Dir: Julius Avery. Starring: Joven Adepo, Wyatt Russell, Mathilde Olivier. R. Color. 109 min.
“Overlord” is one of those movies where I wish I was at the meeting between director Julius Avery, writer Billy Ray, and the title producer J.J. Abrams for a nice afternoon lunch somewhere expensive on Hollywood Boulevard. As they discuss making a zombie movie, they aren’t actual zombies but I’ll get to that, about D-Day and the invasion of France during WWII. It would be so satisfying to hear Avery say “the zombies are a metaphor for dead Jews,” then Abrams says “BRILLIANT! Where do I sign?” At this point I would be half-way through an expensive meal, stand up, slap all three men in the face, say “What the hell is wrong with you?”, and leave them with the bill after getting a to-go container.
Explaining how stupid this movie is would be a waste of time because the film’s plot does it for you. Spoilers ahead. Here is what happens;
The famous D-Day invasion of France is well under way. A group of American paratrooper soldiers are heading across enemy lines as their pilot attempts to avoid enemy fire. Their mission is to destroy a mysterious Nazi compound set up at a church. With an onslaught of enemy fire from German troops, only four soldiers make it out of the plane crash and subsequent battle on the ground alive.
They arrive in the rural town where the church is located. A local woman named Chloe (Mathilde Olivier) helps to hide the men. Fortunately the platoon’s I’m so angry because it’s cliche bomb expert Ford (Wyatt Russell) made it out as well and begins to form a plan.
While scouting out the facility from the woods, our main character Boyce (Jovan Adepo) gets chased down by a guard dog and hops into an enemy truck. He wasn’t very sneaky. Sometimes you get lucky when the men driving a military vehicle don’t look into their side mirrors, can’t hear the dog barking, and don’t feel a large body jump into their truck. Maybe they were hard of hearing and forgot their glasses that day.
Boyce finds himself in a secret underground facility beneath the church where the Nazi’s are experimenting on dead French Jewish citizens. The mad doctor scientist Dr. Schmidt (Erich Redman) has concocted some type of evil red serum that turns people into zombies. He has vials, yes literal vials, of the stuff to create a zombie army.
Meanwhile back in town our main Nazi bad guy Corporal Wafner (Pilou Asbaek from “Game of Thrones fame) is still in search of the other soldiers. After a battle, Wafner kidnaps Chloe but is shot in the face during the scene. The Nazi troops head back to the evil facility. Bleeding to death from the injury and against the doctor’s recommendation, Wafner injects himself with the yellow serum. Yes there are two types of serum now. Wafner becomes the SUPER-ZOMBIE! It is up to Boyce and Ford to lead the way and blow the facility while saving Chloe in the process.
“Overlord” is a movie that exists solely because the “Call of Duty” video game franchise added a killing zombies mode feature years ago. It is offensively bad on so many levels be it if you know anybody who’s family was affected by WWII (I do not personally), or if you simply enjoy good movies. The film makes no logical sense. It is fine if you want to be a quirky romp style horror like a “Cabin in the Woods” or an “Evil Dead”. If you open with several intense battle scenes, a village being ravaged by Nazi soldiers, and innocent dead Jewish citizens being brought in on wheel barrels then I expect to take you seriously. If you follow that with color coded vials of zombie creating formula, a local woman who suddenly knows how to work a flamethrower, and a bad guy with a giant hole in his mouth that can’t die even when his skin is melting until the script says he has to die then you made a stupid movie.
I came up with a song that sums up how bad “Overlord” is. It is based on the theme song from “The Brady Bunch.” Sing it with me now;
“It’s the story, of some crazy Nazi’s, who created lot’s of zombie juice (da-da-da). It’s the story, of a bunch of murdered Jews, who were easy to experiment on (da-da-da). Then this one day, a bunch of shell-shocked soldiers, came upon this creepy lab (da-da-da). After a bunch of pop scares, and some really bad acting, they all came together as one (da-da-da). That’s the way they all became the zombie bunch (da-da-da-da). The zombie bunch (da-da-da-da). The zombie bunch (da-da-da-da). Thats the way they all became the zombie bunch!”
Suck Factor: 6out of 7 (7 means your movie really SUCKS!)
Written by Byrd
The SUCK FACTOR, how it works. We have flipped the rating system upside down. If a film is classic, it gets a 0. Meaning that movie has 0 SUCKS. If a film is complete trash you must avoid at all costs, it gets a 7, meaning this movie really SUCKS!
Greg Squared Films 