"Oppenheimer" by Christopher Nolan (2023)

This movie was so hugely advertised and pumped up (together with its competition, "Barbie") that it was inevitable that it will eventually leave me cold. Critics claimed it was masterpiece and the best movie of 21th century so far - well, that was really hard to live up to. I genuinely expected a cinematic equivalent of a burning bush, something nobody has ever seen before, etc, etc - at the end it was just a long, sprawling saga clumsily divided in two parts that could easily have been two different movies.

The first part of the movie is all about  J. Robert Oppenheimer and how he was a flawed genius, who got recruited by US government to develop an atomic bomb before somebody else does. After the war, he enjoys hero reputation which is eventually demolished during Cold War and anti-communists witch hunt hearings. This would be a story in a nutshell and although I must be honest and admit that everything was done professionally, with bug budget, top cast, etc, it left me completely cold and uninvolved. The best thing about it was that I did not feel 3 hours in the cinema and the time actually flew by quite nicely. 

In retrospective now, a week later, I wonder why it left me so unmoved. A friend who was with me saw "Barbie" first and she thinks that it was far more interesting, thought-provoking and provocative. Normally, I love these actors and even gladly went to spend 3 hours in the cinema, fully knowing it will probably destroy my bladder (it didn't). Perhaps its all this press, claiming its phenomenal and "watch out for that particular scene that leaves everybody traumatised" - well, no, I was not traumatised, in fact, I was not even moved. I thought it was overlong, sprawling and too ambitious in its scope and desire to cover too much in one movie. What bothers me the most is - 1945 bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are well known historical facts and only this new generation Z is the one who is constantly surprised by everything, like the world had started in 1997. - to them, these youngsters, this might be traumatising and thought-provoking movie about something they have never heard before but to the rest of us this is basically re-telling of a something we have all learned in the school. I mean, is there a person in the world who does not know how did WW2 end? As for myself, I have even visited both Hiroshima and Nagasaki + saw the museums with my own eyes, so no, this was neither traumatising nor new nor something I did not expect. To me it was very much like if somebody made a movie about WW2 and kids got all shocked and surprised - well yes, this is historical fact and no amount of your outrage and offenses can erase it.