I love Sweet Square. The start of this thread is so funny to read back, after watching Oppenheimer end us as a masterpiece. Well done RiP for calling out everyone complaining about how boring this was going to be.
Film Christopher Nolan's 'Oppenheimer'
- Thread starter Salt Bailly
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I love Sweet Square. The start of this thread is so funny to read back, after watching Oppenheimer end us as a masterpiece. Well done RiP for calling out everyone complaining about how boring this was going to be.
Excellent post.
Just got back and I'm still not sure what I think of it.
As a piece of film-making it's spectacular. Everything about it. Its heavyweight stuff and everyone involved is in top form. It'll be buried in awards and it deserves to be.
The issue I had is probably on me. I knew of Oppenheimer of course and what the story was going to be about, but I deliberately didn't go any deeper than that because I was concerned it would take something away from the film. This was a mistake. It's a film that I feel would only be enhanced by knowing the history, and as such the last act, while still tense and enjoyable, felt like an exercise in dramatising certain events that didn't seem that important compared to what came before it.
I'm certainly now invested enough to spend some time learning more, and I suspect that the second viewing will be better than the first as a result.
As a piece of film-making it's spectacular. Everything about it. Its heavyweight stuff and everyone involved is in top form. It'll be buried in awards and it deserves to be.
The issue I had is probably on me. I knew of Oppenheimer of course and what the story was going to be about, but I deliberately didn't go any deeper than that because I was concerned it would take something away from the film. This was a mistake. It's a film that I feel would only be enhanced by knowing the history, and as such the last act, while still tense and enjoyable, felt like an exercise in dramatising certain events that didn't seem that important compared to what came before it.
I'm certainly now invested enough to spend some time learning more, and I suspect that the second viewing will be better than the first as a result.
Yep I also went in knowing little to nothing about Robert Oppenheimer and that didn't help. I watched a few youtube videos after the fact which helped fill in the parts I didn't quite grasp. A second viewing would be interesting.
And yet The Guardian continues to ignore my reviews and give articles to frauds like Peter Bradshaw!
How? The pacing of the film is one dimensional - it's sprinting the whole time trying to pack everything in. ie, no pacing.
Didn’t you like Inception or Interstellar? Or even Batman?
I liked it, the bomb stuff a lot more than the commy stuff 8/10. Why didn’t they just cast Jeremy Irons for Strauss, instead they made RDJ look like him.
The scene where Albert Einstein randomly appears from behind a car at night was hilarious. What the hell was that about?
I do the lord's work.
The start of this thread is so funny to read back, after watching Oppenheimer end us as a masterpiece. Well done RiP for calling out everyone complaining about how boring this was going to be.
Feck it, I thought it was awful. Obviously awful in the context of still being decent cinema (great acting, great pictures blabla) but way overhyped.
I probably should just stop watching Nolan films, I don't get him at all. Way too long, overdone dark aesthetics (apparently scientists hate colourful things), just an allround stressfull experience to watch between the blaring sound effects + music playing over everything and then having to focus on mumbling conversations (although the later part was for once fine I thought).
His love for double layered storylines which felt particulary pointless in this case because the Security Clearence / Strauss story felt like desperately trying to milk something that just wasn't there. Don't get me wrong, the public dismantling of Oppenheimer because of past communist connections was a disgrace (as were many things in the US in the 50s) but I never felt this was enough material to elevate it onto the magnitude of the Manhattan project. Backstabing and careerist infighting in Washington isn't really groundbreaking and the trivial background didn't help either. He was friends with a couple of communist party members and donated some money - bohooo, not really spectacular content for cinema.
Due to this forced storyline some actual interesting historical context around the Manhattan project was ignored. Why bother to introduce Heisenberg and Bohr but never really make use of their characters (e.g. their meeting in Copenhagen). Why not go into the story of the Einstein-Szilard letter? Instead we get plenty of train travels and discussion about security clearce this and that. What a waste.
I probably should just stop watching Nolan films, I don't get him at all. Way too long, overdone dark aesthetics (apparently scientists hate colourful things), just an allround stressfull experience to watch between the blaring sound effects + music playing over everything and then having to focus on mumbling conversations (although the later part was for once fine I thought).
His love for double layered storylines which felt particulary pointless in this case because the Security Clearence / Strauss story felt like desperately trying to milk something that just wasn't there. Don't get me wrong, the public dismantling of Oppenheimer because of past communist connections was a disgrace (as were many things in the US in the 50s) but I never felt this was enough material to elevate it onto the magnitude of the Manhattan project. Backstabing and careerist infighting in Washington isn't really groundbreaking and the trivial background didn't help either. He was friends with a couple of communist party members and donated some money - bohooo, not really spectacular content for cinema.
Due to this forced storyline some actual interesting historical context around the Manhattan project was ignored. Why bother to introduce Heisenberg and Bohr but never really make use of their characters (e.g. their meeting in Copenhagen). Why not go into the story of the Einstein-Szilard letter? Instead we get plenty of train travels and discussion about security clearce this and that. What a waste.
I liked that the Dark Knight is by accident a perfect Obama era film which captured the liberal reactionary period of 2008/09. Plus silliness of the third Batman is very fun.
But that’s about it. Nolan is too much a nerd for me and fixated on “realism”. Plus I find Nolan style to be very middlebrow. His works are like if Marks & Spencer started a film company.
Although for about 2 hours Oppenheimer was a a bit of a change. So that was nice.
Man I thought the best part of the movie were the post bomb scenes. Weird to see so many people disliked them.
I really loved that. It was emotional thinking about what they lived through as someone who studied History at university. I thought the tension and anxiety came across really well.
The fallout was life changing and I thought Cillian Murphy was incredible representing a flawed individual in an impossible situation. It was etched on his face and you could tell he brought everything to the role.
Strong performances and emotionally charged scenes across the board. It’s definitely one that will stay with me for a while. A fantastic film.
The fallout was life changing and I thought Cillian Murphy was incredible representing a flawed individual in an impossible situation. It was etched on his face and you could tell he brought everything to the role.
Strong performances and emotionally charged scenes across the board. It’s definitely one that will stay with me for a while. A fantastic film.
He's no James Cameron, that's for sure.
Yeah I found it difficult to give a shit about a security clearance after they dropped two atomic bombs on Japanese cities killing hundreds of thousands of people.
It’s like making a film on Henry Kissinger and spending the last hour focusing on his expired Starbucks membership.
Preach!
Nolan - Oh look at my imax camera. The screen is all filled up! And isn’t war so complicated.
James God King Cameron - I’ve been to the bottom of the sea abyss. I give the fat American suburbs depression as they cry with joy while watching my blue people destroy the amerikkka empire.
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I make one film per decade, you got a problem with that?
And that one film brings in a box office total of 4 large European countries GDP combined(Barbie + Oppenheimer together are still a billion short of the last Avatar film). Then he disappears back to the bottom of the ocean.
Untouchable levels of greatness.
Singlehandedly keeping Sam Worthington in a career.
And that one film brings in a box office total of 4 large European countries GDP combined(Barbie + Oppenheimer together are still a billion short of the last Avatar film). Then he disappears back to the bottom of the ocean.
Untouchable levels of greatness.
It’s like winning the league with Grant Holt upfront. Have to go back to maybe T2 when Cameron had a big leading movie star in his film(Titanic doesn’t really count as DiCaprio and Winslet were almost nobody’s at the time).
Like no shit Oppenheimer has a great lead performance it’s Cillian Murphy. Real directing is taking an Australian man who eats rocks for breakfast and bringing in over 2 billion in box office tickets. That’s the work of a genius director.
I do see parallels with Nolan because of their dedication to making films for the big screen. Cameron has that magic touch though that Nolan hasn't quite grasped yet.
Yeah joking aside I do think Nolan is getting more interesting as a film maker. Apart from the final hour I did really enjoy Oppenheimer. The use of almost a non stop soundtrack was great and something not seen in many films at all.
Mentioned before but the nuke dropping scene is genuinely incredible and one best experience I’ve ever had in a cinema.
The test was ten straight minutes of sickness. The Oldman cameo was wonderful too. Apparently he said don't let that son of a bitch back in here rather than cry baby. A man's man for sure. Zero regret.
So I guess the Russo brothers are greater than Kubrick, Scorsese and Coppola by that standard.
And that one film brings in a box office total of 4 large European countries GDP combined(Barbie + Oppenheimer together are still a billion short of the last Avatar film). Then he disappears back to the bottom of the ocean.
Untouchable levels of greatness.
Way of Water was a steaming turd of a movie not fit to lace the boots of Oppenheimer or Barbie as a film. Not sure conning people into wasting money on crap is a sign of greatness.
What the hell does that even mean???
Just watched it. Really enjoyed it. Thought Downey Jr and Cillian Murphy were excellent. Best Nolan movie for a long, long time.
The Oldman cameo was brilliant. Really puts across how detached Oppenheimer mild moralism is from the actual evil of state/political power. And how incredibly stupid both American exceptionalism and Truman are.
Also the target picking scene where Kyoto doesn’t get picked just because a US general used to go on holiday there with his wife is another brilliant scene.
Overall it’s not up there with Kubrick levels of soldiers chanting Mikey Mouse as they butcher a town in Vietnam but to Nolan credit when he does take aim at the United States he hits pretty hard.
Tbh I was mostly joking but…..the thing Cameron has over likes of the Russo brothers is that he creates his owns concepts. The Russo are tagging along on decades of work done by others where as Cameron makes the billions with the blue people he invented in his mind!
Pretty much this
Although I would also add in the Obama and Cameron austerity era.
Yeah, that's a fair point. I'll never understand how Avatar 2 made that much money though, that was so much worse than anything he has ever done.
While I do think he could have spent the last 25 years making movies with a bit more bite than the avatars, you just have to accept that the man was given carte blanche to make whatever the hell he wanted with an unlimited budget and the end result was the first and third most successful films of all time. He is is the definition of box office.
And there's 3 more to come, baby! (At least.)
I don’t get the reference
Tbh I don’t really got the whole Avatar in general. It’s seems to hit the lizard part of peoples brain very hard. Also…..my local cinema was charging £20 a ticket to see the second movie!
FFS make your mind up SS. If JC heard you describe his movies as "appealing to our lizard brains" how do you think he'd feel? Like the last 25 years have all been in vain. God king Cameron deserves better.I don’t get the reference
Tbh I don’t really got the whole Avatar in general. It’s seems to hit the lizard part of peoples brain very hard. Also…..my local cinema was charging £20 a ticket to see the second movie!
Harlan Ellison, science fiction author, who wrote the Outer Limits episode 'Soldier' that Cameron plagiarised for his hit film The Terminator.I don’t get the reference
If I was good at memes I would insert one right here. Thankfully for the rest of you, I am not.
Yeah, I know its just anecdotal, so irrelevant, but I didn't know anyone that watched Avatar 2 in theatres, not the Marvel fan types, not the people I know with young kids, not the hip LA film crowd. It must have been selling out elsewhere.I don’t get the reference
Tbh I don’t really got the whole Avatar in general. It’s seems to hit the lizard part of peoples brain very hard. Also…..my local cinema was charging £20 a ticket to see the second movie!
Good for Cameron. Ellison was a prima donna asshole.
Yeah.. 
Watched it yesterday, it was aight. Don’t really get the massive hype. I’d say it was slightly worse than Dunkirk. 7/10 maybe. Last 30ish minutes didn’t really do much apart from maybe elaborating on the historical points without adding much from an entertainment perspective.
Jaysus you lot are so sensitive. Nolan isn’t going to marry you ffs
It was terrible. But Cameron is still one of greats. Has he just made Terminator 2 and nothing else he would still be - greatest action film ever.
Have to confess I never watched Avatar, let alone the second one, only glimpses of Titanic and while it‘s a really cool mindless popcorn action movie I‘d hardly watch Terminator 2 again (T1 it‘s where it‘s at for me). Alien 2 also a bit too 90s cliché with the crew for my taste but that‘s probably the only one I can re-watch every now and then.
Back on topic: I also don‘t like Nolan‘s movies/style.
Back on topic: I also don‘t like Nolan‘s movies/style.
Ah thanks. Yeah I’ve watched that Outer Limits episode before, just had no idea that’s what Harlan Ellison looked like.
Fair point. I get that themes in both Avatar films and some audiences even got mild depression because they couldn’t live in Pandora but…. I’ve
never been able to get around the whole blue people think.
It’s personally failing I know
Yeah it’s a everything about the Avatar films is strange. Billions in box office sales but the cultural impact of almost zero.