Nope Review: Peele's potential performed poorly

This was the first Jordan Peele movie I watched, and I was really hyped to check it out because I'd heard a lot of great buzz about him, with many saying he's a new Spielberg and such. My good friend and fellow critic, Hunter Haubert, had a lot of great things to say about this film, so I was really excited to check it out. Yet the film didn't work for me nearly as much as I'd hoped, and it didn't quite sell me on Peele as a director on its own. So, it's time to delve into my thoughts on this film and discuss what I liked and didn't.

I do admit, this movie was sold to me incorrectly by my research. I was given the impression that this would be a horror movie, but it was more of a character-driven, sci-fi flick with slight horror elements. The trailer and some reviews I read really got me off on the wrong foot with this film, so I admit it probably colored my opinion poorly.

Yet that's not my main gripe with the film, as I really do think there are a lot of elements I was disappointed with. I felt a little too much time was spent on the horse farm, and the slow-build suspense didn't really justify how long it felt to get going (I acknowledge that others like this, even if I don't... I like slow-burns, but it didn't really work for me in this specific film).

Here's the thing with Nope: there's a version of this film I would love, but this isn't it. I love Peele's directing style, the fantastic dialogue in this film, and the incredible acting of our two leads, but, you know, it just didn't work for me in this film too much.

While competently made with great performances, cinematography, and dialogue, Nope's underbaked themes and underdeveloped threat fail to justify its slower pacing, cementing it as a disappointing step down from Peele's earlier work.

If we'd just gotten a much more streamlined, focused approach to the commentary, similar to Get Out or Us, I would've preferred this movie a lot more. While I like subtler themes, this movie felt like it was trying to be way too subtle for way too long, and the first half felt like a slog compared to Peele's other films. The themes of exploitation, fame, and spectacle are far less poignant than those of his earlier films... which is sad, because Peele's ability to weave important themes into his storytelling is part of what I really appreciate about his first two films.

If we got more scenes like the monkey beating people up, or scenes like the blood rain that expand the threat of the villain? The film would feel a lot more terrifying or climactic. Sure, the UFO does kill multiple people, but the movie glosses over it a little too fast. In contrast, when I watched Get Out soon after this film, I felt extremely tense and on the edge of my seat the whole time. And, as much as racist white people are horrifying, I'm pretty sure I should be more scared of a UFO that could eat me than a stupid racist person that I could just beat the pulp out of with my elbow. It's not a great image when most of the movie's tension comes from one scene with a monkey relegated to the backstory of a character I couldn't care less about.

I think this is one of the few movies in recent memory that would benefit from increasing the size and scope of the film, in a landscape where far too many movies go to grand scale that it becomes ridiculous and lacks personal stakes. However, here it just felt like the villain was, in a way, far too easy to defeat, and the ending was unsatisfying...

The Reel Ranker Verdict

Reel or Unreel? - Unreel
The Reel Ranker Score: 48%
Letter Score: D+
Star Ranking: 2.5 out of 5

I love small blockbusters as much as the next guy. Still, if I were pitched "carnivorous UFO Western with sci-fi elements and poignant social commentary", there are hundreds of versions of that that I would prefer more than this film, unfortunately. I had high hopes for this movie to be one of my favorite films of the year, yet it ended up topping my most disappointing movies of the year list. It's still competent enough to score on the higher end of the lower echelons of my scoring system, but not competent enough to be any higher.

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