American soldiers parachute behind enemy lines just before D-Day. Their objective is to storm a heavily fortified Nazi compound. Once inside, they are horrified to learn it’s a twisted medical facility housing gnarly Nazi medical experiments. Seems like they’ve been making a serum to reanimate dead bodies and turn them into super soldier zombies. It’s then up to the men to bury the fortress and the experiments along with it.
Produced by J.J. Abrams and directed by Julius (The Pope’s Exorcist) Avery, Overlord is a bit of a mixed bag. There’s a fun zombie movie lurking here somewhere, but the filmmakers never seem to find it. While the film works in fits and starts, it seems like every time it gains a bit of momentum, it inevitably stalls out again.
Maybe the tone was the problem. It often plays like a war movie with horror undertones. Honestly, it would’ve played better if the ratio was reversed. Because of that, it takes a good chunk of the running time to get to the horror stuff. Once we finally do, it’s not all that and a bag of chips.
There are some scenes that work, like when one of the American troops turns into a monster or when our heroine makes like Rick Dalton and uses a flamethrower on a Nazi monster. However, after these brief flashes of fun, the movie almost always reverts back to your standard “men on a mission” flick (but, you know… with zombies). Then there’s the abrupt climax featuring two super soldiers squaring off that’s over before it even manages to build up any steam.
Wyatt Russell is good as the no-nonsense corporal. His performance probably singlehandedly got him the job playing the Temu Captain America for Marvel as he carries the same kind of brawny swagger here. Bokeem Woodbine is also memorable as the hardass sergeant who leads his men into battle. The rest of the cast struggle with their cliched characters though.
I don’t know. This might’ve been one of those cases where if the movie was generic but consistently entertaining, I may have been more forgiving. It’s just that it’s a frustrating experience to see a film with fleeting sparks of inspiration that never really knows how to capitalize on them.
AKA: Operation: Overlord.
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