wheeelertron

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.

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'd love to get behind this as a thrilling stunt showcase and worthy campaign for stunt-performance film-awards recognition, all tied together with a witty and self-aware central rom-com performance from two top quality actors with top on-screen chemistry, I did love the trailer, I did find the concept appealing. However for a project like this to work satisfactorily, regardless of the talent involved, it must be written well, it must be directed well. This is written badly and it doesn't hold together, and the direction is poor, it's a stupid story that doesn't work.

That accepted I enjoyed many elements, the stunts, some of the jokes, the sometimes ridiculous neon hair-shimmering slow-motion cinematography, the ultimate man-cave sequence, Ryan's jackets, Emily's catsuit-belt-combo (with invisible holster), the on-set movie-making exposition-demonstration-magic similar to HBO's Irma Vep...the behind-the-scenes stunt-reel over the end credits...until that last bit.

Look, I'm glad everyone is enjoying themselves, I just think it is also possible to make a good story out of a fun concept, so we can all enjoy it, and somehow that's not what happened here.