Oppenheimer - 2023 Christopher Nolan & Cillian Murphy (birth of the Atom Bomb).

I gave it a 6/10. Amazing acting, filming and subtleties, but yeah. Would I watch it again? No.

It didn't feel like 3 hours so length wasn't the problem for me, I just found the hearings uninteresting and they formed a large part of the narrative.

He did a good job with Dunkirk but I feel like a biopic doesn't give Nolan the twisty, intellectual storytelling freedom that you get with Interstellar, Inception, The Prestige, even Tenet (which I know splits even Nolan fans).
 
Stu999 said:
Might not bother waiting for IMAX based on the last few posts…
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I've seen all of Nolan's films at the cinema since Batman begins and this one has had the least amount of impact as a film on the big screen.

I'm certainly glad I didn't talk my wife in to travelling to Manchester to see it in genuine IMAX film.
 
Saw this today in an IMAX (Cheltenham). The screen quality was only so-so but the sound was incredible... and loud! Really added to the experience, so I'd recommend IMAX or a big booming theatre to really enhance the mood.

The film is a 'historical drama' through and through rather than anything fantastic. I quite like Nolan's dips into fantasy so if I knew this I would have lowered my expectations. But I need not have bothered; I thought the film was rock solid - a thoroughly engaging watch. The interesting and scary subject matter makes it pretty gripping. Long but didn't outstay its welcome.

Nolan does sprinkle on a little of his 'make things difficult for the audience' in the latter third but by the resolution of the film what has happened is clear... so there is none of that 'unnecessary confusion / impossible to confidently understand the first time around as you're watching' malarky than I can find a bit pseudo-intellectual (particularly in 'Tenet' which just comes across as smug). But it is there - those that dislike this form of story telling from Nolan may take issue with it. But it was never overly obtuse, so I'll give a pass on the 'smug film' test. But be on the lookout to remember names... because there is a lot of referring to people in their absence!

Some specifics but going into spoilers:

The build up to the bomb detonation was incredible, as was the scene where he was giving the post Japan bombing lecture. The bit where a woman was cheering but he heard screaming was very chilling.

Whilst the quality of the film is generally very high the bit where it sags is when it transitions from 'bomb making' to '(non-)courtroom drama'. It's clear that events being shown are out of order but I don't get why Nolan has to be so obtuse and breadcrumb that (i) the behind doors hearing is for the renewal of Oppy's clearance... it does mention up front but simultaneously never makes it 100% clear that's what it is until a little later, and (ii) that the public hearing was for Strauss's appointment in cabinet, which I think is only revealed right at the end. This is what I was referring to re: the 'make things difficult for the audience'. Nothing gained by this IMO.

But when the hearing drama gets going, it does get really good AND it does ultimately make it all quite clear, so I can let it slide.

I also thought Strauss's motives to be a little too intense to be believable - not sure of the extent that it's dramatised.

But this is mostly nitpicks. I was pretty much hooked throughout.

Definitely the best film I'm seen in the cinema for a few months - 9/10
 
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I went in last night really wanting to like this, I've studied a lot of nuclear weapons and cold war history, along with Physics and some of my personal heros (who's books and physics work I've also studied) were cast in this movie, so I really really wanted to enjoy it.

I just could not get into it, I could see what Nolan was trying to do - but for me it just didn't work, I found it tedious and laborious to watch, I really did not enjoy watching it..
 
I saw this last night in the Manchester IMAX and thought it was fantastic. It's definitely a different style to his previous films, but still very good, and although it was 3 hours, it felt fairly fast paced and I wasn't clock watching at any point. As above, the sound was awesome, it's not often my missus comments on the sound, but the first thing she said afterwards was that the use of sound (and no sound) was amazing. The performances from everyone were top notch and looking through the IMDB cast list, there were several famous actors I didn't even notice. I'd be surprised if there weren't more than a few awards handed out.

It's probably my film of the year so far, but then I haven't seen Dune or Barbie yet! :cry:
 
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The bang made me jump lol

The cast is amazing - took me a while to realise Han Solo was in it - the music is amazing - but visually not Nolan's best, not sure why they made such a big deal about IMAX when 95% of the movie is people talking in rooms.
 
Looks like this officially managed a $174m global box office opening weekend which for a movie of this genre (15/R rated bio/docu-drama) are very strong numbers.
 
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Think that Barbie being out and the two crossed over in promotions and interviews I think Oppen got a boost from that.
 
After 40 years of enjoying cinema, I have distilled down to one simple question I ask myself to be sure I've cut through all the pretentious critic think and know for sure if I thought a film was actually good:

"Do I want to watch it again?"

Sadly, although Nolan's films are often technically sound the answer to that question is usually "no" with the exception of The Dark Knight. That film was like a Nolan heroin high, one I chase after hoping to reach again every time a new Nolan film is on the horizon. But I can just never seem to hit that high again...

I enjoyed Inception on first watch and TENET to a fair degree, but do I want to watch them again, hmm I'm not desperate. When it came to Interstellar and Dunkirk, it was much clearer, they were very well made but I just had no excitement to see them ever again.

So seeing so many people say the same thing for this it already feels doomed. I'm sure it is a good watch but I know already it's probably not going to make it into my top 20 films of all time.

I'm also like this with Tarantino films, desperate to like them, they are watchable sure but do I want to see them again, nearly always nope.
 
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MookJong said:
After 40 years of enjoying cinema, I have distilled down to one simple question I ask myself to be sure I've cut through all the pretentious critic think and know for sure if I thought a film was actually good:

"Do I want to watch it again?"

Sadly, although Nolan's films are often technically sound the answer to that question is usually "no" with the exception of The Dark Knight. That film was like a Nolan heroin high, one I chase after hoping to reach again every time a new Nolan film is on the horizon. But I can just never seem to hit that high again...

I enjoyed Inception on first watch and TENET to a fair degree, but do I want to watch them again, hmm I'm not desperate. When it came to Interstellar and Dunkirk, it was much clearer, they were very well made but I just had no excitement to see them ever again.

So seeing so many people say the same thing for this it already feels doomed. I'm sure it is a good watch but I know already it's probably not going to make it into my top 20 films of all time.

I'm also like this with Tarantino films, desperate to like them, they are watchable sure but do I want to see them again, nearly always nope.
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That seems a bit of a flawed method, for example, was Schindlers List a good film, yes, but would I want to see it again, no..

Inception, Interstellar and Tenet all benefit from repeat viewing due to the complexities of the films structure / narrative.

Oppenheimer is a solid 3 hours entertainment where you would miss out by not seeing it in the cinema but its also essentially 3 hours of people in rooms talking so not something anyone would likely watch on repeat.

Agree on Tarantino - peaked with Pulp Fiction..
 
Yeah it depends on the type of film. It could be a thought provoking one and done, or shallow fun and re-watchable. Different types of good.

I don’t imagine many people would want to subject themselves to the torture of Beau is Afraid after enduring it once… and that’s in my top 3 films of the year :p

But for what it’s worth, I’d watch Oppenheimer again. But not for some time. I rarely watch any film more than once in a year.

Re: Tarantino, I find most of his early films re-watchable but I wasn’t than enamoured with Django, Hateful 8 or Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. I don’t feel like rewatching those.
 
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n111ck said:
Oppenheimer is a solid 3 hours entertainment where you would miss out by not seeing it in the cinema
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What would I miss by not watching it on the big screen?
Sound effects.... probably not
Stunning Visuals... yeah, no, not really.
 
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