As a class B movie, Overlord has a better appearance than we thought. The opening scene is extraordinarily effective. I can say that this is the most spectacular opening scene I’ve ever seen for the size of the films in his class. This scene shows an army transport plane strafed by firearms, just before the soldiers parachute. We don’t see enemy aggression directly, but we see flashes of bullets that pierce the fuselage and then, bodies of several soldiers.
The camera focused on the panic of the soldiers. Maybe this is intended to save budget, instead of displaying a real battlefield that definitely needs a lot of special effects. But this also escalates the tension and urgency of the scene.
Again, it is proven that J.J. Abrams can make whatever it produces looks more expensive than the original. The focus then turned to one soldier, namely soldier Boyce (Jovan Adepo). He parachuted with stuttering and then landed imperfectly in the water. He is still alive, but now in a dense forest. The bodies hung on the tree, while the sound of bullets was faint in the distance. The tense atmosphere of the forest seemed very realistic. Cinematography and sound design really works optimally to capture the tension of soldiers trapped in mysterious enemy territories.
It was D-Day in World War II, historic moments just as the Allied troops would hit back German troops from the French Normandy coast. This mission itself, says Google, is called “Operation Overlord”. Boyce’s team was the opening team assigned to destroy the signal jamming tower in a church near the beach. Without the tower, Allied aircraft could safely provide air support for the infantry who would later invade from land and sea.