Carter

First the things most people want to know: The story takes some snippets from the Matrix, Resident Evil at different places. Switches between English and Korean (mostly Korean), is way to long, and because its non stop high energy action and motion from its opening scene, the final conflict and resolve of the story is nothing more than coming off this speed trip to normal paced reality and a cheesy last second unended conflict scene too suggest it might lead to a sequel or just as a teaser.

Only near the end did it start to get a little boring, mainly because every fathomable cinematography angle and technique ever conceived in film history ran out and had to be recycled.

From a cinematography and filmmaker perspective It is an amazing film to watch, because it uses all kinds of controlled speed manipulation, angles and unedited camera moves that'll make you ponder how it was done. Lots of amazing drone, crane, rail, and angle manipulations I have never seen before.

If you like resident evil, then you know what your getting except this would be the MA-13 or Unrated version.

Some of the acting, mainly by the English speaking cast is poor, what I would expect from a low budget production using inexperienced actors and actresses, but there is nothing low budget about this movie other than the poorly executed and stiff dialog.

A great movie presents a level of believable authenticity, even when not realistic. For the most part Carter pulls this off, despite fighting sequences that would be totally impossible and unrealistic. So it meets that objective.

I gave it a 6 star rating because of the visually interesting cinematography. If i rated it entirely on the story, i might give it a 5 or less because its not very original in concept.

The fact that it was filmed entirely in Korea was a good decision from a filmmaker perspective and it makes sense, because a majority of this movie could not be filmed with live stunt work in the USA due to safety limitations.

It's a decent lazy day weekend movie.

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.