Overlord is a 2018 American war horror movie directed by Julius Avery and written by Billy Ray and Mark L. Smith. The film follows a group of American soldiers who are dropped down (their plane was brought down) into the Nazi occupied zone where they discover they are running experiments on people. Overlord (2018) movie review
As many other people have mentioned, the opening scene is very intense, full with real fire, real adrenaline, and real stunts, as well as blood and gore. We get few details about the main characters but nothing in depth. It is more of a formality where it is explained they are overall decent people, even if they can be somewhat crazy. This doesn’t tell us much because they are squaring off against the Nazis. However, in our case, there are still plenty of good people to root for, mainly Boce (played by Jovan Adepo), Chloe (played by Mathilde Ollivier), Chloe’s brother Chase (Iain De Caestecker) and Ford (Wyatt Russell).
Once they land, their focus is a radio tower in the church, but they soon find out that that is one small piece of a big puzzle so their objective shifts around. It creates this struggle in the group as they argue on whether to do what they are supposed to or go all in and take the entire Nazi operation down. It is a typical struggle we have seen many times but it outlines the things this group finds important. Not long after they get drawn into the Nazi layer where the real horror becomes apparent.
The action in this movie was good, the gore which was at times a little too CGI-y was mostly practical. There is a lot of it in the movie. It is not what is considered horror violence, but more of a thriller violence that is not supposed to be used as a shock factor for the audience. Yes it is bad, but not overly grotesque. The make up is also good so the transformations look real, raw, and gory.
However, some of the decisions made in the movie are bad. They are not crappy horror movies, but still shake your head bad. This seems like a trope even movies with big budgets and good producers seem to include. Not bad enough to ruin the movie, but still stupid. Aslo, the ending is predictable. It doesn’t try to turn the table and shocks us, but rather fulfills our expectations.
Overall, the movie has its list of tropes. These include tough and quiet guy becomes a hero, rookie soldier becomes hardened by the end of the movie, damsel in distress needs saving and asks fights on her own. However, it is well made, has some cheesy one-liners, has some conflicts, and has good guys defeating bad guys. On top of that plenty of violence and many Nazis getting killed.
Also, minor spoiler, but what was with the metal lady? Was that supposed to frighten us? If so, why wasn’t anything done with it if you’re going to introduce it in the middle of the movie?
Anyway, I recommend it to everyone. You will most definitely find something to like about this movie.
Thanks for reading my Overlord (2018) movie review
