
wheeelertron
Joined Mar 2014
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Reviews23
wheeelertron's rating
Denzel Washington is fantastically entertaining and the opening sequence with Paul Mescal and Yuval Gonen showed such promise, but it's no good, they rinsed the IP dry and I wish Ridley Scott had focused on his Napoleon Director's Cut, which I imagine will be so much more interesting. This is the opposite, the story is obscure and hollow, a classic example of studio box-ticking, an unbelievable amount of money and talent wasted on something so unoriginal you could watch the trailer, imagine yourself through the entire film and save yourself over 2 hours with change. It's one saving grace could have been spectacle, and yet somehow the effects are really nothing special, they are unremarkable, I felt like I was watching a video game narrative.
There's nothing wrong with telling the same stories over and over that's culture, but you need to bring something new and different each time, you want to refresh, not just run an old story through a regenerative workshop so you can sell it all over again, that's the opposite of refreshing.
There's nothing wrong with telling the same stories over and over that's culture, but you need to bring something new and different each time, you want to refresh, not just run an old story through a regenerative workshop so you can sell it all over again, that's the opposite of refreshing.
Given the timing of release I was expecting a political hatchet-job, what I saw was more subtle. The writing lets it down I think, however the lead acting lifts it up and it's well-directed, a mesmerising, powerful story with plenty of truth in it, though not I feel probably true or fair in it's entirety. I also do not feel the filmmakers wanted this to be fair, and that it clearly has an agenda. That said, if watched through an intelligent lens and perhaps with some healthy questioning of the story (seasoned The Crown viewers will be familiar with this approach) I think it is an enlightening US-American origin story and an immersive journey into New York history, I enjoyed the soundtrack and the cinematographical integration of archive footage is wonderfully done!
I have a massive problem with this film, I understand the project was reformulated from a police-procedural into a story centred around a romantic relationship and I think I understand what Scorsese was doing and how powerful this could have been, he has experience in telling these kind of stories and there are some impressive moments of genius but I just don't believe the central romance, to me it feels improperly demonstrated and surreal, which makes the whole thing surreal. As the story looses plausibility the focus shifts back to the investigation, and is elevated significantly by the good work of Jesse Plemons but this remains only a third act in what is clearly an incredibly over-long edit and it's not enough to hold it together. Add in some questionable-quality CGI for an estimated $200 million production, and some inexcusably bad ADR, and a piece of set design/lighting that looked like it was out of a small-theatre low-budget play...I can see a lot of the budget was spent on the big period outdoor sets and props and costume, although a lot of this looked far too new and shiny and was in need of dressing down. And the no-doubt meticulously researched Native American cultural detail seemed both well-placed and justified but it is unfortunately mostly wasted if the story doesn't work.
I think this is why a lot of people find this film unpleasant, they are experiencing being stretched between a romance you're told pulls two people together and seeing something that doesn't make any/much sense on a human level, all surrounded by shiny realism and an emotive soundtrack, and that's uncomfortable. I'm not disputing the facts of historical record this story is based on, but there was clearly more going on, more coercion probably, or just downright unapologetic entitled exploitation...maybe that is why the film ends the way it does, almost as an apology. It seems this was yet another troubled Apple-financed (possibly over-financed) production, tinkered with to leverage their platform, it also seems the US is even now still struggling to be objective about its trouble-filled past. This film takes itself so seriously and yet Avatar (in the broadest sense) tells this story better!
I think this is why a lot of people find this film unpleasant, they are experiencing being stretched between a romance you're told pulls two people together and seeing something that doesn't make any/much sense on a human level, all surrounded by shiny realism and an emotive soundtrack, and that's uncomfortable. I'm not disputing the facts of historical record this story is based on, but there was clearly more going on, more coercion probably, or just downright unapologetic entitled exploitation...maybe that is why the film ends the way it does, almost as an apology. It seems this was yet another troubled Apple-financed (possibly over-financed) production, tinkered with to leverage their platform, it also seems the US is even now still struggling to be objective about its trouble-filled past. This film takes itself so seriously and yet Avatar (in the broadest sense) tells this story better!