It’s nice to see that the directors behind this are clearly passionate and putting in the effort, but their voice often gets lost in the commercial machinery of it all. At the core of this, we have a very simple fetch quest with mostly flat characters. The comedy is hit or miss; sometimes it’s sharp, sometimes it tries to be a Marvel movie. Michelle Rodriguez and Justice Smith reinforce that they can’t act, Hugh Grant is in Paddington 2 mode again, Chris Pine is genuinely trying but ends up feeling like your typical, modern movie protagonist. The world looks fine if a little too derivative of stuff like Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones. The cinematography is surprisingly good, and even the CGI is well done until you get to those typical overblown, plastic action sequences that are required for these things. That’s not to say that there isn’t good action, because the actual combat stuff is very well choreographed and filmed. All in all, I’d say this is at its best when it’s being a fun heist adventure with creative set pieces, and it’s at its worst when it’s focussing on the characters or spoonfeeding pointless exposition. Unfortunately it tips too often in the direction of being unmemorable and bland, and it’s unquestionably too long and too predictable, but the directors certainly tried to make the best out of the cards they were dealt.
Review by JordyVIP 8BlockedParent2023-05-02T22:08:33Z
It’s nice to see that the directors behind this are clearly passionate and putting in the effort, but their voice often gets lost in the commercial machinery of it all. At the core of this, we have a very simple fetch quest with mostly flat characters. The comedy is hit or miss; sometimes it’s sharp, sometimes it tries to be a Marvel movie. Michelle Rodriguez and Justice Smith reinforce that they can’t act, Hugh Grant is in Paddington 2 mode again, Chris Pine is genuinely trying but ends up feeling like your typical, modern movie protagonist. The world looks fine if a little too derivative of stuff like Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones. The cinematography is surprisingly good, and even the CGI is well done until you get to those typical overblown, plastic action sequences that are required for these things. That’s not to say that there isn’t good action, because the actual combat stuff is very well choreographed and filmed. All in all, I’d say this is at its best when it’s being a fun heist adventure with creative set pieces, and it’s at its worst when it’s focussing on the characters or spoonfeeding pointless exposition. Unfortunately it tips too often in the direction of being unmemorable and bland, and it’s unquestionably too long and too predictable, but the directors certainly tried to make the best out of the cards they were dealt.