Review of Overlord (2018) by Thequietgamer — 28 Nov 2019

You know, it's entirely possible to make a sensitive protagonist that's not a useless wimp. Unfortunately, Overlord didn't get this memo as all its lead's emotions prove good for are repeatedly screwing things up for everybody and making eyes at the local French girl. It's like Julius Avery decided to take Finn from Star Wars and make him twice the hapless idiot without any of the charm that made him a likable doofus. The rest of the cast fares no better as they all get stuck playing overused stereotypes that are painfully underdeveloped.

That whole Nazi zombie premise? Yeah, that never comes to fruition. It takes until the darn near end of the movie to see any of these mutated freaks, and even then it's only really the big baddie himself who gets to do anything. The majority of the running-time is instead dedicated to watching the characters hide in an attic from German troops that are apparently deaf to gunfire and screaming. Not exactly riveting cinema.

The film looks great though. The gore effects are incredible and the underground laboratory looks like it was ripped straight from Call of Duty. It even gets the tone right by never taking itself too seriously and having something of a knowing sense of humor. The action just isn't as good as the presentation though, and that's a huge letdown. I've seen a lot of people compare Overlord to a videogame, but don't expect it to deliver the feeling of actually getting to play through one. This is more like watching all of the cutscenes and then skipping right to the final boss battle, which isn't much fun.

4.