Review of Nope (2022) by Gumdrop — 31 Aug 2022

Nope is the perfect name for this movie. It's what I found myself saying to myself throughout the movie. And what I think everytime I'm looking for something to watch and this pops up.

I'm usually a fan of Peele's movies and while this was a an watch, I struggled to really enjoy it. I purposely avoided any trailers or information about this movie so I'd go in without any preconceptions. Throughout the movie, I flipped between "what a unique concept" and "what a ridiculous concept". Until the whole of the alien, nicknamed Jean Jacket, is revealed, I really couldn't take it seriously. UFO abducting people, fine. UFO digesting people, not as much. But when you see it for what it really is, it's actually a pretty cool alien. Until I read it in another review, it never occurred to me. But the plot is basically just Jaws. Except that it's a lot slower and dragged out. They could have easily shaved 45 minutes off. But by far, my biggest annoyance were the characters. I found them mostly just annoying. Either flat and boring or grating.

I think the Peele fell into the same trap as Shyamalan. While pushing unique concepts sometimes works, You also have to make sure that it's good. Unique isn't enough.