Carter

An absolute brilliant effort in cinematography and fight choreography, acting is perfectly adequate marriage with a typical action storyline.

High praise for what is visually presented it's wildly entertaining using creative action that plays comedic while never losing visceral impact.

If you love action films, this is your bag!

The film isn't about the plot the politics or the acting. It's about the action. In and of itself, despite some wonky parts that are just not believable, the action is decent.

But the whole thing is ruined by the attempt at a constant one take attempt constantly jostled about by the shaky camera effect.

If you mixed Kingsman camera movement and spinning and pov changing with Blair witch project handheld shaky cam footage it would be the camera work on this movie.

Absolutely unbearable after a certain point while you're just trying to focus on the action scenes unfolding.

Its worth a try if you think you can withstand that. Otherwise it's hard on the eyes and brain with the constant camera shake.

The idea of this film was very promising and attention-grabbing, especially for lovers of action films and thrillers (for me!). However, the execution and direction of this film just weren't satisfying enough.

In the beginning of the story, I was already doubtful after seeing the sauna scene - "Carter", a single man with no memory, manages to kill over 20 (probably 30+) men, all with knives and other kinds of weapons, basically single-handedly and without a scratch. Even the best-trained killers wouldn't be that capable. The opening already tells you how the story will go. The action scenes are way too unrealistic, almost fantasy-like. For a film that's classified as an action thriller, that's not so good.

The one-scene one-cut technique used during the camera work was nice and refreshing at the beginning but later on became frustrating. A lot of "empty" scenes showing empty rooms, the underneath of a car etc...just absolutely unnecessary scenes.

The non-Korean actors ruined the show for me. Their acting was simply bad, very amateur-like and mediocre.

Carter was a style over substance dizzying 132 minutes of utter ridiculousness, ruined by horrible camerawork and a convoluted story. Huge props to lead actor Joo Won, all the skilled stuntmen, insanely choreographed action scenes and the great action set pieces and visuals, but sadly, all that effort was wasted on unwatchable dizzying, seizure-inducing, single-take-looking headache-inducing camera work - and just as bad editing. Had all the great action and fight scenes been shot normally - with tact, intelligence, and aim, this film's action could've topped the Mission Impossible films. But instead, it was like a drunk on meth, with one fancy camera drone trying to keep up with the action. Then add a decent conceptual story, that ended up being incoherent and tried too hard to be smart with convoluted twists, and drag it out with unnecessarily repetitive long action scenes - for over 2 hours. It was frustrating, exhausting, and a huge missed opportunity to be a great action film. If you want to see it done properly - with great action and a great story, watch The Roundup with Don Lee. Writer and director Byung-gil Jung needs to stick to basic camera work and lessen the overbearing dramatics, as well as work towards better story-telling - in under 2 hours.

Editor: How many cuts & transitions do you want?

Director: Yes

Man! My head hurts and my eyes need some rest. Even though I do love these fast-paced action features, this turned out to be too much! I know and I understand that there would be some who have an undying appetite for such kinds of filmmaking, and that's fine, cause to each their own! But if you ask me, I could not enjoy the ride as much as I wished for.

Part of it is due to how turbulent & disorderly it had ultimately become! What was inaugurated as an inventive piece that comprises distinctive one-of-a-kind action, slowly turned itself into one tiring repetition. Add cheesy performances and a suboptimal write-up to that equation and we got ourselves a highly forgettable affair.