All Around a Great Movie

Rating: 8/10 (26 January 2016)

I was interested in seeing this movie, considering it's ratings are the quickest falling ones I've ever seen (going from a 9.5 to a 7.2 in a couple weeks), I was curious as to how good it actually was, and I'm happy to say that it's actually a very impressive film.
The plot is very good. The idea is great, and it actually feels like it could be real. It is based off a true story though, so you'd hope so. It manages to pull off it's plot very well too. It's interesting and although I didn't always know who the minor characters were I always figured out what their importance was, plus they were minor so it didn't matter too much. Despite progressing over the course of 10 years and showing barely any of it, it's still paced relatively well too.
The characters are good. While I couldn't always tell the difference between some characters (two specifically) you knew the ones who were important pretty well. The secondary characters didn't receive a whole lot of development, nor a lot of screen time. It didn't take away from the movie though. The two main characters, Whitey and Connolly, were great. The acting on their parts were fantastic too, especially Johnny Depp. It's to be expected, but he was perfect for the role. He's intimidating, a little scary, but he still makes Whitey feel like a real person that you could almost sympathize with. Joel Edgerton as John Connolly was great too, but Depp was still the star in terms of acting.
While the first hour of the movie is well-paced, the last hour isn't so much. I found myself glancing at the lasting run time often, only to see that only 5-10 minutes had gone by. It wasn't that it was uninteresting, the last hour was fantastic, but it was a little slow.
Going into this movie I thought there'd be a bit of action (gun fights, etc.), but that didn't happen. Normally when a movie isn't the genre that I expected, it ends up not being as enjoyable, but this movie still managed to hold my interest, despite my expectations.
Overall Black Mass is great. It's got a great, well-executed plot, great characters and acting, and decent pacing. Maybe I'll just have to see it again. I'm certainly looking forward to doing so. In the end I would certainly recommend Black Mass to anyone looking for an awesome crime drama, just don't expect a whole lot of fights, because like I said, it's a drama.