Overlord

Une merde fantastiquement gonflée avec des charmes geek et une perfection technique. Pourquoi exactement un sac comme celui-ci doit-il avoir le combat final le plus luxueusement passionné, battu jusqu'à la dernière goutte de potentiel, qui satisfera même le fan le plus accéléré du genre ? Overlord évoque tout, de Sky Captain à Dead Snow en passant par le Planet Terror de Rodriguez. Il s'agit pour ainsi dire d'un grind house de qualité A en plus cher, mais (malheureusement) contrairement aux représentants typiques du sous-genre, il se prend au sérieux, met en scène de grands héros et adhère au politiquement correct. Cela crée un mélange opposé d’impressions, qui peuvent être notées entre une et cinq étoiles. Cela dépend de ce que vous attendez de lui et de votre humeur du moment. [Sitges FF] JEREMIE (13/10/2018)

Did you play computer games? Does the sequel to the legendary Wolfenstein 3D called Return to Castle Wolfenstein sound familiar to you? That’s exactly what this film evoked in me. A completely crazy filmmaking trip, a bit nasty in the style of The Thing but otherwise a solid small-scale film which is by no means perfect, but it can entertain fans of this type of movies. Under normal circumstances, I would rate it even higher, but I was missing a bit more catchphrases that would entertain me. It seems as if writing quality catchphrases nowadays is more difficult than during the 1980s and 1990s. (24/06/2019)

It sounded more promising on paper. Overlord is a well made action horror film with undead, Nazis and undead Nazis. It's just that they didn't have a lot of money to spend on it, so it takes a long time to get going, and in the end Julius Avery and J.J. Abrams don't show enough to make it a real hit. But thanks to the good cast, the proper cinematic violence, and solid pacing towards the end, it's ultimately pretty good, though I guess more was expected. (18/06/2019)

The ultimate guilty pleasure and the best war horror movie ever. Hereditary is the most essential horror film of the year, Ghostland the most intense, A Quiet Place the most original and Overlord is the most emotional and brutal. Overlord serves up a whirlwind of eye-candy attractions from the 5th minute that don’t let up and leave you gasping for breath until the closing credits. A technically perfect polished action spree with breathtaking cinematography, an atmosphere driven by a nostalgic “Wolfenstein”, a likeable bunch of soldiers whose fate you care about and spectacular action backed by juicy gore. The make-up artists are incredibly skilled and serve up some very nice shots. The film manages to build solid tension on several occasions, there is no shortage of shocking jump scares and killing Nazis has never been more effective and entertaining in a film than here. There are fewer zombies, but they are all the more unstoppable bastards. Story-wise, the film doesn't wow, but anyone expecting Oscar nominations from a WWII horror film is out of their mind. Here clearly form wins over content, which not everyone will buy, but those who agree to the rules of the film will literally gush with excitement and thrill. It's a pity that Overlord probably won't make it to local cinemas, it will lose its charm at home on TV. The last time I left the cinema this excited was Deadpool 2 this year. (12/11/2018)

I thought the film would use the cast of unfamiliar acting faces to surprise you with who would be the hero, who would die, and who would survive (if anyone), but alasthe roles were clear after only a few minutes. What followed was nearly three-quarters of an hour of more or less boring or rather ordinary waiting to find out why I was actually watching Overlord in the first place, and then, yes, a fairly entertaining parade of practical gore effects, but one that was more intimate than I would have liked. Never mind that I didn't see Overlord in the cinema, the TV screen is just right. (22/06/2019)

Audiovisually it’s great, but in terms of script and direction, it’s a shabby grindhouse shoot ‘em up with a story that would work better as a video game – two thirds of relatively realistic war action and cheap psychology, followed by a final level tuned to action-horror where you have to kill the enemies with something a bit thicker than a stick. In a film, this approach is twice a shame: on the one hand, it can’t fulfil the expectations of a brisk and gripping carnage, and on the other, it excels in the impression of a serious war drama that takes the plot with the undead very seriously, but finishes it with an avalanche of action clichés and a wisecracking self-sacrificing hero. It’s not bad, because within the set standards, the script unfolds in a logical and well thought-out way, but it’s such a shame that the premise remains unfulfilled because they chose motives that are the total opposite (we follow a war mission into which the zombies get somewhat by mistake, and it doesn’t feel like the cruel, realistic horror they probably intended), and it’s too soft, too (it should have been much stronger visually). The excellent opening twenty minutes and the interesting alternative to the war genre with lots of minor ideas are worth the attention, but don’t expect a great B-movie with an intentionally silly bloodfest. For many people that might be good, but not for me. (05/02/2019)

Overlord est en quelque sorte une série B débile, mais qui se prend au sérieux, pèse sur l’estomac et fait l’impasse sur les fines répliques, bonnes surprises et autres moments mémorables. Il y a juste une scène trash marrante et inventive qui m’a plu (la grenade dans la bouche). Quant au reste, c'est incroyablement austère et donne une sensation superficielle que seul un scénariste fainéant a pu produire. Dans les meilleures parties, toute l’intrigue se limite à montrer la débandade face à une créature à la Deadpool sans le costume. Les personnages sont conçus de façon déplorable ; pour n’en citer que quelques-uns, on pourrait les décrire comme le Noir au grand cœur, le cowboy dur à cuire, le vicieux Italien, le gosse débrouillard, la Française émancipée ainsi qu’un méchant SS générique et une horde de nazis sans cervelle. Tous sont plats, inintéressants et prévisibles, ce que ne rattrape pas le jeu des acteurs. En plus, le film est inutilement bruyant, y compris les personnages qui se crient l’un sur l’autre dans pratiquement tous les dialogues, même quand ça ne se justifie pas. Le tout se déroule de manière linéaire et prévisible, sans surprises ni retournements de situation. Il y a bien quelques scènes bourrées d’effets, mais elles ne suffiront absolument pas à compenser la nullité du scénario (et je ne suis pas d’accord avec ceux qui disent que le parachutage du début est bien tourné). [Sitges 2018] (12/10/2018)

Une boucherie de guerre démesurée entre cinq parachutistes américains et les nazis, qui préparent en France un médicament expérimental transformant les cadavres en super soldats mutants. Une victoire totale des valeurs de production lustrées dans une histoire par ailleurs médiocre, pleine de personnages unidimensionnels et de clichés américains stupides, qui est un peu comme Frankenstein’s Army avec un budget extrêmement généreux et des scènes d'action ostentatoires, misant beaucoup sur des éléments stylisés d'horreur et une brutalité explicite. Lorsque vous avez un scénario troué et stupide, la franchise frontale et le grand budget ne le sauveront souvent pas - le vernis visuel peut fonctionner comme un pansement, mais il se détache rapidement dans ce cas, si vous ne vous laissez pas emporter par une introduction de parachutisme très impressionnante et que vous réalisez que le reste du film se déroule dans deux endroits, que vous pourriez compter les zombies sur les doigts d'une main, et que même les meilleurs effets spéciaux et maquillages ne masquent pas les dialogues vains, le manque d'exagération, le manque d'originalité, l'intrigue prévisible et le fait que les héros se retrouvent constamment avec un garçon de six ans qui tient une balle de baseball dans la main, probablement pour le rendre encore plus américain. (13/10/2018)

If Overlord was a typical war film, I would have probably given it a boo rating, but it was a standard slasher film for people who can appreciate Wolfenstein or Resident Evil, so I enjoyed the mayhem and suppressed my criticism of the historical inaccuracies. It would have been pointless in this case anyway. If you don't mind a few hectoliters of spilled blood, the occasional deeper insight into the human anatomy, and a little French baseball fan, just relax, switch off your brain (except for the basic functions, that is) and there's a pretty good chance you'll be entertained. (08/03/2019)

A bit of a cheat on the viewer from my point of view, because instead of jacked-up zombie action (as the posters enticed), it's basically an unremarkable war movie with a stylish look and an altogether appealing cast. The whole storyline with the helper on the French side wasn't entirely bad, but I honestly expected a more significant revenge payoff (given the nastiness the French girl was subjected to). As a one-off, though, it wasn't bad. (28/06/2020)