Oppenheimer

 

Oppenheimer

This is a brilliant movie. I listened to the audio book “American Prometheus”. Christopher Nolan selected  historical events of the book and remixed them into a compelling  story. The story is not sequential but effectively jumps around . There is more to the movie than the  atomic bomb. Besides his scientific endeavors he had a superficial connection to communism, an extra marital  affair and was the subject of FBI surveillance.

There is a plethora of historical characters in this film. The four main characters are:

J. Robert Oppenheimer- Cillian Murphy

General Leslie Groves- Matt Damon

Lewis Strauss- Robert Downey Jr.

Kitty Oppenheimer- Emily Blunt

Cillian Murphy bears an uncanny resemblance to Oppenheimer. He plays the role with fragility and confliction to  the atomic bomb project. The atomic bomb project is the culmination of his scientific endeavors but he understands the dangers to humanity he is unleashing. He is soft spoken and not angered even when persecuted. It is challenging  playing an emotional role while staying controlled.

Matt Damon played the good guy and the sort of bad guy. General Groves likes Oppenheimer but he has to enforce secrecy “compartmentalization” at the camp. This is an easy role for Damon. Most  of the time his conversations are civil without  confrontation, although frustrating.

Robert Downey Jr. plays a pivotal role in the movie. This movie is equally about Strauss and Oppenheimer. Strauss was Oppenheimer’s nemesis. In the scenes for Strauss’ nomination for Secretary of Commerce, Nolan filmed it in black and white making it a film within a film. Robert Downey Jr. looked haggard. He plays the role as a conniving politician with a vendetta against Oppenheimer.   

 My main complaint with Emily Blunt is that her screen time was too short. Kitty was Oppenheimer’s anger. Blunt plays Kitty as a controlled explosion. With all their marital problems she remained by Oppenheimer’s side.

The rest of the cast is fabulous.  Their varied contributions were essential to the film.

It is recommended to watch this movie in IMAX. I have never been a fan of IMAX and my position is unchanged. IMAX uses thunderous sound which sometimes makes hearing  dialogue difficult. As for the atomic bomb explosion at Trinity the scene lasted less than a few minutes out of three hours.  Buy popcorn instead.

There are two bloopers (that I saw) in the movie.

fyi- Oppenheimer died at 62 and his security clearance was  posthumously reinstated.

 

Infinity Wars

Infinity Wars

I was skeptical that this movie would work. With the confluence of super heroes there were too many egos to manage. But the narrative worked and this was the glue that kept this movie together. The story shifted from different scenes and different battles but you could follow the connections.

There are too many super heroes to mention, but some featured more than others. Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, Black Panther and Guardians of the Galaxy had more leading roles. On one level the story is simple. The bad guy, Thanos, wants to collect the six mythical stones giving him tremendous power threatening the universe. Each stone is in a different location in the galaxy, including earth, and this is where the battles take place. Thanos is played by a computer generated avatar of Josh Brolin, nearly unrecognizable except for his voice. The movie does not take itself too seriously, with banter and good natured jabs contributing to the movie’s enjoyment. The film ties in prior movies giving it recognizable reference points.

The special effects were of course amazing. They had to be to maintain the nearly three hours attention span needed to watch the film. Honestly, it did not feel like three hours because the movie was well paced. The production budget is between $300m-$400m meaning they have to clear about $1b in box office to make a profit. I attended the 9:30 am Imax show and the theater was nearly full.

As for the ending, I am not even going to talk about the ending. When I got up to leave I noticed no one else was leaving. So I sat through the credits. There were so many credits it turned the screen white. The reward was coming attractions, albeit quite short but they portend a sequel.

For fan boys and fan girls a must see. For you civilians you could do worse.