A film which felt 12 years long

Rating: 5/10 (13 February 2014)

Steve McQueen's '12 Years as a Slave' is a poorly executed exploitation of a classic story, lacking an underlying sense of meaning. It had great potential as an adaption of Solomon Northup's eponymous memoir, yet poor directorial decisions hindered it from leaving a lasting impact of colonial-era American slavery in my mind.
Steve McQueen (no, the other one) has previously achieved artistic and critical acclaim for his previous two works, Hunger (2008) and Shame (2011). '12 Years a Slave' follows a similar model to the former titles - touchy, depressing subjects, whose nature are paralleled with reading Russian literature and listening to Leonard Cohen in a cold, dark abbey.
Consequently, the permutation of this with a great cast (and accompanying great acting), relatively unexplored setting and great cinematography (with the excellent use of pauses) seems to scream 'modern classic' to be.
Fundamentally, the poor character development and abrupt ending undermine this movie from becoming something truly great.
The reluctant slave masters, respectively played by Benedict Cumberbatch and Brad Pitt, aim to represent angst and disillusionment with slavery, yet their true ethical positions aren't really established throughout their screen time.
This film, though its intentions are legitimate and original, misses the point; McQueen relies too heavily on special effects and confronting sexual scenes (some without explanation) to compensate for an underdeveloped storyline (hardly the first offender in recent film history).
While a mediocre title, I look forward to McQueen's next picture and hope the commercial success of this film proliferates the status of Chiwetel Ejiofor, an actor I adore.