Overlord

Starring: Jovan Adepo, Wyatt Russell, Mathilde Ollivier, Pilou Asbaek, John Magaro, Ian De Caestecker, Jacob Anderson, Dominic Applewhite, Bokeem Woodbine, Joseph Quinn
Directed by: Julius Avery
Rating: R
Genre: Action, Adventure, Horror
2018

Times Seen:
Tim: 1


Summary: On a mission behind enemy lines during World War II, American troops discover grisly NAZI experiments that have created horrific results.

Review:

Tim: We've had dozens and dozens of Word War II movies, so I suppose a WWII film about zombie Nazis at least capitalizes on the uniqueness factor. I have to admit, when I first heard about this film, I immediately rolled my eyes. The fact that it was produced by J.J. Abrams did nothing for me. After watching the film, I can say it was significantly better than I expected it would be. It got awfully close to being a good movie. While it does fall just short of that mark, it wasn't as bad as I anticipated. I actually enjoyed stretches of this movie. So, we're left in this kind of limbo. On the one hand, it's a pleasant surprise. On the other, it's still only a decent movie and I wish that it was better.

I wasn't anticipating the fact that this movie effectively blends a World War II action movie with a horror movie. I know that was the whole premise of the film, but I had serious doubts about its ability to do that. Director Julius Avery is able to effectively blend these together. If you look at the non-horror aspects of this film, it's a pretty decent look at soldiers on a dangerous, high importance mission during WWII. We get the camaraderie between the soldiers, we see them connecting with sympathetic French people under Nazi rule. We learn about these characters and their hopes and dreams. That all works quite well. And, when you look at the horror side, it's fairly effective, too. The Nazi experiments result in some grotesque, frightening aberrations. This aspect of the film doesn't offer us anything we haven't seen before, but this ungodly creations are creepy and hold our attention. I appreciated how the film balanced both these aspects to create something we don't see every day.

The cast was fine, but it definitely felt like a B or C level group. Jovan Adepo was fine in the lead role. He is sympathetic enough to establish a connection to the audience. However, I never really loved his character. He gives a fine performance, but he doesn't make him nearly memorable enough. Wyatt Russell was likewise decent in a supporting performance. His tough-nosed military guy felt a little cliched, but he brings some needed energy to the film. For the most part, he worked. Mathilde Ollivier was likewise enjoyable. She didn't get quite enough to do, but her performance felt natural and she contributed a lot to the film. I loved seeing Ian De Caestecker here, just because I'm such a fan of his from "Agents of SHIELD". He gave a pretty good supporting performance overall. I like Pilou Asbaek, but his character felt too thin and expected to be very effective. Bokeem Woodbine doesn't really do much for the film. In its entirety, the cast mostly works, but it's hard to feel much excitement for what we have here.

While the overall story is unique, the plot kind of meanders between being effective and being less so. The opening scene on the plane is quite entertaining, but it was hard for me to buy the sequences once they first land in France. It felt like a series of overly convenient moments were strung together. It didn't resemble reality as much as doing what it needed to do to push the story forward. Some of the scenes where the soldiers are hiding in the French citizens' house worked, but it felt like they spent too much of the film there. The climax of the movie definitely ratchets up the horror and the action, but it pushes the limits of our credulity. This film really straddled the line between being good and being decent and unfortunately, it ends up just shy of where it needed to be.

I didn't expect much from Overlord, so in many ways, I was pleasantly surprised with this revisionist take on the historical conflict. There's definitely some fun moments throughout the film. However, it ultimately doesn't do quite enough to be convincing. Julius Avery does a decent job directing it, but it's not surprising that this was only his second feature film. A more experienced director would probably have propelled this film up where it needed to be. As such, this is still a decent film. I might not recommend it to others, but I didn't mind watching it.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



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