Movie Review: Oppenheimer (2023)

Oppenheimer (2023) co-written and directed by Christopher Nolan

J. Robert Oppenheimer is famous for leading the Manhattan Project, the American World War II effort to build an atomic bomb before the Nazis. This biography stars Cillian Murphy as Oppenheimer, who goes through a lot personally as he is drawn into the scientific community on the cutting edge of physics in the early 1900s. He met a great many famous physicists in his academic life and wound up at Berkeley. He also had some interest in unionizing teachers and scientists and in supporting communism, though he was more like a fellow traveler than a flag-waving leader. One day military officer Leslie Groves (Matt Damon) shows up at Berkeley and offers Oppenheimer the job of building the bomb. Groves is not fully committed to Oppenheimer but is impressed with his forthrightness and his connections. Oppenheimer accepts the job even though he has misgivings about compartmentalizing the project. He recognizes the value of keeping information secure. However, the need for collaboration between the scientists is more important to him than keeping key information separate. He has a hard time managing the expectations of the government, his fellow scientists (many of whom were sympathetic if not full supporters of communism), and the project. 

The main, practical part of the project is headquartered in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Oppenheimer chose it for its remoteness and for his fond childhood memories of the area. A whole town is built for the scientists and their families, making a tight social community focused on developing and testing an atomic bomb. There's some debate about sharing information with the Soviets among the scientists. They are also concerned with the impact the bomb would have though Oppenheimer has more of a "we produce and the government decides what to do with it" mindset. After the war, Oppenheimer becomes doubtful about the morality of using the bomb (and developing new, more powerful weapons) and expresses his doubts on the Atomic Energy Commission, making him less popular with politicians, especially Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey, Jr.) who was an advocate for Oppenheimer's involvement in developing the bomb.

The movie tells the story of Oppenheimer through flashbacks as he goes through a grueling review of his security clearance to remain on the Atomic Energy Commission. The review is more of a kangaroo court set up to remove him from the Commission. That framing device is paralleled with Strauss's congressional hearings to be approved as a cabinet secretary. Some senators are dubious about Strauss's judgment, especially his involvement with Oppenheimer. The structure creates the typical mixed-up time narrative of Nolan's films (except for his Batman trilogy) with information provided not in chronological order but in a way to make a dramatic crescendo by the film's end. This style works well here since the movie focuses more on the human relationships and Oppenheimer's enigmatic character than the atomic secrets and discovery. The narrative is well-structured and interesting.

Murphy delivers a great performance capturing the detachment and intelligence of Oppenheimer, making him a bit of a cipher to others, especially the women in his life. Downey also gives a great performance. Both characters are manipulative in their dealing with others though Oppenheimer has more sincerity and naivety, which causes him problems with other scientists, the government, and the few women in his life. His struggles with morality create a lot of drama and some ambiguity, another feature common in Nolan's films (especially his Batman trilogy). The rest of the cast give very good performances too.

The only drawbacks in the film for me were two. First, it feels longer than it needs to be though I am not sure how to tighten it up. Second, the sound design is too heavy-handed with a lot of deep basses and overly repeated motifs. I understand the narrative purpose but would have liked a more subtle touch. These are relatively minor quibbles, the movie is well worth watching.

Recommended.

The Sequel Was Better? Batman Begins The Dark Knight

The Sequel Was Better? is a series of reviews looking at famous movies with sequels that are considered, rightly or wrongly, to be better than the original movies. Typically, sequels are a step down in quality, acting, and/or production value. But not always. See other reviews here.

Batman Begins (2005) co-written and directed by Christopher Nolan

Young Bruce Wayne (Gus Lewis) plays with his friend Rachel (Emma Lockhart) on the Wayne Manor grounds. He falls into a covered well and the film flips to a bearded, older Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) who is a prisoner in an Asian jail. He beats up a lot of the other inmates and is pulled out of jail by Ducard (Liam Neeson). Ducard says Bruce can find what he's looking for if he takes a blue flower to the top of a nearby mountain. Bruce has been fighting criminals on the streets and has made little progress so he climbs the mountain. He finds Ducard in an ancient fortification that is the headquarters of the League of Shadows. The League trains men to be stealthy, ruthless, and powerful. The League is run by Ra's Al Ghul (Ken Wantanabe). His plan is to rid the world of evil and corruption by sending out the trained soldiers. Bruce and Ducard have some discussions about justice and anger as Ducard teases out the story of Bruce's childhood. 

Young Bruce was injured physically in the drop into the well, but more substantial was the psychological fear of bats he developed. Bruce was saved by his dad, Thomas Wayne (Linus Roache). He's a doctor who has used the Wayne family's wealth to help Gotham, especially during an economic depression when lots of regular people struggled. He invested in a new water system and elevated train lines, providing jobs and civic improvements. Wayne takes his family to an opera that features some bat characters. Young Bruce becomes frightened and asks to leave. The family goes to the alley out back where they are mugged by Joe Chill (Richard Brake), who winds up killing Bruce's parents. Bruce is taken back to Wayne Manor and is raised by Alfred the butler (Michael Caine). Bruce grows older but is still fearful and resentful. In college, he goes to a hearing where Chill may be released from jail since he provided evidence against mob boss Carmine Falcone. Rachel (Katie Holmes), now in the district attorney's office, goes with Bruce. Bruce brings a gun, hoping to avenge his parents. He's beaten to the kill by one of Falcone's associates. Bruce confronts the free Falcone (he's got so many politicians in his pocket that he can't be prosecuted) who treats Bruce with contempt, knowing he can't do anything. Bruce then goes on a crime spree in order to learn more about criminals, the better to fight them. That's what led him to the Asian jail.

Ducard trains Bruce. As he gets better, Ducard reveals the League's next plan--the destruction of the highly corrupt Gotham. Bruce thinks there's still enough good people left to spare the city. Ducard scoffs at Bruce's compassion and explains how it is incompatible with the League's modus operandi. They have brought down other decadent civilizations like ancient Rome and Constantinople. They tried to take down Gotham earlier through economic deprivation but people like Thomas Wayne kept the city together. The League has a new scheme. Bruce objects, fights with Ducard and the League. Ra's dies in the fire that starts during the battle. Bruce saves Ducard from the fire and returns to Gotham.

Gotham still has the same problems--Falcone is running drugs and manipulating the city's government. Wayne Industries's board wants to sell Bruce's shares (he's been gone for seven years and declared legally dead). Bruce is not quite in time to save the business but he does meet with Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman) who is in charge of a research department that developed various weapons, armor, and other gadgets for military contracts that never went to fulfillment. Working with Alfred in the caves under Wayne Manor, Bruce fashions himself a Bat suit for his crime fighting nights. He goes out to stop a shipment of drugs. During the battle, he gets evidence to pin Falcone to the crimes and discovers that part of the shipment was going elsewhere.

The other part of the shipment went to a Doctor Crane (Cillian Murphy) who works at Arkham Asylum. Crane has been working with Falcone, getting mid-level mobsters out of jail by declaring them insane and transferring them to Arkham. Crane is developing a toxic gas that terrifies people. Crane wears a Scarecrow mask to get the maximum effect from his patients/victims. When Carmine is arrested and Rachel gets hard evidence from Batman to keep him in jail, Crane has Carmine transferred to Arkham. Carmine tries to bully Crane into releasing him, but Crane is working for a larger organization and uses the toxic gas on Carmine.

Rachel tries to reverse the move of Carmine to Arkham, insisting that the DA's office have an independent assessment of Falcone. Crane uses the gas on Rachel as Batman comes to the asylum. Crane has been using the inmates as slave labor to put the toxin in Gotham's water supply, though since it is airborne, it has had no effect on the citizens. Batman works with police detective Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) to save Rachel. Batman rushes Rachel back to Wayne Manor where Fox has delivered an antidote for the toxin. She gets the cure and Alfred takes her back home.

Meanwhile, it's also Bruce Wayne's birthday party at Wayne Manor. Fox is there and reveals that Wayne Enterprises has lost a high-tech weapon that vaporizes water. Bruce tells Fox to go back and make more antidote. Another party guest is Ducard, who admits he is Ra's Al Ghul and is advancing his timetable. Bruce makes everyone leave the party and then has a big fight with Ra's and his henchmen. They leave Bruce trapped under a beam as the house burns down around him. Alfred returns and helps Master Bruce get out. They flee to the Batcave and Bruce suits up for the final confrontation with Ra's.

Everybody goes to Arkham where Ra's activates the vaporizer. The prisoners are released and subjected to the now-airborne toxin, causing anarchy in the neighborhood. Ra's takes the weapon to the elevated trains. If he can get it to the Wayne building in the center of the city, all the water supply will be vaporized and the city will descend into chaos. Batman fights henchmen and gets onto the train. He fights with Ra's as they argue about the rightness of ending Gotham's corruption through the harsh justice of the League of Shadows. Batman gave Gordon the keys to his Batmobile. Gordon uses it to knock down the train tracks, resulting in the destruction of the machine and the death of Ra's.

By this point, Batman has admitted to Rachel that he's Bruce. She comes to visit him in the wreckage of Wayne Manor. Bruce decides to rebuild (Alfred reminding him that it's a good opportunity to fix up the downstairs). Rachel realizes that her childhood friend is still not back since he has become Batman. Maybe if he can put aside the cowl, they can be together. Bruce reluctantly agrees. Batman returns to Gotham, where Gordon shows him a new Bat-signal and warns him about escalating crime. In fact, a new homicidal maniac is in town and has left a calling card--a joker from a deck of cards. Cue credits.

The movie spends a lot of time on the basic conflict between Bruce and Ducard. Ducard espouses the sort of justice that has no room for error or corruption or mercy. Ducard tells Bruce that his compassion will be his undoing, that he will never be able to fight the "good fight" as the League of Shadows fights it. Bruce is unwilling to give up on all of Gotham just because a lot of corrupt people are controlling things. He still believes things can change. Others like Rachel and Gordon have the same intentions while dealing with the frustrations of working in a corrupt system. While they look desperate, they are not depicted as fools or false optimists. The filmmakers side with Batman on the need for justice tempered by compassion. They also recognizes the enormous level of sacrifice required to live that way. 

The movie also does a good job justifying the various Bat-gadgets that get used in the film. His weapons and armor-like outfit come from the military prototyping unit of Wayne Industries. Sometimes with superhero movies it is hard to shoehorn in the fantastic and unrealistic elements from the comic-book stories. Nolan and company do a good job scaling back the fantastic and beefing up the less-realistic elements.

One of the weaknesses of the film is the nightmare visions people have under the influence of Scarecrow's hallucinogen. The visuals lean more toward the PG end of the PG-13 rating. The bigger weakness is Ducard who is more like a political and moral agenda than an actual human person. Falcone and Crane are a bit better as villainous characters. The escalation up the ladder of criminals (from Falcone to Crane to the League of Shadows) is interesting and a natural way to keep raising the stakes.

The Dark Knight (2008) co-written and directed by Christopher Nolan

A small clown-masked gang robs a bank in a highly-organized and efficient way. The heist is unusual in that as each robber finishes his specialized task (like disabling alarms or cracking the safe), another robber kills him (fewer guys to share the profits with). The final robber is revealed to be The Joker (Heath Ledger), a psychotic villain who has just begun a crime spree. The other unusual thing about the heist is that the bank is run by one of Gotham's mobs, so The Joker has stolen money that the owners really want back. 

The mobs have other problems to deal with. During a drug deal in a multi-level parking garage with The Scarecrow (Cillian Murphy), several locals dressed up as Batman show up with guns to stop the deal. The gun fight is broken up by the actual Batman (Christian Bale), who sustains some injuries thanks to the vicious dogs brought by the Russian mafia. Back at Wayne Manor, Alfred (Michael Caine) patches up Bruce Wayne. Bruce is interested int the new district attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), who is fighting crime in the courts and dating Bruce's old girlfriend Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhall, replacing Katie Holmes). Bruce runs into the couple at a fancy restaurant, is impressed with Dent, and wants to throw a fundraiser for him. And he considers Dent as a possible replacement for Batman, who functions as Gotham's figurehead of justice.

Wayne's company is making a deal with a Chinese firm headed by Lau (Chin Han), who is secretly working with the mob families to take care of their money. Negotiations with Lau are inconclusive. Lau also has a meeting with the crime bosses (via television) to figure out what to do about Batman, who has been disrupting crime all over Gotham. The Joker shows up at the meeting and promise to kill Batman if they will pay him half the money. The men balk at this, though Joker warns them that with Batman's lack of legal restraints, he's bound to take down more of the mafia and probably Lau. Lau is bound to give them up if he ever gets caught. Lau bails out of the meeting and the mobsters are still unsure, forcing Joker to head out while threatening to blow up everyone.

The cops want to take down the mob and have been using marked money given them by Batman to find out which banks are run by the criminals. Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) works with Dent to get legal cover for raiding the banks. Gordon and Dent are a little leery of each other. Dent rose through the ranks in Internal Affairs, so he knows how many corrupt cops are on the payroll, even in Gordon's unit. They come to an arrangement. As Gordon's people raid the banks, the money is gone (Lau is taking it with him back to Hong Kong). Gordon thinks there's a leak in Dent's office, Dent thinks the leak is in Gordon's unit. They meet on the roof of the Major Crimes Unit (MCU!) with Batman, who volunteers to go after Lau since Batman doesn't have to deal with international extradition or other legal restraints.

Bruce Wayne meets with Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman) who, while running Wayne Industries, still has a hand in developing Batman tech and solving tricky problems. Wayne wants to snatch Lau from his Hong Kong skyscraper and return home via an aerial pick-up. Fox works the problem. Alfred comes up with an excuse to get Wayne to China's waters--they take the Russian ballet (or at least the female dancers from the ballet) on a yacht. Wayne swims to shore while Alfred takes care of the prima donnas onboard. The spectacular kidnapping sequence goes off without a hitch, so Batman delivers Lau to Gordon for holding. Lau is willing to give up the mobsters to save himself. Wayne shows up at the Wayne/Dent fundraiser and claims he believes in Harvey Dent--he says this because he is sure Dent can replace Batman as Gotham's hero.

The Joker has been busy too. He takes out one of the gang leaders, not before explaining how he got his scars--his dad did it to him as a child in a sadistically described scene. He drops off one of the fake Batmen at MCU demanding the real Batman reveal himself. The Joker show up at the Wayne/Dent fundraiser, giving Rachel a different and equally horrible story of how he got his scars. Wayne sneaks off to become Batman. His fight with the Joker is inconclusive--Batman has to save Rachel from falling from the top of the skyscraper and the Joker escapes. At the same time, Joker's henchmen kill a prominent judge and the police commissioner at different locations. 

The Joker's next target is the Mayor. Batman has some physical evidence giving him a lead on the Joker's whereabouts which turns out to be a deception. The Joker's men are somewhere else and would have killed the Mayor if Gordon hadn't jumped in front of the bullet. Gordon's widow accuses Batman of causing his death. Both Batman and Dent put the screws to Joker's associates but get no information. Batman convinces Dent to hold a press conference where he will reveal his true identity. Dent, in front of the press, claims he is Batman. Dent is taken into custody. They take him to MCU, assuming that the real Batman will have a chance to take out the Joker, who surely will try to kill Dent. The Joker does attack, ending with the arrest of Joker by Gordon, who pretended to die. While the Joker is in jail, Dent and Rachel are kidnapped and put into deathtraps. Batman tries to beat information out of the Joker. The Joker tells where they are and Batman goes after Rachel while the cops go after Dent. When Batman shows up, Dent is in the location, not Rachel. He is barely able to save Dent, whose face becomes horribly burned. Rachel dies in flames. And the Joker escapes from MCU through an elaborate scheme. He takes Lau with him.

Alfred reads a letter from Rachel to Bruce detailing that she will marry Harvey because she thinks Bruce will never not be Batman. He destroys the letter. Meanwhile, a Wayne Industries mid-level accountant threatens to reveal the true identity of Batman. While the accountant is on TV, the Joker changes his mind and doesn't want Batman's identity revealed. He calls in to the TV show, offer lots of money for someone to kill the accountant. If no one does the deed, Joker will blow up all the hospitals in Gotham.

Harvey is recovering at Gotham General. Joker goes there and goads Harvey, who has gone insane and embraced his new Two-Faced nature, into being a villain. Harvey lets fate control his decisions, flipping a coin to decide if someone will live or die. The Joker offers himself as the first target but the coin is okay. Joker leaves the hospital, blowing it up. Gordon panics about Dent's missing status. Dent goes on a killing spree, shooting cops and mafia involved in the murder of Rachel (that is, his target were manipulated by the Joker).

The Joker threatens the city, implying that people should flee but the bridges and tunnels are dangerous. People take to the ferries. Two ferries are stuck out in the water with the Joker telling the ferry riders that the boats are rigged to explode. Each ferry has a detonator for the other ferry. Joker wants one boat to destroy the other. If one of them doesn't do it by midnight, he will blow up both boats. One boat has the criminals that Dent put in jail; the other has regular citizens. 

Batman has used Wayne Industries tech to access all the cell phones in Gotham to "see" everywhere, using the microphones for echo-location. His hope is the Joker will get picked up by one of the microphones and they can find him. He lets Lucius Fox control the system. Fox demurs, saying it is completely unethical but they will use it this one time. Joker makes his announcement about the boat by a phone, so they locate him, pretty much at the same time as Gotham's police. Batman asks for time to get the Joker before they move in but GCPD is not interested since there are a lot of hostages in the building. Batman fights the Joker's henchman and the cops to keep everyone safe. He eventually subdues Joker, who makes a big speech about who they are and how the people of the city will lose their trust in good when they find out about Harvey Dent's fall into corruption. Lucius Fox, when he is done with the machine, types his name in like Bruce asked him. That causes the machine to self-destruct, restoring Fox's faith in Bruce.

Gordon has raced off to save his family who were tricked by Dent into going to the place where Rachel died. Gordon and Dent have a hard conversation about loss of loved ones. Dent wants to kill one of Gordon's family, choosing his son when Gordon reacts the most to that threat. Batman arrives and Dent claims that the only justice is random chance. In an opportune moment, Batman takes out Dent. He and Gordon discuss the problem of Dent's corruption. Gordon assumes the city will lose its hope. Batman says he will take the blame for Dent's murders so the city can keep its hope and the Joker will not win. He runs away as Gordon tells the police that Batman is guilty. Gordon explains to his son, who doesn't understand, that Batman can take on this burden to keep Gotham's hope alive. He's the hero they deserve but not the one they need right now. Batman will defend the city from crime as its Dark Knight. Cue credits.

This movie was an even bigger sensation than the first one. Ledger's performance as the Joker was highly praised (including winning an Oscar) because it is so edgy and fascinating. His schemes are deadly and sadistic, designed to force people into bad decisions. His philosophical rantings are all over the place, packed with lies and misdirection, making him hard to understand. Does he really believe in chaos when he is so methodical and far ahead of other people? Ledger's performance is so overwhelming that it's hard to notice the holes in the Joker's character the first time watching the film. It holds the film together.

Eckhart is okay as Dent. His storyline, even though its summation seems like the point of the film, gets second seat to the Joker's antics and feels tacked on at the end. He's a lot easier to understand as a person, though he is similarly manipulative in his dealings with others, especially using a two-headed coin to trick people into thinking there's an element of chance to what will happen. Gordon is initially wary of Dent but somehow becomes a big proponent of propping up Dent's mythical (and undeserved) reputation as a hero of Gotham. While Gordon, Rachel, Batman, and Bruce Wayne are all big fans of Dent, the movie does not establish that the general public in Gotham idolizes Dent. He does some heroic things, but no one is dressing up like him to fight crime or becoming lawyers or chanting his name in the street or praising him at the press conference. I am still waiting for a great Two-Face cinematic story that delves into his character and his pathology, like they did for the Joker in this film.

The film is very enjoyable and an overwhelming experience the first time watching it. It is chock full of interesting ideas and amazing set pieces. Repeated viewings have diminished its lustre for me but it is still an excellent film.

So is the sequel better? Let's look at some points of comparison.

• SCRIPT--Both movies have very strong scripts, balancing character development and exposition with action and peril. They also deal with bigger issues than the typical comic book plot of bad-guy-wants-to-destroy-the-world-and-must-be-defeated. I found "justice needs to be sought with compassion" a more interesting theme and better presented than the "Gotham needs a proper hero" theme of the second film. Advantage Batman Begins
• ACTING--Heath Ledger rightly won an Oscar for his performance as the Joker, making him stand out over all the other villains in the Christopher Nolan Batman series. The characters consistent between both films (Batman, Alfred, Gordon, Lucius Fox, and some minor figures) are all on the same par as the first film. Katie Holmes is replaced as Rachel by Maggie Gyllenhall in the sequel. Gyllenhall does a better job, though the character has more substance than in the original. Advantage The Dark Knight
• ADVANCES THE STORY/MYTHOLOGY--After establishing Bruce Wayne/Batman as a somewhat tragic hero who can't have a normal life, the second film sees him hoping for a way out, relying on Harvey Dent to take up the mantel of Gotham's hero. It seems like a possible outcome (with the ironic addition that Dent successfully courts Wayne's childhood girlfriend). The sequel ends with Batman falling behind, losing the girl and taking on the reputation of a villain in the hopes of bolstering Gotham's belief in goodness. He's also lost his alliance with the cops. I know a lot of people who love the ending, especially with its Christological overtones, but I found it a bit unsatisfying. I think the Joker did win by destroying Gordon's and Batman's faith in the people of Gotham and by making Batman destroy his own heroic reputation. The Dark Knight is more like the second act of a story--it puts the hero in an even worse state before he comes back in the third act (which does happen in the third film).
• SPECIAL EFFECTS--The movies are very similar with some massive action sequences (the train battle and the Hong Kong kidnapping). The "echo location" effect in The Dark Knight is interesting though the fight sequence looks like it was taken from a high-end video game. The Scarecrow nightmares in the first film are a little underwhelming too. Tie
• VISUAL STYLE--The style remains consistent between the two films, with a dark and downtrodden Gotham struggling under crime and corruption. The Bat-gadgets are more low-key than in other Batman films and shows, fitting the mostly realistic style of these films. There's no huge advances in the second film. Tie
• THE BIG FINALE--Both movies have big physical confrontations that also accommodate philosophical and moral points being made by the characters. The action is a bit better in the second film but gets a bit dragged out having a final confrontation with the Joker and then another, much lesser final confrontation with Two-Face twenty minutes later. Tie

FINAL THOUGHTS

Both films are excellent and are the best of the Batman films so far. While The Dark Knight is widely regarded as the better film, I find Batman Begins more resonant with me. It's theme of tempering justice with compassion is both more important and better executed than The Dark Knight's main theme. So this is a rare instance for me where the sequel is not better.

Movie Review: Tenet (2020)

Tenet (2020) written and directed by Christopher Nolan

As if a spy's life wasn't hard enough, a man (John David Washington) doing his information gathering job gets involved in a much larger, earth-threatening conspiracy...that involves time travel. He has a mysterious employer (who isn't identified till the end of the movie, so no spoilers) and teams up with some seemingly random people: Neil (Robert Pattison), Kat (Elizabeth Debicki), and Priya (Dimple Kapadia). Each has an important but different connection to the conspiracy and more or less helps him along the way. He has to go through a lot of philosophical conversations and action sequences before he can solve the mystery and save the day.

This movie involves a different sort of time travel from other films. In it, objects and people can be "inverted" where they start traveling through time backwards. Clocks go backwards, bullets go back into guns, and dialogue would need subtitles if it weren't for film narrative tricks that fix that situation. The concept is really intriguing to me but as the film narrative tricks become more numerous and occasionally very hard to believe, I started losing patience with it. The characters do mention free will and the possibility of changing events but don't get deep enough into either idea to make the film as intellectually engaging as Inception.

Visually, the movie is amazing. Combining characters moving forward in time and backward in time works well for the most part with scenes depicted from both points of view. Reverse filming is hardly anything new in cinema but it's used well, if obviously, here. The action sequences are fun and exciting and frequent. The soundtrack was a little overbearing--my subwoofer was working overtime and occasionally drowning out dialogue, a problem that's come up before in Nolan films. The actors were all good even when the film cared more about advancing the plot than it should have.

Overall, I'm glad I saw this film and enjoyed parts of it. Other parts were harder to enjoy and it reminded me too much of Inception, which follows a similar story arc and also has a highly-imaginative premise. Inception was just so much better.

Mildly recommended.

Movie Review: Dunkirk (2017)

Dunkirk (2017) written and directed by Christopher Nolan

It's May, 1940, and the Germans are driving what's left of the Allied Forces in France to the English Channel. Hundreds of thousands of troops are pinned down waiting to evacuate to England. As they wait, the German land force presses closer. The German air force bombs and shoots whatever they can on the beach and also the large naval ships coming to the rescue. In a desperate attempt to bring back as many as possible, civilian vessels are used (whether the civilians will pilot them or not). This movie follows a few stories (one RAF fighter pilot, some of the Brits on the beach, and one of the civilian boats) to tell this tension-filled tale.

Nolan has a lot of experience telling stories out of order or in a mixed-up time sequence (cf. Memento, Inception, and Interstellar) to great effect. The stories here, which certainly could have been told in a strictly chronological narrative, are blended together in occasionally confusing ways. The stories overlap at various points, though sometimes it isn't clear that they really are overlapping (is that the same ship sinking that we saw earlier in a different story or not?). Such narrative shenanigans could be grating but they serve the larger story here--it wasn't just one RAF fighter squad fighting off all the Nazi bombers and fighters; it wasn't just one civilian boat that did its patriotic duty; it wasn't just a handful of soldiers on the beach who were panicked or crafty about escaping. The few faces we see are part of a larger, anonymous mass of people involved. A lot of little details are thrown in that help to paint the larger picture.

The heroism is inspiring. The conditions are very bad and few men succumb to shell shock and horror, but most keep the proverbial stiff upper lip. They look like real people who rise to the occasion. The evacuation is an amazing success.

The movie isn't perfect (less convincing moments do pop up here and there and poor Kenneth Branagh spends a lot of time staring at things off in the distance) but is an exciting experience and worth watching.

Recommended.

Movie Review: Interstellar (2014)

Interstellar (2014) co-written and directed by Christopher Nolan

As a filmmaker, Christopher Nolan has crafted some very pessimistic films. Sometimes the protagonists are hard to root for from the beginning (The Prestige), sometimes the final twist makes an otherwise sympathetic character unlikeable (Insomnia, Memento). The Dark Knight trilogy ended on a surprisingly happy note which some of Nolan's fans complained about. Why couldn't it be more ambiguous, like the end of Inception? I'm an unusual fan--I groaned at the very last bit of Inception and smiled wholeheartedly at the end of The Dark Knight Rises. I admire Nolan as a storyteller but find his bleak outlook on people unappealing.

His latest film is Interstellar, a movie about a near future Earth where things are bad. Every crop except corn has been eliminated by blight. Dust storms sweep across the landscape, forcing people to wear eye and mouth protection. Education is also being ravaged--grade schools teach that the Apollo missions were faked so that the Soviet Union would go bankrupt trying to keep up in the space race. Ex-NASA pilot Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) is a farmer (like everyone else) who still believes in technology. He wants his son Tom to go to college but his grades aren't good enough so the son is forced to become a farmer like his dad; Cooper wants his daughter Murph to know the truth but saying the Apollo missions really did happen gets her a suspension.

Murph likes science but is open to more. She claims a ghost haunts her room. Books drop off shelves and strange patterns form in dust. Murph and Cooper discuss the phenomenon and he convinces her to look at it scientifically. They conclude that gravity is being distorted and discover a pattern in the events, specifically Morse code messages. One message is coordinates which lead to an underground NASA base. NASA has been discredited publicly. Even so they continue to work on projects that will save the humans on Earth. One project is to fly through a wormhole that has opened near Saturn and discover other possible inhabitable planets on the other side. But who opened the wormhole? Are there any good planets? Can they get to them before the Earth becomes uninhabitable?

The movie has a very complicated plot and deals with lots of big ideas like the nature of gravity, time, truth, and love, among others. So viewers' brains have a lot to chew on while their eyes and ears are amazed by the story unfolding. The relationship between Cooper and his daughter is central to the story and has interesting parallels and contrasts in the many other relationships in the movie between various characters. The need for a personal connection to someone who loves you and how to sustain that connection in hard circumstances are the most interesting elements in the movie. Nolan delivers a rather sentimental and positive conclusion about people, which pleasantly surprised for me. The science is interesting but not very convincing (it is fiction, after all, and any science portrayed needs to support the storytelling) and becomes a little too much deus ex machina at the end, a less pleasant surprise for me. I have some spoilerific comments on this below if you scroll further down past the links.

I enjoyed the movie but it is not Nolan's best by far. It is worth seeing on the big screen for the amazing visuals but I doubt it will improve or be more interesting with subsequent viewings.












SPOILERS!!!
As the film comes to a conclusion, the characters deduce that the gravity distortions are made possible by future humans who have benefited from the theoretical discoveries made by Murph (with help from her dad through one of the deus ex machina contrivances). These future humans not only enable Cooper to communicate with his daughter in the past, they also deliver him back to her part of the galaxy through another deus ex machina so they can have a tearful reunion before the end credits. All this strains credulity a bit too much, especially as it is really a humanus ex machina explanation. While I applaud Nolan for having a more upbeat view of humanity, I think he's gone too far in the other extreme. I don't think mankind is going to progress to the point where we can use gravity like it's magic. If Interstellar didn't take its science so seriously I don't think I'd be bothered as much or so disappointed.

Movie Review: Man of Steel (2013)

Man of Steel (2013) directed by Zack Snyder

Part of my on-going catch-up with last summer's films (i.e. Pacific Rim, World War Z, Much Ado About Nothing,  and Evil Dead).

I watched this movie with medium to low expectations. Critics weren't too impressed with it; only one person I know raved about it. It sure looked like another clunky Superman film. Many complained about the modern revision of Superman.

We've seen these characters before, but they are all given some different twists. Clark Kent/Superman is interesting in that there is no big contrast between the two. Clark spends the first half of the movie in hiding and not knowing about his Kryptonian origins. He's a drifter with no life of his own--he'll work a job until something happen that causes him to use his powers. Then he moves on so people won't know what powers he has. Even after he gets his background story and his suit, he has almost no"Clark Kent" life. The "mild mannered reporter" is set up at the end of the film, so maybe in the future they will explore that duality. For this movie, he's a bit of a lost soul who finds his place on Earth.

Lois Lane is a lot smarter than in previous movies, though she does fill in the "damsel in distress" role. Jonathan Kent is less noble than in previous stories--he tells Clark it might be okay to let people die rather than reveal his secret (right after Clark saves a bus full of his fellow school students!). You can see how this Clark winds up drifting without a true sense of purpose or identity. General Zod is less colorful and over-the-top than Superman II's Terence Stamp, though that degradation seems driven by the "Krypton as Plato's Republic" theme running through the film, which no one comments on.

Several characters talk about Krypton's fall. One component of it is the genetically-engineered population. Zod explains how he was made to be a soldier and that's what he's done all his life, so Superman can't possibly beat him in a fight. Superman's Kryptonian parents decide to have a child naturally so that he will be free to do what he wants rather than be put in a distinct class all his life. Plato's Republic has a similar scheme--children are taken from their parents and raised in one of three classes to serve the state. The movie criticizes this on the grounds of personal freedom, which is interesting if not fully satisfactory.

Another component is the exploitation of resources, including Krypton's planetary core, which provided power but becomes unstable and soon explodes. The Kryptonians had tried to colonize other planets by terraforming them but were unsuccessful. Terraforming the Earth is Zod's plan to continue the Kryptonian race, even if that means killing all the humans. Superman decides to stop it since "Krypton had its chance."

The movie does end with a big fight between Zod and Superman which goes on long enough for viewers to get the idea that they will never really hurt each other no matter how many buildings they plow through. And then it goes on longer. The very end of the fight is a bit contrived but at least it ends things in a sensible way. It's a common problem with superhero movies that they end with a big battle that is more numbing than exciting.

The ending of the movie also injects some much needed humor. This movie could have used a little more levity sprinkled throughout. Even so, Man of Steel surprised me with how good it was. Though it gives a more somber Superman (the bad side of the modern revision), it vastly exceeds Superman III and IV and the failed reboot Superman Returns in writing quality.

Movie Review: The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

The Dark Knight Rises (2012) directed by Christopher Nolan

Now that I am probably the last person to see this movie in a theatre and to write a review of it long after all the hype, here's my thoughts on the latest Batman movie.

This sequel to The Dark Knight is set eight years later. Gotham City has been more or less cleaned up by the police force under the able direction of Commissioner Gordon, riding on the iconic value of Harvey Dent's post-mortem lionization. The Dent Act has been passed that allowed the police to imprison those suspected of organized crime. Harvey Dent Day memorializes the supposed heroics of Dent and buoys up the spirits of Gothamites across the city.

All this, of course, is built on the lie that Dent saved the city and The Batman killed him. Dent actually went on a killing spree after he became Two-Face and almost killed Police Commissioner Gordon's son right in front of him. Batman saved the son and Dent died. Gordon and Batman decided that Gotham's citizens need the "white knight" image of Harvey Dent or they would despair and keep following the vigilante example of The Batman. Batman chose to take the fall for Dent's crimes and the blame for his death. He has disappeared for eight years. Bruce Wayne has become reclusive and uninvolved, hiding in a wing of Wayne Manor while the world goes by.

Until events push him back into the public. His fingerprints and his mom's pearl necklace are stolen by sultry burglar Selina Kyle (who winds up as Catwoman, though she never goes by that name in the movie); Wayne Enterprises is falling apart; a new menace appears in the form of an enigmatic terrorist named Bane. Much like the Joker in the previous film, Bane seems bent on the destruction of all that is good in Gotham.

Like previous entries in Nolan's Batman films, the plot is fairly complicated and deals with larger political and moral issues. While the plot isn't hard to follow, a bit too much is thrown into the mix. Some points (both minor and major) fly by too quickly while others are dragged out too long. The political issues (like the mirroring of the Occupy Wall Street movement and the Patriot Act) are interesting but may be too topical. Will this movie still seem relevant in 10 or 20 years or will it look like a product of its times? The Dark Knight deals with similar political and moral issues but they are handled with a more timeless feel, i.e. the Prisoner's Dilemma will still be relevant in the decades to come. I appreciate Nolan's large ambitions but the execution in this film can't support the dramatic weight. He's close but he doesn't quite hit the mark like he did with the previous Batman film.

The action sequences are very exciting and well edited. The score is too heavy-handed at times. Instead of underlining the emotion of a scene, it is blared at the viewer. The actors do a fine job, though poor Michael Caine is stuck with either moping or guilting. On the other hand, Anne Hathaway gives a great performance in a well written and well rounded role, something you wouldn't expect for Catwoman. The overall look of the film is great. And I did enjoy watching it and it has provided a lot of fodder for later thoughts and reflections.