Jordan Peele’s sci-fi thriller Nope is one of the most acclaimed movies of the year, widely praised by both critics and audiences. From its nuanced performances to its sumptuous visuals to its thought-provoking themes, many aspects of the movie have been met with near-universal approval. But Peele didn’t manage to win over everyone with this intriguing UFO story.
When the comments on a Reddit thread about Nope are sorted by “controversial,” a bunch of dissenting opinions reveal themselves like a hungry alien saucer in the sky.
There Is No Deep Underlying Meaning
On many Reddit threads discussing Nope, the users who have a negative response to the film are told that they simply didn’t get it. But Redditor u/ParryMeAgain believes that there’s “nothing to get” and that Nope is “just a sci-fi film” (although science fiction stories inherently have something to get, even if it’s just a high-concept premise).
Fans of Nope have interpreted the film to criticize the use of exploitation for entertainment, but this Redditor believes “there is no deep underlying meaning [in the film] other than eye contact.”
Keke Palmer’s Character Was Annoying
Most fans and critics were thrilled by Keke Palmer’s zany, outgoing portrayal of Em Haywood. Daniel Kaluuya and Steven Yeun are compelling as always, but for many viewers, Palmer steals the show from the moment she first appears with an unconventional monologue delivery.
But not everyone in the audience was taken with Palmer’s performance. Redditor u/IntrepidCase bluntly posted that Palmer’s character was “annoying as f***.”
It Didn’t Live Up To The Hype
Ever since Peele became a renowned auteur with Get Out, there’s been a lot of hype every time he has a new movie out. The mysterious trailers for Us teased the Tethered as a supernatural menace and the even more mysterious trailers for Nope were interpreted to tease everything from a UFO story to a biblical plague.
Redditor u/jdrakey “absolutely loved the casting” of the characters in Nope, but added, “I don’t quite think it lived up to the hype.”
Jordan Peele Is Overrated
Redditor u/MisterBadIdea2 “completely hated” the movie and declared Jordan Peele to be “almost certainly the most overrated filmmaker working.” The Redditor felt that Get Out was “half of a good movie [that] botches the reveal and the ending” and that Us never found “a solid groove,” but believed that “Nope is his worst yet.”
The Redditor called Nope “a straight f****** failure of storytelling [and] a failure to build suspense,” and suggested that “there’s no emotional throughline or intimacy with any of the characters.”
Us Was A Better Movie
After Peele burst onto the scene with his Oscar-winning debut feature Get Out, the more straightforward horror storytelling and nonsensical mythology of his sophomore directorial effort Us were met with a more divided response. For many, Nope felt like a return to form after the disappointment of Us.
But Redditor u/ADR36 doesn’t share that opinion: “It seems tons of ppl are saying ‘disappointed in Us but he won me back big time here.’ I’m the opposite. Us I thought was INCREDIBLE, whereas this one let me down big time.”
It Has Great Moments, But It’s Not A Great Story
There are plenty of great individual moments in Nope, like Gordy’s rampage on the sitcom set and Jupe and his spectators getting sucked up into the sky and digested by the alien. But Redditor u/youvebeenliedto felt that, as a cohesive narrative, Nope was “poorly executed.”
The Redditor concedes that “Peele does a great job of capturing moments” that are memorable and well-constructed, but that the plotting of Nope “got REALLY dumb towards the end.”
The Flying Saucer Reveal Was Underwhelming
The early scenes in Nope introduce what looks like a traditional flying saucer. But instead of being the spaceship containing the aliens, this saucer is revealed to be the alien itself. In spite of the originality of this idea, Redditor u/forresbj would’ve preferred standard E.T.s.
The Redditor writes, “I thought [the flying saucer] was interesting until it was revealed to be some kind of weird sky monster. Aliens in a saucer is more interesting imo. Even if this is a new take, my intrigue stopped after that reveal.”
The Tone Is All Over The Place
Redditor u/ForrestGumpsShoes called Nope a “bafflingly horrible movie,” and felt that “tonally, it was all over the place.” Nope is a blood-soaked body horror movie and a Spielbergian sci-fi actioner rolled into one, with both lighthearted moments of comedy and a harrowing exploration of trauma.
The tone wasn’t this Redditor’s only problem with Nope. They felt that Peele’s direction favored “style over substance,” his script had “atrocious pacing issues,” and the musical score “didn’t fit the movie.”
The Gordy Subplot Was Pointless
Redditor u/jazzman13 “really loved [Nope] overall, but… what was the point of the monkey subplot?” Gordy has quickly become one of the most iconic parts of Nope, but u/jazzman13 doesn’t “get how that ties in” to the main storyline.
The backstory of an animal actor who reached his breaking point and bludgeoned his human co-stars bolsters the themes of the movie. But the Redditor has a point; the Gordy narrative is almost entirely disconnected from the actual plot. It feels like a second kind of horror movie crammed into the middle of this one.
It’s Not Scary
Themes and allegories are all well and good, but above all, a horror film has to scare its audience. Although they concede that they “loved the talent involved” and “can appreciate the cinematography and the stylistic choices,” Redditor u/Apprehensive-Leg-395 “didn’t really understand why anyone would think it’s scary.”
Most horror fans enjoyed the intensity of scenes like Gordy’s killing spree and Jean Jacket raining blood on the Haywood household, but not everyone found the movie scary.
