Hey yall!
So we did it. Barbenhiemer double feature As I stated in my previous post:
https://lemmy.world/post/1887202
Oppenheimer review:
Overall I recommended people go see it in theaters, Preferably in IMAX.
The film tells Oppenheimer’s story well and conveys the complexity of Oppenheimer and the nuance of the situations that he was in. All of the performances where spectacular from a star studded cast. Its emotional, informative and visually pleasing. Go see it.
That being said: I ultimately found the film to be pretentious, tedious and kinda hard to sit through to the end. Many stylistic choices by Nolan get in the way of the films entertainment value.
SPOILERSZZZZZZZZZZZ BELOW
Some stylistic choices by nolan that I didn’t like:
1.)The entire movie is scene after scene of random jumps in time. There is almost zero contexts given for each scene. No year, or location is stated when scenes change. And the film takes place over 4 different time periods. Scenes just start up mid conversation: Oppenheimer in an office talking with some famous physicist for a 15 word conversation before another sharp cut to a different scene doing basically the same thing… For 3hrs.
While i feel this is purposeful by Nolan, maybe to prevent taking too much creative license with the story? Not sure, but it makes the film very confusing. There is such little effort made to explain the settings of each scene. Im glad I knew my history to fill in the gaps.
2.) Typical of a Nolan film: Its way too loud and too quite. The audio of explosions and visualization, shakes the whole theater while some fellow viewers cover their ears. Then the next scene, which is sharply cut from the previous one, is DEAD silent. Often followed by short whispered dialog. I couldn’t hear half of what was said.
3.) Maybe most frustrating thing: Nolan didn’t use cgi for the trinity test explosion.
Much of the movie builds to the Trinity test. Its the longest scene in the movie. The build up was emersive and exhilarating. Its honestly a incredible scene, until the explosion.
Unless you have lived under rock for the past 80+ years, you have probably seen the original footage of the trinity test. The real life footage is awe inspiring. Its surprisingly clear and detailed and shows the fury and scale of the first nuclear bomb. It’s mesmerizing and terrifying.
Christopher Nolan seems to think he can do a better job of creating an explosion than the real Oppenheimer and a real nuke. He’s wrong. The explosion during the Trinity test scene is severely underwhelming. So muxh so, It broke me out of the film. :(
Mission accomplished Mr.Nolan. Its painfully obvious you’re not using CGI. PS. If I wanted to watch movies made with 1930s tech, ill hit up turner classic.
I was so excited for this scene. Maybe its my fault for trying to enjoy Nolan’s recent films, instead of collapsing under the weight of the importance of the story.
Why he would choose to go this path can be nothing but pompousness. Like honestly, how are you going to make a 3rh movie about creating the atomic bomb, and then skimp on trinity test? Thumbs down Mr. Nolan.
Nolan is well on his way to become one of the legendary directors. Complete with a string of long “Epic” films I wouldn’t watch a 2nd time.
stay tuned for the Barbie review coming soon!
Seems to me like you were expecting a movie about the making of the atom bomb, when the movie was clearly focusing on the life of the man who created it.
I went with someone who’s entire knowledge of Oppenheimer was the Epic Rap Battle video and they were perfectly able to follow the entire story and the multiple location and date changes.
I would like to hear more of your thoughts on why you thought the movie was pretentious.
As for the sound, in my theater everything sounded great, maybe just slightly too loud in some scenes. Could it be just a bad setup?
Finally, I did not find the Trinity test underwhelming in any way. However, I can understand why some people might. However this ties into my first point. The story is not really about the creation of the bomb, but how making it affected the man behind it. Could be just that didn’t work for you while it did for me.
Im glad you liked it. Sincerely. I did too. but it is pretentious af to make a nuke scene in a movie about the father of the nuke, without CGI. Fullstop. He could just use very little cgi. Idk. But for me that scene was not a believable depiction of the trinity Test.
Omg. You’re the second person to say this. I find this take hilarious. Maybe you’re right. But Am I really that out of bounds to expect The Trinity test to be a little more big?
It didn’t even look like the trinity test footage.
So yeah I had expectations, I expected a director who seems to be very concerned about historically accurate depictions… to depict the trinity test historically accurate.
It’s a big deal to me. Sorry.
I saw it in 70mm imax as Christopher Nolan himself recommended. The sound was unbearable for many scenes.
So Im glad your theather was good but if mr.nolan cant make his movie sound decent in his recommend fomat. I think he should maybe turn it down alittle? Im not the first person to make this critque of this movies.
Many people said the same of Tenet.
The soundtrack isn’t directly on the 70mm film, it’s digital and sort of manually synced to the film. I believe IMAX film and IMAX digital uses the same soundtrack and the same standards but obviously the room dimensions and other properties will have some influence on the outcome.
tenet was way worse in the sound department, i didn’t understand a sinle word, while oppenheimer was ok-ish
Glad people having different opinions than you makes you laugh!
As for the pretentiousness of the film, you’re really calling a film that for just one scene where you disagreed with the director?
“It insists upon itself.”