I resisted the temptation to see the Barbie movie right after finishing the other big summer blockbuster movie, Oppenheimer. After almost three hours of big-screen entertainment, I was out of film watching energy. I might let Barbie wait for the small screen.

Three hours though wasn’t long enough to tell such a complex story. Oppenheimer would have been better as a ten-hour miniseries. I enjoyed it – but the story needed to be fleshed out in places, especially since there are now few who remember the period the film covers. To me there were a lot of assumptions, ones that I understood, but that my children might not be aware of.

I could list a bunch of other criticisms, some of which are unique to me. For example, I find that in every movie Matt Damon stars I have difficulty telling the actors apart. They all look the same to me. Maybe it is the lighting. Maybe it’s just me.

There is an urgency about Oppenheimer that comes across clearly in the film. If the Americans didn’t build atomic weapons, the Nazis would, with world domination as the result. Maybe it couldn’t be done, but they had to know, one way or another, if nuclear weapons were as possible as the science seemed to indicate.

The science also suggested they might blow up the world in the process, but that was a risk they were willing to take.

Oppenheimer is a compelling story, well told and well acted. The sort of movie I could imagine watching again. More than the history though, the movie has me reflecting on morality, ethics and science. Because no matter what some suggest, science is not amoral. Just becasue the technology is possible does not make it wide or good.

Is the world a better place because we have nuclear weapons? You can argue both sides of that one with a certain amount of validity. You won’t find a definitive answer either – the jury will remain out as long as there is a possibility we will wind up in a war that will destroy life as we know it.

Is the world a better place because of the advances in medicine in the past century? We are living longer and healthier, but is there a downside?

Has television built community? What about social media? Is it good to have a computer in our pockets with access to just about all human knowledge?

What about artificial intelligence? There has been a lot of concern expressed recently by scientists who have spent their careers developing AI. I was thinking about that during Oppenheimer as those who created the atomic bomb expressed concerns about its use and further development of nuclear weapons. It seems a little late to have doubts when you have already opened Pandora’s Box.

All of which makes Oppenheimer an interesting movie, not so much becasue of its history but because we struggle with the same issues today. At least we should, but all too often don’t. One of these days it will be too late.