Derek Rowe

So many scenes where people sit around and talk, with or without chairs and blackboards. Nolan has found a way to reduce one of the most significant events in global history to predominantly look and feel like a mid-season episode of a 1940's version of the West Wing! The entire third act of this film literally explores whether or not Oppenheimer gets his security clearance renewed - I was surprised his parking space wasn't also up for grabs! It's as if Nolan thinks we haven't heard of the McCarthy era, or that we'll be shocked politicians can be self-serving. Yes, some of the visual effects, and certain scenes (The post-detonation speech scene at Los Alamos in particular) are truly innovative and thrilling, but in truth they have to be in order for us not to notice this is a film with virtually no physical action or momentum - as is the lead character himself. The truly disappointing thing about Oppenheimer is that it had a shot to be a great buddy movie, with Damon as the buddy. It seemed to be going that way, but Damon pretty much vanished midway through the story. A crying shame. This movie had a chance to be great. It just doesn't know what kind of movie it wants to be. It's 50% of too many different genres.

Very, very slow and clunkily structured. The cameos fall flat and nothing either scary or suspenseful. Really disappointed.

Well shot, good dialogue, great acting, some really effective set pieces, an amazing fight scene, but... not about much more than the era it's set in. A bit hard to care about.