Overlord Review

It's been a bit of a rough November for me in terms of my enjoyment of films that I've seen thus far. I made sure to hit all three of the big ones that were released, "Bohemian Rhapsody," "The Nutcracker and the Four Realms" and "The Grinch," and they were all duds. So when the giant blockbusters aren't working out, what do you do? You turn to the small films to get a win. So that's what I did. I suppose it's not completely accurate to call "Overlord" a small film, per se. It's not one of these independent/art house films vying for Oscar attention. Rather it's more like a medium-level film that didn't get quite as much attention as it deserved and will probably get overlooked even more over the next several days with the likes of "The Crimes of Grindelwald," "Ralph Breaks the Internet" and "Creed II" being released. But such is life. I'll do my best to vie for the movie. And if no one cares and no one reads this review, then so be it. As I said, I mainly went into this movie for selfish reasons. I wanted a win with a November movie, so I went and saw "Overlord" and I got a win. And that's all that really matters, right? And it actually did a little better at the box office than I thought it would, so perhaps there are a few of you out there that had this on your radar. If so, check it out.

Before I tell you what this movie is all about, I first want to tell you what this movie is NOT. That's a bit of a unique route to take for a movie description, but in this case it makes sense. First and foremost, this is NOT a "Cloverfield" film. "10 Cloverfield Lane" wasn't initially a "Cloverfield" film until it became one later in production. "A Quiet Place" was ALMOST a "Cloverfield" before they smartly decided against it. Then we have Netflix's "The Cloverfield Paradox" which is a lit bit of a lot of things. So given all that history, and the general secrecy regarding the "Cloverfield" franchise, everyone assumed this was going to be another "Cloverfield" movie since it was a J.J. Abrams production with his Bad Robot company. People thought maybe this would tell more of the origins of the "Cloverfield" aliens since this was set in World War II. But no, J.J. specifically came out earlier in the year to clarify that this was it's own thing without having anything to do with the "Cloverfield" franchise. And no, that wasn't a smoke screen because this doesn't secretly become a "Cloverfield" movie at the end. Granted, at this point I wouldn't put that past the "Cloverfield" franchise, but that's not what happens. It's its own movie, which in this case I think is an excellent thing.

Another important thing to note is that this movie really isn't a zombie movie and that's important to know because it's been heavily advertised as one. All the trailers and posters have been heavily pushing it is a Nazi zombie movie, which is unfortunate because now I feel that a lot of people are walking out of the theater disappointed because they went into the movie expecting a "World War Z" type of movie, but set in World War II. That's not really what this movie is. If Paramount hadn't falsely advertised it as such, I may not have even brought up that element of the movie in my review, leaving it as a third act surprise. But nevertheless my hand has been forced as I have to discuss it. There are zombies in this movie. But there's only a few of them that play a big role and those characters are the surprise that the movie builds up to. What this movie IS is a straight-up war movie. There's a paratrooper squad who are sent on a mission to destroy a German radio tower in an old church on the day before D-Day so that the Allied invasion of Normandy can be successful. Obviously this is a fictional story, but it's a fun theoretical war story that plays with the idea of the Nazis being up to some sort of secret mission.

Obviously, as I've explained, the secret Nazi mission was them experimenting with the dead to bring them back to life. And yeah, they could've done a whole lot more with this if they were aiming to do a straight up B-film involving an army of Nazi zombies during World War II, but they decided to take a realistic approach to the idea and present it in a way that this could've been something that actually happened. I found that to be a clever approach and thus I found myself to be super invested in the story leading up to it rather than simply sitting and waiting for the movie to commit to an all-out B-movie. And I think if you go into the movie expecting a war film rather than a zombie, I think there's a lot that you can take in because this is a really intense movie right from the get go. The movie wastes no time introducing characters or giving you a detailed backstory on how they got to the point where they are. Rather, the movie begins with them all strapped in on their plane, flying through the mass hysteria that was the World War II sky at night. As they fly, we get some brief exposition on what it is they are planning on doing, but at this point you aren't even sure which characters you're supposed to be following and if you're not paying close enough attention, you might miss the whole thing with all the loud noise around them before their plane gets hit and causes them to crash.

I thought that introduction to the movie was a great way to set the tone for what we were about to get ourselves into, which was a rather intense war film. After their plane blows up, you begin to know who the main characters of the film are by who actually survives. It's at this point that the movie takes the time to slowly introduce you to who these people are by their interactions among themselves as they carefully weave their way through the battlefield in order to figure out how exactly they're going to finish their mission despite the fact that most of them just blew up. And I found myself to be surprisingly invested in all of these characters. They had a good team dynamic that slowly grew over time. At first they feel like a bunch of strangers who were forced into this situation and have to deal with each other. The glue that holds them together initially is the soldier who is the highest rank among that have survived. He's kinda leading them around in the dark, both literally and figuratively, while forcing them to stick together and keep focused on what it is they're supposed to be doing. Naturally there's a whole lot of tension and there's one or two of them that you wish would've been a war casualty, but such is not the case and they are forced to work together.

I think what helped this bond for me is that I didn't recognize any of the cast while watching the movie. Several of them looked super familiar, but it wasn't until I went over to IMDb afterwards that I figured out where I recognized them from. This meant that while I was watching the film, I was able to see them as characters in the movie rather than actors playing the characters. I think they all did a great job, especially the two characters who end up being the main two characters, Jovan Adepo as Boyce and Wyatt Russell as Ford. Wyatt Russell is the one whose in charge as the highest ranking official while Jovan Adepo is the one who barely feels like he belongs as he's knew to this whole soldier thing. The bond between the two of them because rather strong by the end of the film, giving us characters arcs that really sold me. The rest of the gang as more supporting characters also had some solid side-arcs intertwined with the main two, giving us a good camaraderie as a whole that led to a solid movie that build rather well. The fact that I cared about all of these characters made the horrors of war even more intense, especially as the team got closer to infiltrating this radio tower. It's inside this radio tower that the movie successfully transitions into a solid horror film.

Unfortunately you already know the secret there because the movie's advertising forced me to discuss the movie's secrets. As the movie gets more and more intense, the movie also gets more and more gross, thus if you don't have a good stomach for violence and gore, you might want to stay away from this because nothing is held back. Specifically, all the experiments on the dead and the dying are quite the sight to behold, to put it lightly. It might get a bit gratuitous at times, but it also does a great job of setting the tone of the second half of the film. This was already set pretty well with the war aspect of the film. Their plane getting bombed down at the beginning was intense. Them wandering around in the dark was intense. As they were able to find a hiding spot thanks to certain new characters who are introduced, it gets intense as certain Nazis get closer to discovering them. And then to top it all off, we have these horrific experiments that make your stomach churn. This is quite the excellent build up that makes you brace for the absolute worst as you know the movie is not going to hold back once you finally get to the moments that most people were waiting for the second they walked into the theater. And without saying too much, that final act of the movie is insane.

In summary, this could be a mixed bag for people, depending on what you are expecting going in. If all you want is a Nazi zombie B-movie, you're going to spend most of the movie bored with the fact that this tries to be a real movie, then probably doesn't give you what you came for with the final act. However, if you go in expecting a war movie, I think you'll be rather pleased as this is a really intense war film right from the very beginning that successfully gives me everything that I usually want when I go into a war film. There's a lot of war action. A lot of intense battlefield moments. A lot of suspense with characters hiding from the enemy. There's a good team of characters who have to learn and grow together in order to successfully accomplish the mission that they were assigned from the beginning. And then we get rewarded with a clever twist at the end that the Nazis were doing a lot of crazy, underground experiments with the dead and dying soldiers from both sides. All of this builds up to a final act that is extremely rewarding. I left the theater on a huge high after being solidly entertained by this war thriller sprinkled with zombie horror. This is certainly the best film of November so far and could be one of the many great highlights of 2018. I'll give "Overlord" a 9/10.