Mixed Feelings. House Of Dynamite (2025) || Movie Review.

House Of Dynamite is a Netflix original film that is both a political fantasy and thriller. It was directed by Kathryn Bigelow and it was written by Noah Oppenheim. It starred Idris Elba, Rebecca Ferguson, Gabriel Basso, Jared Harris, Tracy Letts with some other notable actors.

I see House of Dynamite as an intense thriller film with an unusual narrative technique hence why this movie was criticised in a negative way. The viewers were not satisfied with the directorial style. Some complained about its unresolved and weak ending. Only a few were able to get the narrative technique and the directorial style Bigelow used for this movie. It's unique and it was unexpected.

The storyline of this movie revolves around when an unknown missile was launched at the United States of America. Captain Olivia Walker (Rebecca Ferguson), the oversight officer for the White House Situation Room begins to lead the hunt and race to stop the unknown missile, to find out which country launched it, to find out why, to identify the enemy of the country and to keep the citizens of the country safe.

Olivia worked with the Pentagon, POTUS (Idris Elba) and various commands of the armed forces to solve the missile problem before a war erupts. The main goal was to stop the missile attack and stop the start of a war or best avoid one. Was the mission successful?

My Review And Rating.

I saw this movie last year when it was still in the cinemas and I have been so reluctant to put out the review for a very long time. Sometimes, the title of a movie can make one decide not to watch. This movie was like that for me. However, I saw this movie because of its director, cast, and snippet of the plot.

Idris Elba is one of my favorite actors, and I'd hate to miss any of his works. These gave me high expectations about the movie regardless of what my intuition was telling about the title of the movie.

The first time I saw it at the cinema, it was bad. Although it started well and kept me on the edge of my seat, towards the ending, when Rebecca Ferguson disappeared from the movie I immediately felt uncomfortable and I began to lose focus. Then the introduction of various perspectives came into play. My first thought was, *”What the hell is going on? Where is my suspense, tension and mystery? Where is Rebecca? (in Klaus’ voice) And why is the Night Agent guy yapping quite a lot of words and pissing me off? But I am a viewer that loves to believe that there is always light at the end of the tunnel. So I kept on watching but after 10mins or so, I was disappointed. But then I received a work call and I left the cinema. That was my cinema experience.

Two weeks later I decided to try again, probably this time, it would be different. Was it? Anyways, watching it the second time was not the same as the initial watch. It was more of watching to understand why Kathryn Bigelow decided to direct this movie like this. I was curious as to why because considering my experience with the movie The Hurt Locker I didn't expect this movie would have a disappointing ending which many or can I say 70% of viewers complained about, but I can see why the director was attracted to this script.

From my second watch, I think Bigelow was trying to achieve something different and unique with this movie but a lot of the audience missed it. In my own opinion, Bigelow tried to make her audience understand that the plot of this movie is not just about nuclear disaster or start of a war, but it is also about how people in the seat of power make decisions that could change the lives of billions of people in a seconds under extreme pressure.

For me, I would say don't quickly judge or cancel out this movie, but I must confess I did at first. The problem was that; the first two acts were so high and pumped with tension so much that the audience were so curious as to how all will end and how all the loose ends would be resolved. Too bad. I wish the tension and suspense of all the acts were managed properly and maybe this film would have been impressive or blockbuster. In the end, I enjoyed it. It was good, misjudged, harshly criticised and the ending wasn't an end that would stick with you.

Rating this movie, I will give it a 7 out 10 stars. It was a good movie, supercharged with tension from the start, but failed to carry on or keep the attention of its audience towards the ending. It was good for me regardless of the ending. How was this movie for you?