Brian F

I was very excited for this release and had high expectations. The cast and acting is excellent. Cinematography is stellar. The topic and story are very interesting and thought provoking without being preachy. Unfortunately, it is a tough watch. The story is told through numerous hearings and meetings that occurred in the decade or so following the end of WWII. In fact, the first hour or so of this 3-hour epic jumps all around these hearings in an attempt to establish Oppenheimer and others' backgrounds and characters. An interesting approach, but so scattered in timelines and short clips that it will leave even some of the more studied in the news of the era in a daze. It is so disjointed and punchy that it is like watching a VERY long movie preview. The middle of the film is where the meat of things are and is the most interesting--The Manhattan Project. We all know what happens, more or less, and the film doesn't disappoint in telling the dramatic story of how it played-out. The last hour or so of the movie is spent playing-out the rest of the meetings and hearings that flashed through the first 2 hours of the film. It becomes more clear what the purpose was for each (though I still left confused as to a few) and the significance on Oppenheimer and other key players of the time. But at this point, after the excitement of seeing The Manhattan Project through, it leaves for a rather dull ending.