Well intended, but ultimately shallow and unengaging

Rating: 5/10 (25 February 2020)

Taika Waititi is no Wes Anderson.
I'm not even a huge fan of Anderson's, but he certainly can make a visually stunning (hence entertaining) movie without much of a story, or rather...with a story that can be summarized in a few sentences. But the result is still lovable for it's quirkiness.
I guess this is what Waititi was shooting for. He missed by a huge margin. It's not the lack of visually interesting scenes (thought still not in the same league with Anderson). It's the general topic, that makes the lack of story feel very off. It's a setting that shouldn't allow for such a void.
Pretty much every of the characters feel unbelievable or at least underdeveloped. I understand this is a comedy, but good comedies required especially good writing.
War is depicted as abstract, with little impact on every day life (in terms of conveniences). Everything is pretty much just talk until the last act and everybody seems well off.
Apart from the last act, not much happens in terms of a plot.
I don't see this movie as potentially offensive in any way, because it doesn't really dare an unpleasant perspective. Nazis are always depicted as idiots or caricatures. Everybody is a victim of the circumstances.
The message seemed especially odd to me. Where you would expect it to take either the road to moralize heavily, or point out that good or bad are hardly ever cut clearly, the movie appears to say: "Good or bad are a part of life anyway. Don't bother."
I beg to differ.