I am not a frequent movie watcher. The last time I went to the cinema was 5 years ago to watch Avengers: Endgame(my first Avengers movie). Regardless, I was pretty nervous to go see a movie which, on paper, is perfect for me. It did not dissapoint, and in the following article you will hopefully understand a little bit more about why I liked it.
I really liked the visuals. The parts where we go inside Oppenheimer's mind and see the particles and waves tensing up were my favourites.
The environments really looked like the 1920s/30s/40s/50s, which might sound extremely dumb to point out. Of course the environments were going to look good, duhh! But I did not take them for granted, but in typical fashion of mine I analysed everything for something historically inaccurate, and the "correct" environmental storytelling really helped immerse me in this world.
I suprisingly did not get a good view of the Trinity test explosion because I was distracted by the masterful sound work, which I will talk about next
My goodness did I enjoy the sound design. Ludwig Göransonn wiped the floor with the music and there really wasn't a point where it was too loud or too quiet or of the wrong type. This massively added to my enjoyment of the movie. My favourite track so far is Can You Hear The Music? Honorable mention goes to the absolute banger music of the first trailer
The first time there was the silence when there should have been screaming and shouting took me by complete suprise, but I quickly realized what was going on and boy was it amazing. It never failed to suprise me though, and even when the bomb exploded I was suprised to hear the silence. And yes, every time that happened I wondered whether something was wrong with the cinema equipment. Overall it was done masterfully and really added to the movie.
It will not suprise the reader I am a moderate science nerd, and physics is one of my favourite subjects, having many awesome irl uses, such as the Nuclear Reactor, or the Space Rocket, of the F-35B Lightning II fighter jet. Nuclear phyicics is the last thing gymnasium students learn in Croatia, and, with the knowledge still being fresh in my mind, I understood the necessary amount of the inner workings of the bomb to be able to follow the dialogue smoothly. In fact, this added to my enjoyment.
Many of my friends and other people who were leaving the theater at the same time as us were bored by the end of the movie, being drowned in all the talk about communism and the Senate and Atomic Energy Commission. I, however, enjoyed it greatly, owing to my knowledge of the politics of the time. I commented on Twitter that it felt like I personally was the target audience. I was probably the only one to laugh at the "I am a New Deal Democrat" joke Oppenheimer made.
I found the portrayal of the Red Scare and FBI spying activities consistent with my prior knowledge, and thus satisfying to watch.
Both hearings were done masterfully and the twist in the end where Mr Robot came in and destroyed Iron Man was an, in my opinion, very satisfying ending to the story.
I knew close to nothing about Project Manhattan going into this movie, save for the test happening in New Mexico and the lead scientist being Oppenheimer. I enjoyed seeing the various arguments between the general and Oppenheimer, as well as the post-war bickering regarding the H-bomb. It really made me feel like I was in his head. What especially caught my eye was the repeating of words regarding the desert weather. It is not special in any remarkable way, but it did achieve the continuity I am sure Nolan desired.
Go watch the movie. Go watch it right this instant. I do not know if I will have the strength to go see another movie this fast, but I will probably eventually watch Barbie too to complete Barbenheimer as it was meant to be.