Christopher Nolan's OPPENHEIMER (2023)

[The Argonaut]

It's a great success of a movie.

But!

Too much music. It's nearly comical. It helps with the feeling of a relentless pace and I suppose they thought it would set off the big moments of sound design (that were very moving) but it's just too much music. This is a problem with a lot of movies these days, but this is the worst example I've seen.

I think the RDJ element of the story is essential to the full picture of the movie, and we need it to get the full blow of the wonderful ending, but it takes up too large a chunk of the movie and I hate that RDJ all of a sudden basically becomes the main character and Oppenheimer is almost gone. There's gotta be a better way to get to that story than what they did.

Either less Emily Blunt or more Emily Blunt. The amount of Emily Blunt we got was insufficient to support the weight of the story that ended up on her shoulders. And you'll never find me advocating for less Emily Blunt. But maybe just in this one special case.

But overall it was pretty tremendous for two hours. I saw it last night and my ears still really fucking hurt, though

[tree_]

[spike]

How upset is the internet that they won’t be able to refer to this as “Floppenheimer”

[VinylGuy]

Just got tickets for this thursday

Cant wait

[The Argonaut]

It's been 25 hours and my ears are still ringing. There really oughtta be a law against this sort of thing

[Mecca]

How upset is the internet that they won’t be able to refer to this as “Floppenheimer”

Florence Pugh let’s them floppenheimer

[wease]

Nothing is flopping when Florence Pugh is around.

[Jorge]

Underwhelming. Maybe seeing it again on an actual IMAX screen will unveil some aspects I missed. Lots of talk, mostly back and forth in committee meetings in the US congress, interspersed with some scenes in New Mexico. An early sequence set around 1920s Europe looks really nice, probably the best-looking thing Nolan has ever shot. Many clunky bits, including a Picasso / T.S. Eliot / Stravinsky montage that is just embarrassing. Its basic message, the moral dilemma around developing cataclysmic devices, lurks in the background but is hard to care when you keep noticing how bad the makeup is in the many close ups. And yes, too much fucking music.

[tree_]

Yeah, I'm losing more interest in this the more I hear about it. Probably going to wait for the blu-ray.

[BurtReynolds]

Can't help but think there is a much better movie in there somewhere, but Nolan is too staid to find it.

[BurtReynolds]

Spoiler: show

It is kind of interesting that the movie seems to be about Oppenheimer refusing to take a side or accept responsibility, yet Nolan does the same thing with the movie, presenting a distant, noncommittal view. Maybe it's a movie about himself.

[Chris_H_2]

did anyone read american prometheus?

i read it a couple of years ago, and i thought the movie was a pretty good, 10,000-ft view/representation of the book.

[Simple Torture]

did anyone read american prometheus?

i read it a couple of years ago, and i thought the movie was a pretty good, 10,000-ft view/representation of the book.

It's funny, I read about 2/3 of American Prometheus about 7 or 8 years ago, right up through the immediate aftermath of the Trinity test IIRC--which is the moment in the movie where it started to turn into a slog for some people. I liked the Oppenheimer stuff in the last hour more than the Straus stuff.

[The Argonaut]

I just don't get why they would switch to a new protagonist two thirds of the way through the movie. I understand that maybe the interesting question for historians about the post-bomb era of Oppenheimer's life is ~'who was responsible for tarnishing his name and why'~ but that's not an interesting question within this movie. I loved the parts around the bomb dropping, Oppenheimer coming to terms with what he's created and troubledd at how little his opinion is regarded, at his impotence. And the final conversations with his wife and Einstein crystallize perfectly his life and his mindset after that point. I wish they had come up with a way to tell the story of 1950's Oppenheimer that still centered Oppenheimer. It doesn't matter to me, the guy watching the movie, that Strauss is the big baddie. Strauss might as well be any other high government official, lacking humanity. Oppenheimer is still the interesting character in the movie

[BurtReynolds]

The last part plays out like an episode of Law and Order on fast-forward, and I did not care about anything going on. Probably in part because the inciting event for this was barely mentioned in passing, so it's big reveal was just, "ok, so what?"

[The Argonaut]

Yup. RDJ's big speech is definitely played like some big climactic moment but I legitimately had no idea what he was talking about. And I don't care!

[E.H. Ruddock]

You guys just don’t get it

[Coach]

Is this a safe movie for a toddler or elementary school student?

[Mecca]

Imagine thinking RDJ is the protagonist at any point after the encounter with Einstein

[Farmer John]

Is this a safe movie for a toddler or elementary school student?

I don't think it ever mentions the word "patriarchy", so you should be good.