Overlord

Overlord (2018) begins on the eve of the Normandy landings. A group of American paratroopers jumps into France to destroy a radio tower that would otherwise cripple the invasion. Their plane is shot down, the survivors reach the village, and they find the Germans running a laboratory under the church beneath the tower. From there it stops being a war film. The first twenty minutes are played entirely straight. The jump sequence, staged inside a burning aircraft under anti aircraft fire, is one of the best built openings the genre has. Then the genre changes, and it changes on purpose. It was produced by J. J. Abrams's company Bad Robot, which is why it was assumed for months to be a secret Cloverfield sequel. Abrams denied it flatly, and the film turned out to have nothing to do with that universe. Julius Avery directed. Wyatt Russell and Jovan Adepo lead. It runs 110 minutes. Good for: war and horror crossed together, practical makeup effects, and lean genre filmmaking. Less good for: the violence and body horror are very graphic. The second half simplifies, the villain settles into a standard genre villain, and the film never matches the promise of its opening.