So close. While watching the film and getting into the chase aspect of the story, it felt so close. Every impact fell just a little short, every moment of anger or of sadness didn't feel as angry or sad as it needed to. Honestly, it felt like a story a grandparent would tell their grandchildren - it's interesting but it doesn't mean anything to the audience, it only means something for the storyteller - because it's their memory. This whole story is very important to Nick, but to us it isn't impactful enough. I liked watching the movie, every scene felt well thought out and I didn't really foresee the ending - so that's good. The film in it's camerawork, the acting, and pacing, and all that technical detail to put the story together was done well. Especially how small details and hints from throughout the movie all made it to the end and made for a connected and reasonable ending with the mystery narrative. As for the Nick's story, I guess it meant to be bittersweet, and I'm okay with that. They feel bad but life doesn't always have a sweet ending for us. Additionally with Nick, I think that his character had good development. We got to see small parts of his character come out as the story moved forward (like his ability to discern when not to shoot a gun to disable a criminal & his anger becoming the better of him due to betrayal/love) and he did change from the beginning to the end. The only thing that bothered me about him is that it is touted that he is an established army vet - yet he can't fight? He gets taken down so quick it was a little unbelievable. Even Hugh Jackman would've done better in these fights than the character he is playing. So, the main concern I had with this, and is why so many people were bored with the film, is that it didn't hit hard enough when it needed to. Honestly, if this was cut and extended as a 6 piece series, I think it could've done better. What bothers me is that 1, Lisa Joy is a pretty good writer and she did great in Westworld so it's not that she can't write a good story; I think she can but wrote one that wasn't meant for a movie format and 2, it doesn't have the entertainment value it should've because I think it was written for an audience that "isn't smart" - which is an error because the audience is usually smart enough to connect the dots. A lot of the story was very careful but I think with more risk, there would be more reward in that the audience would craft the story in their mind more and in via the memory machine. I really think this was a good story that needed to be delivered better - but (and this is not an excuse) this is Lisa Joy's first venture as a solo director/writer and it wasn't bad. Definitely can get better from here. I would recommend this movie to fans of sci-fi, cyberpunk, dystopia genres and to ones who are perceptive of cinematic details as they would probably enjoy the efforts made for this film over the entertainment it has difficulty bringing to the table. Honestly, could use a little less world building a more story building.
Review by Mani DVIP 2BlockedParentSpoilers2022-02-20T11:33:57Z
So close. While watching the film and getting into the chase aspect of the story, it felt so close. Every impact fell just a little short, every moment of anger or of sadness didn't feel as angry or sad as it needed to. Honestly, it felt like a story a grandparent would tell their grandchildren - it's interesting but it doesn't mean anything to the audience, it only means something for the storyteller - because it's their memory. This whole story is very important to Nick, but to us it isn't impactful enough. I liked watching the movie, every scene felt well thought out and I didn't really foresee the ending - so that's good. The film in it's camerawork, the acting, and pacing, and all that technical detail to put the story together was done well. Especially how small details and hints from throughout the movie all made it to the end and made for a connected and reasonable ending with the mystery narrative. As for the Nick's story, I guess it meant to be bittersweet, and I'm okay with that. They feel bad but life doesn't always have a sweet ending for us. Additionally with Nick, I think that his character had good development. We got to see small parts of his character come out as the story moved forward (like his ability to discern when not to shoot a gun to disable a criminal & his anger becoming the better of him due to betrayal/love) and he did change from the beginning to the end. The only thing that bothered me about him is that it is touted that he is an established army vet - yet he can't fight? He gets taken down so quick it was a little unbelievable. Even Hugh Jackman would've done better in these fights than the character he is playing. So, the main concern I had with this, and is why so many people were bored with the film, is that it didn't hit hard enough when it needed to. Honestly, if this was cut and extended as a 6 piece series, I think it could've done better. What bothers me is that 1, Lisa Joy is a pretty good writer and she did great in Westworld so it's not that she can't write a good story; I think she can but wrote one that wasn't meant for a movie format and 2, it doesn't have the entertainment value it should've because I think it was written for an audience that "isn't smart" - which is an error because the audience is usually smart enough to connect the dots. A lot of the story was very careful but I think with more risk, there would be more reward in that the audience would craft the story in their mind more and in via the memory machine. I really think this was a good story that needed to be delivered better - but (and this is not an excuse) this is Lisa Joy's first venture as a solo director/writer and it wasn't bad. Definitely can get better from here. I would recommend this movie to fans of sci-fi, cyberpunk, dystopia genres and to ones who are perceptive of cinematic details as they would probably enjoy the efforts made for this film over the entertainment it has difficulty bringing to the table. Honestly, could use a little less world building a more story building.