Netflix Recommendations 2.0 *READ FIRST POST*

johnpatrick81 wrote: »

ah lads, someone watch Mute there and tell me the reviews are wrong please :pac:

Fysh wrote: »

I watched it last night, then read that Guardian review - the film is flawed in several ways, but that review is a good example of the "IT MUST BE AWESOME OR APPALLING, THERE IS NO MIDDLE GROUND", which is made worse by the reviewer's evident fondness for needlessly hyperbolic adverbs.

The film looks good, though it is basically Berlin In The Blade Runner 2049 Future. Paul Rudd & Justin Theroux put in good performances (Rudd channeling a lot of Jason Lee in My Name Is Earl, Theroux looking a fair bit like Marco in Die Hard), and Robert Sheehan & Noel Clarke put in a good turns in small supporting roles.

The narrative is...a bit muddled, at points. There are a couple of bits that felt like bad storytelling - Spoiler: the out-of-nowhere rewind to show us Cactus killing Naadirah's kidnapping and the POV bit of her death, but also the opening sequence establishing Leo's background, which is a pity as there are some nice touches in the film. The biggest problem it has is Skarsgard - the role has no dialogue and therefore relies on facial and bodily expression, and Skarsgard is not a good enough actor to pull this off (though perhaps he wasn't given much to work with). Even the best actor wouldn't be able to turn the brief screentime shared between Leo and Naadirah into something truly compelling, which is bad in terms of plot propulsion, but a better performance in Leo's role could at least have made for a character that was engaging to watch. And because we get Leo's quest story intertwined with the story of Cactus and Duck, it runs for longer than is necessary (with the bloat being, oddly, around Leo's not-especially-interesting story, despite him being the protagonist).

Overall I would say it's a flawed film, averaging a 5-6/10 because it flits back and forth between being better and worse than that score. If you can, watch it on a projector or as large a screen as you have, the visuals and design are its strongest elements. The score by Clint Mansell was okay but disappointingly unmemorable (unlike Moon's fantastic score). Put it this way - flawed though it is, it didn't make me want to turn it off within 10 minutes the way Cloverfield Paradox did...

If it ever got a non-Netfllix release, I bet a enterprising faneditor could take scissors to it and craft a better version of the same story. At this point, I wonder if Jones actually needs either a writing partner or a bolshier editor to work with...