OVERLORD - Blu-ray Review

Produced by J J Abrams and directed by Julius Avery, Overlord is that kind of WWII-based genre-mashup flick one quite does not expect to be brought out by a studio major like Paramount, let alone a prolific producer of Abrams' stature. Very much reminiscent of the FPS classic Wolfenstein, the very hard-R film's plot follows a quartet of surviving American soldiers - fresh from a gruesomely botched D-day airdrop - making their move to take down a Nazi comms tower stationed on top of a church. Finding an ally in Chloe - a Nazi-hatin' girl from the village where the church is located - and a refuge in her house, they finally begin hatching a plan... until trouble arrives at the doorstep in the form of Captain Wafner, the bad guy with a lustful eye on Chloe. And as the said church is revealed to be housing stuff much more nefarious and sickening than that pesky radio tower, the titular Overlord is born and the film kicks into overdrive, never stopping to catch a breath till the end.

Despite its predictable plot and archetypal characters, Overlord is a blast throughout, as it succeeds in taking its time to build the tension up to the inevitable breaking point while still managing to nail the occasional jolts with jump-scares and graphic moments of hyperviolence. The film also complements the already bonkers plot with fun artistic liberties, chief among them being the middle finger raised against WWII racial segregation, in the form of Pvt Boyce (Jovan Adepo), the naïve black soldier who fights alongside the whites. Game of Thrones breakout Pilou Asbæk effortlessly seethes and snarls as the uber-evil Cap'n Wafner, whereas Wyatt Russell, much like the yesteryear roles by his legendary Dad, plays up his tough guy act as the gruff corporal Ford who believes in playing dirty to get the job done. Mathilde Ollivier makes an impression as Chloe, though she does not get much heroic moments for most of the film. The real stars of the film though, are the VFX and sound departments, with the former going all-out deviant to portray the horrors lurking inside the church and the latter, going for broke from the very start (that plane crash!) and further ratcheting the dread up with the aid of Jed Kurzel's creepy score and perhaps, some of the most terrifying foley work heard till date. Though 110 mins long, the film's edited to keep up with the breakneck nature of the plot and does not feel overlong.

Paramount delivers an excellent presentation of Overlord on its 4k release (which itself contains the 4k UHD disc and the routine 1080p Blu). Shot by Laurie Rose and Fabian Wagner, the film goes for a warm, yet grimdark visual aesthetic for most of the film, complete with oppressive shadows and occasional lens flares (c'mon, you didn't expect that from a JJ flick?), though that doesn't take away anything from the overall picture quality or distract anyone from the bloody, gooey mayhem on display. However, the Dolby Atmos (for both 4k and HD) audio here is an absolute beast that never lets up and keep assaulting from front, back and centre (and even above, per the reviewers equipped with Atmos systems). The lone extra here is an almost-an-hour-long 7-part BTS documentary on the 1080p disc.