A scattershot movie in which the director can't make up his mind over which bad direction the film should move, so he chooses all of them. Supposedly about the Panama Papers, the film spends most of its time trying to explain the concept of money to the viewer (who has paid to see the film, and so understands the concept of money by default) and largely ignores the subject matter entirely. Ultimately, this is a film about nothing into which no serious work or thought seems to have been expended.
World War II is a tired, well-trodden landscape, but this film felt wholly original. Near-farcical comedy involving Hitler and Nazis could easily become uncomfortable or inappropriate with sloppy writing, but the film puts out a thick, constant stream of satire immediately, leaving no room for ambiguity with the viewer. Fun, funny and poignant.
The tired trope of the main character's young companion being imaginary deflated the ending of the film a bit, and caused some narrative issues, but otherwise this was a solid science fiction film that posed weighty questions. Like any good piece of science fiction, it didn't dive too deeply down the future-science rabbit hole and instead focused on narrative, character and the question at hand.
Included with HBO Max, I watched this film on a whim because I'd heard it was "good" -- the word "good" here meaning" not as truly awful as the other DC movies of its generation. If you're of the mind that DC/Warner Brothers is trying to pirate the Marvel/Disney blueprint, this blatant knock-off of the Captain America: First Avenger film will lend solid credence to your argument. Sure, we've substituted WWI for WWII, gender-swapped the lead, and added every ounce of slow-motion action legally allowed in a movie, but otherwise there isn't much daylight between the two films, down to the self-sacrifice-in-an-experimental-airplane ending. The film is fine, it's sometimes fun, often funny, the cast is solid, but the flaws -- particularly the dialog -- are real.
One of the most powerful movies I've ever seen. Artfully crafts an argument that grabs your attention at the outset, pulls at your heart strings, and engages you think and comprehend the weighty issues being presented.
