memes, though I’d argue that architectural and design flaws are part and parcel of the Star Wars universe.

However, if you can put all that aside, there are loads to like and enjoy about Obi-Wan Kenobi - The Series. Ewan McGregor is in great form, reprising the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi. He gets a lot more opportunities to flaunt as his character has more emotional and powerful scenes than in any of the films. I wished it was the same for Hayden Christensen, but Anakin is more of a cameo here. It is Vader that got more of the screen time, and he dominates every scene he’s in. It’s great to hear James Earl Jones’ menacing voice again, intoning new lines. Vader shares villain duties with new character Reva (Moses Ingram), an Inquisitor who hunts Obi-Wan for an unclear agenda. She is a fascinating character in retrospect, but was unfairly maligned by impatient viewers who saw each episode as they were released weekly. An older, more experienced actor could have done the role better, but Ingram did a satisfactory job - it wasn’t the train wreck fussy fans have been complaining about. Her subplot is necessary because it helps add a little intrigue and mystery into a show where we already know where the other main characters’ stories are going. Joel Edgerton and Bonnie Piesse were given more than just glorified cameos as Owen and Beru, and I really liked what they did with these characters. Plus, that Owen meme is especially exquisite. There are other spoiler-ish character appearances which I will not mention here, but what was misunderstood as fan pandering has become very endearing moments after the last episode’s credits rolled, and I really liked all of them and their performances.

Most importantly though is how they handled the central conflict between Obi-Wan and Anakin/Vader, and I have to say it was fantastically realised. I like how there wasn’t an ounce of fat in the script. Every line was designed for maximum emotional impact. There were callbacks, but there were also resolutions. The caveat here is that the emotional resonances wouldn’t be as impactful to newcomers as it would to ardent followers of the films.

I would still recommend this as a must-watch for Star Wars fans, but passers-by might be baffled by the reception that this average episodic Disney+ actioner is getting. The strength of the show relies very heavily on your affinity towards the Star Wars films, but fans will find it emotionally rewarding.

Originally published on my Facebook page, here.