The director of "Taboo", a very intriguing premise, good mix of genres, pretty high metascore & Gerrard Butler - of course I had to watch this! Was I disappointed? Certainly. Mild spoilers ahead.
It's an interesting story, one of those spooky historic little mysteries, that's behind the plot of this movie - it helds a hell of a lot more potential that this movie brought to the screen. The script is one the biggest flaws here, the pacing's next. There's a lot of long scenes centered around pieces of boring dialogues with little substance, but at the same time it feels like the filmmakers are extremely proud of their character writing, which they definitely shouldn't be. The story is interesting for about half of the movie, until the point when draggy pacing & unimpactful plot points just start to frustrate You. So those are the flaws, the biggest, anyways. Acting seems to be mostly on level, but, even though I feel like I can never rightly critisize actors performances, I have to say that Gerrard Butlers portrayal of a lighthouse keeper gone mad was pretty damn stale. Cinematography feels kinda shy, the beautiful setting is not used that much, for budgetary reasons, I imagine. "The vanishing" could've used a bit more violence as well, but there is a single pretty good little action scene. While the filmmakers seemingly tried really hard to create the grim, bleak atmosphere that's supposed to be there, they succeeded maybe halfway. It just doesn't get there really.
Overall I would call this an underwhelming experience that leaves the viewer slightly angry because he knows it could've been better. My rating: 5/10.
It's an interesting story, one of those spooky historic little mysteries, that's behind the plot of this movie - it helds a hell of a lot more potential that this movie brought to the screen. The script is one the biggest flaws here, the pacing's next. There's a lot of long scenes centered around pieces of boring dialogues with little substance, but at the same time it feels like the filmmakers are extremely proud of their character writing, which they definitely shouldn't be. The story is interesting for about half of the movie, until the point when draggy pacing & unimpactful plot points just start to frustrate You. So those are the flaws, the biggest, anyways. Acting seems to be mostly on level, but, even though I feel like I can never rightly critisize actors performances, I have to say that Gerrard Butlers portrayal of a lighthouse keeper gone mad was pretty damn stale. Cinematography feels kinda shy, the beautiful setting is not used that much, for budgetary reasons, I imagine. "The vanishing" could've used a bit more violence as well, but there is a single pretty good little action scene. While the filmmakers seemingly tried really hard to create the grim, bleak atmosphere that's supposed to be there, they succeeded maybe halfway. It just doesn't get there really.
Overall I would call this an underwhelming experience that leaves the viewer slightly angry because he knows it could've been better. My rating: 5/10.