James Knight

It's baaaad. Soulless and flat, lacking in anything resembling a vision. Characters without personality who exist only to spew trailer bait lines. We are bombarded endlessly with music and lens flares and camera movement and cuts, never afforded any time to breathe, despite this very little actually happens with a plot largely expressed in speeches about how important things are that fail to convince. A muddy tone that can't decide between pulpy adventure or high intellect so does neither. Overstuffed and overlong, a decent movie buried in a sludge of abysmal character writing, poorly executed cliches, a generationally phoned-in Colin Firth performance, an entirely unnecessary character and secondary plot (Josh O Connor), and mind numbing hyperstimulous cinematography and editing. At no point did i feel this movie was made by humans, prototype for the kind of ai movies we have to look forward to. Lacking in any kind or artistic vision, any teeth, or any characteristic flaws. A smooth and plastic piece of noise pollution. The third act almost saves it, the scenes in the tv studio showing strong direction from Spielberg and strong performances. Ultimately though, the film ends on an anti climax. I understand why, and in a stronger film it would have been good, but ending a prolonged bowel movement with a cut to black doesn't grant any more artistic weight to the shit despite the films best intentions. I think of movies like Jaws, like the indie movies, like Jurassic Park. Even though i don't like the latter, I can appreciate that there is a humanity there, a strong execution elevating a simple idea by way of the humanity of the man behind the camera. There is some grit, there is some soul, there are flaws. The camera holds on people because it trusts that we empathize with people without the need to punctuate their existence with endless cuts and flair. No animals were harmed in the making of this movie, and no humans were involved at all