Oppenheimer - Review

When you think of a blockbuster film and Christopher Nolan, the thought of something visually amazing and stunning comes to mind. In fact, Nolan has built a reputation of mind bending films in his repertoire. However, does the hype around his latest film, Oppenheimer, blow his fans and movie goers away or will it just be an unexploded ordnance?

First off, regardless of any positive or negative outcome from the film, it has to be said that Nolan should be commended for his efforts of filming on an imax camera as well as using practical effects. Especially when we all live in a world where CG is quite the norm, having the efforts of using traditional filming is definitely tricker to navigate around.

Now, back to the film itself, there was an immense amount of hype about it… and avoiding news about it was difficult, but do-able. In fact, there were definitely a huge cast of familiar faces, even if it was only a small part. Nolan knows talent when he sees them, and he’ll do anything to utilize them when he can. All of this is just to say that the ensemble of actors were very impressive, to say the least. In addition to the know detail of Nolan’s sets, the wardrobe and costume department created what seemed to be an accurate that it definitely pulls viewers into the World War II era with just looking at the clothes on the characters’ backs. The way the pants sit above the hip and lose at certain parts are very different to how it is now. It definitely shows the ways of Americana fashion sense. All to say that from a visual point of view, Oppenheimer definitely takes the audience through time and convinces them that they’re in the 1940s. And lastly, the historic accuracy of the film is supposedly to be faithful portrait of what happened, which makes a great film.

However, where Oppenheimer falls short is its pacing issues. Due to the fact that the narrative tells the tale of J. Robert Oppenheimer at the start of his career all the way through to the very end. The film storytelling felt a little choppy in that there were moment and scenes that felt abrupt in addition to they way time moved forwards to try and depict and fit Oppenheimer's rise all within 3 hours. There’s definitely a lot to fit in… and 3 hours is already considered long for a movie to modern day standards.

The speed as it was moving was to a point where it felt a little disjointed. Not only that, but due to the fact that this was filmed with an Imax camera, you can tell there were moments throughout the film where Nolan could have taken an easier way out by using adding in CG, which could make a better visual scene. However, due to ensuring his integrity, he stuck with what he had, which made the film felt a little forced and choppy at times. This is both gift and a curse at the same time. In addition, there were moments where the last act of the film felt as it it significantly slowed down… a little too much that the first two thirds of the film felt, as previously mentioned, choppy.

All to say that Oppenheimer is not for everyone. It’s one that definitely should be watched in Imax theatres, especially at the fact that the equipment used was made for the cinematic (Imax) experience. However, the small set of scenes where the visual showed a taller imagery didn’t bring that much more into the film and narrative experience. What was impressive was the performance of the actors, accents, moments of intensity, and visual colour and style. This is definitely a film you should try to get to in cinema if possible, however, know that you definitely should temper your expectations as there is definitely a lot of hype around it. And though Nolan has a lot of hits in his list of films, unfortunately this one is one of the misses. That being said, a Christopher Nolan miss is usually still considered a hit from other filmmakers.

The Score

6.0

Review access provided by Warner Bros Pictures

The Pros

+Amazing acting from huge cast

+Visually stunning and takes you back in time

The Cons

-Pacing issues in the first 2 thirds of the film

-Slight choppy editing scenes