Overlord review – Mr T’s take
Yet another unoriginal zombie movie that is set in the World War II era. This Overlord review is brought to you by AboutFlick’s Mr T.
Director: Julius Avery
Review: Science fiction films are generally set in the present or future. Overlord instead opts to be a revisionist war thriller that finds inspiration from classic slasher films of years past. It begins with American paratroopers dropping behind enemy lines in France to destroy a heavily fortified church which doubles up as a lab where German scientists perform inhumane experiments on unwilling French subjects.
Danish actor Pilou Asbæk, who also plays Euron Greyjoy in Game Of Thrones, portrays a cartoonish evil Nazi soldier who goes about exploiting women. I didn’t find him menacing or funny, just badly written. Jovan Adepo tries his best in a role that doesn’t do justice to his talent and he’s reduced to a someone who is always terrified, but still manages to do the right thing in the end. I liked John Magaro in Jack Ryan season 1, The Big Short and The Umbrella Academy, but here he is the cliched American tough guy, who has a heart of gold underneath. Wyatt Russell is yet another casualty of the weak script. And Mathilde Ollivier as Chloe outright refuses to bother with any facial expressions because I guess, she felt the movie was a waste of her time anyway.
When you have Paramount Pictures and Bad Robot Productions as production companies, one would expect better special effects than the kind that were used in the movie. I thought I would get a better story with JJ Abrams as one of the producers, but Overlord failed me yet again.
Instead what we get is a zombie and human weapons story that has been overdone to its death that isn’t terrifying or entertaining anymore. The characters appear to be very superficial and despite the backdrop, you never feel anything real is at stake. You do not have to probe much to find the loopholes either. No one notices when a wounded soldier goes missing from the church, multiple gunshots fail to alert soldiers in a heavily patrolled area. You see what I’m getting at. Overlord is ultimately like playing Call of Duty: WWII in Nazi Zombie mode with none of the gameplay, and with humans as the characters.
Rating: My rating for Overlord is 1.5/5.
Who should watch this: If you want to play a zombie console or PC game, but do not feel like bothering with the gameplay, go ahead and watch Overlord Others should check out 28 Days Later (2002), The Girl with All the Gifts (2016), World War Z (2013) and The Walking Dead (2010).