[C+ Film Review] Overlord: Call of Duty: Return to the German Army Headquarters

Darion 2021-12-19 08:01:23

As one of the important components of World War II mysticism and conspiracy theories, Nazi Germany's fascination with supernatural abilities inspired a subculture genre full of evil taste and blackness. For contemporary audiences, the most familiar entertainment product is the battle against Himmler's black technology in "German Headquarters" and the destruction of Nazi zombies in "Call of Duty". But this theme is not lacking in film and television performance. The earliest Nazi zombie film can even be traced back to "The King of Zombies" in 1941. It was four years before Hitler killed himself by drinking a bomb.

As far as contemporary movies are concerned, the concept of supernatural Nazis is not insulated from the mainstream. This includes Spielberg’s commercial transformation in "Indiana Jones" and Michael Mann’s horror film treatment in "Devil Warriors". . Since the beginning of the new century, the film and television market has been gradually refined under the promotion of the Internet, and B-level films have ushered in a small wave of revival, which has also prompted the return of this theme. There are low-cost and ultra-low-cost zombie films "Outpost" and "Death Snow", as well as the 2012 sci-fi film "Steel Sky", and of course, there is also this movie from JJ Abrams. Bad robot, quasi-A-level "Overlord."

As an R-rated plasma film, the script created by Billy Ray and Mark Smith is simple, but very solid and interesting. Under the supervision of director Julius Avery, it provides some great potential and infection. There is also a good chemical reaction between the actors in the powerful shots. In fact, by the standards of ordinary movies, "Overlord" is even a little amazing. But the simple and direct structure, the visual design that pays attention to the sensory stimulation-as a high-concept and highly typified thriller film, "Overlord" obviously does not have much to scrutinize, and it does not really surpass the general World War II zombie film. It also fails to provide really interesting and creative content.

I'm afraid this is one of the reasons why "Overlord" is just a bad robot movie (not even a Clover universe movie), not a JJ Abrams movie. And like the earlier "Clover's Paradox" (both film directors are even called Julius), if you log on to an on-demand platform like Netflix instead of a theater line, you may be more interested in the temperament and appetite of "Overlord" .

The (pseudo) sci-fi monster movie produced by J.J. Abrams seems to have a unique use of horror elements: the pseudo-documentary style handheld photography of "Clover Archives", developed by "10 Clover Road" John Goodman's perverted potential, "Clover's Paradox" is not of high quality, but at least a few scenes are still scary (not counting the oversized monster at the end). "Overlord" does not belong to the "Clover Universe" as rumored, but it is remarkable in terms of the degree of execution of the formulaic content. For most of the time, "Overlord" can hold the audience firmly on their seats and watch the evil Nazi experiments lurking in French churches. What kind of "living corpse" nightmare will be brought about.

Despite its small scale, compared with other zombie movies of the same type, "Overlord" still burned a $38 million production budget in an "outrageous" manner. This figure is already very close to "Clover's Paradox", but The bits are significantly smaller. Obviously, most of the budget should have been spent in the first act of the opening: a "real" war scene that included parachuting from night air raids to landing encounters. In terms of production level, this scene is also the most admirable passage in the whole film.

But from here, "Overlord" seems to have lost its way, and it seems a bit boring and lack of surprises in the half-hour advance. Part of the reason is that Piru Esbeck’s villain in the film lacks unique charm and is too typified for Nazi officers. It is similar to Hans Landa in "Inglourious Basterds" or "Pan's Labyrinth". It pales in comparison to Captain Vidal in Lieutenant.

Crucially, whenever "Overlord" seems to start to sway plasma like a "Ring Room Movie", it will suddenly be pulled back from the fringe of madness by an invisible hand. If it were Sam Remy, Quentin Tarantino or Robert Rodriguez, he would definitely not be so forceful of rationality-after all, this would have been a B-grade "cool film", if Every time I force a cool down before the climax (from another point of view, this is just to delay the time), it is really disappointing.

Nevertheless, as producer JJ Abrams's first foray into a real horror movie, "Overlord" showed a certain amount of courage and temperament. Due to the high degree of typology, it does not require any logic or standards to appreciate this "superficial" "retro" movie, just like you can play "Call of Duty" and "German Headquarters" without any historical knowledge.

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Extended Reading
  • Cristobal 2022-03-30 09:01:05

    The same theme is the snow of death, which is more interesting

  • Rupert 2022-03-26 09:01:07

    My hands are tired from playing games by myself, and my eyes are tired from watching the director! Ha ha!

Overlord quotes

  • [last lines]

    Rensin: [alternative final lines] Any of you Krauts got a cigarette? You got to be shitting me. None of you?

  • Ford: The tower, Private Boyce!