Anyway. The film is good. It stars Viggo Mortensen, an actor you may remember from movies such as A History of Violence. Well these films also share a director, and they also share a similar sort of narrative to them. They both ask tough questions, and leave them unanswered. And I’m not sure how I feel about that.

The acting is good. However, I’m still not sure if it was supposed to be a “Thriller” in the sense that you “find out” the plot twists or whatnot later, or if they’re supposed to be transparent. Because they most definitely were; it’s not going to keep you guessing.

But those pesky questions. Is this a Thriller? Does he follow through on his duty? Does he become consumed with the power, becoming his old nemesis? These questions are not answered (except I answered the first one for you).

I watched the short “Bonus Materials” stuff on the disc, and the director was talking about how they wanted to leave it like that, sort of let the audience contemplate the nature of man, the decisions we face, and how we react. Hey, I’m all about philosophy, right?

But those questions… Look, I like a good movie, but honestly, if it’s 2 hours long, I expect a beginning, middle, and end. Therefore, if the end is missing or they leave it up to me, then it kinda makes for a bad design, methinks. There are of course exceptions (see Total Recall), but by and large, I expect closure. Sure I want to leave and talk about the film, but the way this ended, it was sort of ambiguous; you didn’t know enough about the characters to have an argument over what you thought happened, and that sort of bothered me. I could have drawn my own conclusions that he was actually an alien sent from Death Star 9, and was going to eat all of humanity. No one could argue I was wrong.

But it is a decent flick. I just think that the reviews kinda had that Hype Momentum going for it. You know, Hype Momentum. It was good. It just wasn’t that good. Let’s say it’s a shaky B+, if only because the acting’s pretty good and the camera direction’s there, too.

Beware, though: There’s man-dick involved. Can’t miss it. So just keep in mind, I warned you.

Peace.

Tags: Entertainment