Review of Overlord (2018) by Joseph D — 10 Nov 2018

It's that time of year again! Christmas & Thanksgiving are just around the corner! And you know what that means! Time for some nazi science gone wrong!!! (I bet you thought this was The Grinch review. Lol.).

OVERLORD.

At about two hours long, this horror film hits the ground running, with the horrors of war. We get right to the action, but none of it is pretty, it's unsettling to the core. If not for the sci-fi horror aspect, this could easily be an historical drama, meant to show us what war was...& still is; it was very effective.

The cast was well chosen, the soldiers felt like comic book heroes, the nazis felt like comic book super villains, the townsfolk felt like side characters, but everyone felt painfully human, like the people we were seeing were a bit of an exaggeration, but based on the people who survived the world wars, & came home to tell larger than life stories of themselves. All the actors deserve awards, I believed what I was seeing.

The effects were phenomenal. There was a lot of CGI, but it was crisp, believable, & only used where practical model work would've looked too obvious. Everything else was done practically, I felt like I was in there with the soldiers, every time someone got hurt or something (someone) went boom, I felt it; this is how movies like this should be done. Right!

The music took a backseat, letting the visuals tell the story, & only offering a subdued punctuation here & there, which was a good choice!

Once again, J.J. Abrams knocks it outta the park. Overlord is stunningly crisp, grimy & gritty in a beautiful way, & as I said, painfully human. You get to know & care about people who aren't real, & watch them go through a nightmare no one should endure. 4 stars outta 5, happy holidays, & remember: ...uh, nazis R bad, m'kay?