I would have so much wanted to like this.
Amenabar's "Tesis" is to date my favourite horror and one of those movies that made me love cinema more than 20 years ago when I started watching it by chance when it was broadcasted late one night. "Agorà" is an historic drama done so well that it shines like a diamond compared to all those forced movies that attempt to push progressive agendas - which in a sense "Agorà" is as well. His "The Others" while not being a fav of mine, was undoubtedly a huge commercial success. "Mar adentro" - while I don't remember it well due to his "heavy" topics, was great too. Indeed except for the most recent "Regression" - a screenplayer/directorial failure IMO - Amenebar has been one of the best "commercial" film authors of the last 30 years.
No doubt I love him, and in "La Fortuna"'s project there are a lot of things to love too: based on a successful comic, an archaeological adventure story with historical roots about a misterious sunked ship full of treasures that becomes a political thriller and a legal drama. But what about the result?
Unfortunately despite some ideas/scenes and while having a very good pace in episodes 2 and 3, on average "La Fortuna" is a little slow, badly written, badly directed (and this pains me a little) and underwhelming. I could envision a great modern minimalist Indiana Jones (or at least a Spielberg's "TinTin" which, while not a huge success was a great production) under the surface of these mediocre script and production and it's so sad facing the truth. All we get is the disappointing reality of a layman average legal drama with a moving soundtrack - which made me finally get why this production hasn't been sold all around the world as soon as it was released more than 6 months ago. Well maybe it's just other reasons, and it will possibly work for the hispanohablantes audience and others targets (maybe teens?), still it's not something I'd recommend.
Indeed the writing is at times appalingly bad or apparently targeted to a not very bright audience and the TVish direction feels simplistic and cheap, especially in the "in costume" sections which are too few and too short. All in all, I really hope Amenabar gets his magic touch back soon.
Amenabar's "Tesis" is to date my favourite horror and one of those movies that made me love cinema more than 20 years ago when I started watching it by chance when it was broadcasted late one night. "Agorà" is an historic drama done so well that it shines like a diamond compared to all those forced movies that attempt to push progressive agendas - which in a sense "Agorà" is as well. His "The Others" while not being a fav of mine, was undoubtedly a huge commercial success. "Mar adentro" - while I don't remember it well due to his "heavy" topics, was great too. Indeed except for the most recent "Regression" - a screenplayer/directorial failure IMO - Amenebar has been one of the best "commercial" film authors of the last 30 years.
No doubt I love him, and in "La Fortuna"'s project there are a lot of things to love too: based on a successful comic, an archaeological adventure story with historical roots about a misterious sunked ship full of treasures that becomes a political thriller and a legal drama. But what about the result?
Unfortunately despite some ideas/scenes and while having a very good pace in episodes 2 and 3, on average "La Fortuna" is a little slow, badly written, badly directed (and this pains me a little) and underwhelming. I could envision a great modern minimalist Indiana Jones (or at least a Spielberg's "TinTin" which, while not a huge success was a great production) under the surface of these mediocre script and production and it's so sad facing the truth. All we get is the disappointing reality of a layman average legal drama with a moving soundtrack - which made me finally get why this production hasn't been sold all around the world as soon as it was released more than 6 months ago. Well maybe it's just other reasons, and it will possibly work for the hispanohablantes audience and others targets (maybe teens?), still it's not something I'd recommend.
Indeed the writing is at times appalingly bad or apparently targeted to a not very bright audience and the TVish direction feels simplistic and cheap, especially in the "in costume" sections which are too few and too short. All in all, I really hope Amenabar gets his magic touch back soon.