I finally saw the movie with the nuke. It'd been too long a wait, but it was so, so worth it.
First off, the lead was amazing. His pale, haunted face told so clearly the story of a man striding on towards the potential death of billions, and doing it only because he needed to save humanity from a worse fate. A man from a persecuted and hunted people, who brought a new kind of power into the hands of men, and thought he could control it. An actor of titanic prowess. Also he kinda looks like me.
Florence Pugh, the secondary love interest, just melted into her character. You forgot who she was, even. All you could see was the regal, seductive foreign visionary.
The editing was excellent and really brought a tormented man's visions of the molecular world and of moments of horror in future universes. Really nice nonlinear storytelling.
The whole thing was amazingly true to the book, too—all these little details you'd only get if someone really sat down and studied the source material. You can totally see how much the director loves the stuff he's working off of, and all the changes that he made felt responsible and moved the film towards a more immersive cinematic experience.
The cinematography was mind-blowingly good, and made the movie more than just a series of scenes, but a sequence of thousands of artistically and melodramatically lit frames. The scenes shot in black and white, especially, were very memorable.
And the music, man. O, what music it was! The composer is one of the best, and experienced in working with the director. It was original, evocative, and beautiful. The deserty feeling of some of the tracks is awesome, and the looming touches of fate, building tension throughout the film, were genius.
When the credits, rolled, I sat there in silence and half-tears, meditating on the message of this work of art.
10/10.