Sy-4

I had high hopes for this movie going in. I love all of Nolan's other movies, and I actually worked as a scientist at Los Alamos for several years (many years after the Manhattan project), and so I'm very familiar with the underlying physics, the New Mexico landscape, and the constant tension between scientific research and security concerns. If anyone was going to enjoy this movie, it was me!

And to be fair, I did basically enjoy it, mostly. Seeing a story I thought I knew fairly well brought to life, including many extra details that I didn't know about, was definitely interesting. The acting is undoubtedly top notch. But is it a Great Movie? Well, no.

The main issue here is that the central thread that the movie hangs on is the meeting to determine whether Oppenheimer's security clearance should be renewed. A secondary thread is the review as to whether Strauss should be appointed commerce secretary. Both of these threads are essentially courtroom dramas with a lot of talking back and forth, which can be pretty dry. But more importantly, the stakes don't feel that high (it's not life or death), and the arguments for and against the people concerned are not that interesting. I get that the movie uses these things as framing devices to cover a lot of more interesting topics, in the form of flashbacks, but it just feels like the balance is off. There's just way too much time spent in the courtroom, especially towards the end of the three hours, and the rest of the content feels fragmented and rushed.

And the famous Trinity test explosion scene that doesn't use any CGI? Yeah, it shows, and not in a good way.

In conclusion, an interesting study of an interesting guy, well acted, and nicely shot. But a bit unfocused and probably 30 minutes too long. 7/10, though I might have given it 8/10 I didn't feel it was so over-rated...

Cliched generic fantasy with stilted acting and terrible dialog. Stereotyped characters, one of whom is the chosen one, are on the run from the forces of dark. So far, so familiar. Two episodes in and I don't really care about any of the characters, and the pacing feels both slow and rushed at the same time. I'll throw in a few stars for the cinematography and some of the effects, though in places the CGI is weak. I'll keep watching 'cos I'm a sucker for the genre, but not optimistic. It's no Game of Thrones, or Carnival Row for sure. I'm not even sure it's up to Shadow and Bone, and I'd rank it behind the Witcher.

Rowling's book, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, carried the series into a whole new dimension - that dimension being the thickness of the volumes. Almost twice the length of its predecessor this mega-tome was always going to be problematic to condense into a watchable movie. For my money, Mike Newell's result is a valiant, but predictably rushed and uneven affair that will leave fans of the series disappointed at what was left out, but that will also leave newcomers (if there are any people still in this category out there!) bewildered as to what on earth is happening. The movie felt exactly like the edited highlights of a much longer movie that had been roughly pasted together. As a side effect of having to race through the story, there is no time to develop any real depth in the characters, which is unfortunate. (In most cases, anyway: with each new episode I grow ever more irritated with Daniel Radcliffe's wide-eyed and mumbling performance as Harry.) Interestingly, the one character who displays any real passion is Voldemort, played by Ralf Fiennes, and I look forward to seeing more of him.

In summary, not the best of the series so far (that honor surely goes to Cuaron's Prisoner of Azkaban), but not a bad effort given the challenges imposed by the book. I'm hopeful that a decent movie can be made out of the next book, which although it's even longer, has in many ways a more straightforward storyline (and more things that can be cut). 7/10