"Overlord" Review: J.J. Abrams' Monster Movie Is Surprisingly Deep



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Director Julius Avery proposes a fast gender hybrid with deeper questions than one would expect.

"Overlord" invites low expectations and happily elevates them above them. Yes, this is a B movie produced with studio resources on American soldiers fighting Nazi zombies during World War II. But despite some underdeveloped characters and obvious tropes of B-movie, "Overlord" exceeds the call of duty with a captivating story that digs much further than what this material is usually doing.

In the JJ The director Julius Avery, a hybrid of genre produced by Abrams, brings the real-world horrors of Josef Mengele's experiences of the Holocaust of the Second World War to a more terrifying extreme: the Nazis developed a special serum for revive their deaths. Either by picking up dead soldiers on the roadside, or simply by abducting and murdering the inhabitants, the SS armed the villagers of an occupied city. This nauseating premise opens the way to a particular type of reward, because a black man returns the script on the final solution of these sadistic sociopaths with a much better solution.

Avery's film is a strange mix of genres, fusing the framework of a war movie with horror and intensity. The result is a mashup of "Dead Snow", "Universal Soldier" and the "Wolfenstein" video game series. An exhilarating adventure in the tumultuous life of a World War II soldier sound noisy design, and based on intimate and personal performances of Jovan Adepo and Wyatt Russell. The magnificent images of the film show the considerable talents of the film two Laurie Rose ("Kill List" and "Free Fire") by Ben Wheatley and Fabian Wagner ("Game of Thrones") have captured the scale of a mission in enemy territory with a realistic advantage and visual effects. The result merges the visceral qualities of war with the reach of the battlefield.

Abandoned behind the enemy lines just hours before the Allied forces storm the beaches of Normandy, Boyce (Adepo) and his corporal (Russell) have a mission in mind: to destroy the German transmitter at the top. of a fortified church in France. l & # 39; invasion. The Nazis quickly seized Europe as a disease, conquering one nation at a time and dominating the world in sight. On June 6, 1944, Hitler's perilous journey around the world is about to be over – at least, that was the plan, until soldiers see this. which is hidden under this holy sanctuary.

One of the most striking moments comes after Boyce's plane was shot down and parachuted into the ocean. Linked by loose ropes and trapped at the bottom of the sea, the terrified fighter emerges and floats to the surface, to find himself buried in a nylon blanket, out of breath. Watching her face emerge under a suffocating white cloth coat looks like a baby coming out of the womb while it is cracking a hole in the surface and taking its first breath. "Overlord" excels at generating this type of visual tension while also focusing on his ridiculous plot.

Certainly, at the level of character, there is not much here that we have not seen before. Boyce enters the familiar archetype of a morally healthy newcomer in this hostile and war-torn environment. the corporal is the jaded veteran who is not afraid to get his hands dirty, but commits dubious acts in the name of military orders. They are not the most developed action heroes, but "Overlord" gives them at least a more developed context. (As a Black Soldier during the Second World War, Boyce's unique position in this genre is not recognized: the film already takes enough liberties, so the historical fiction that ignores the American history of separate troops is not really a problem.)

History juggles with a surprising degree of sophistication with playful fears and a tense ultra-violence. Screenwriters Billy Ray and Mark L. Smith are more vocal. The most important of them: what separates the allied forces from their enemies when the only way to beat the Nazis is to sink to their level? When the corporal tortures a captured soldier, Willis, for information, almost beating the man to death, Boyce stands there and asks his superior officer to stop. The violence disturbs to the point of rocking the moral compass in a provocative effect.

Subliminal commentary on the science of human behavior through a supernatural lens, "Overlord" manages to meet the expectations of pure escape while it is deeper, and it's a welcome alternative to as many movies as you try not even.

Grade: B +

"Overlord" was created at the 2108 edition of the Fantastic Fest. Paramount publishes it on November 9, 2018.

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