A spaceship flying at cruise altitude, but at least we can see Johnny Depp in his best.

Rating: 7/10 (5 November 2015)

Black mass is a good film, unfortunately it could have been great. There's tons of great material to achieve an unforgettable film, but watching black mass is like watching a brand new top of the line airplane that can reach altitudes like no other yet it still only flies cruise altitude. It looks great, but never leaves that level to achieve something that could blow minds.
It is highly entertaining, thrilling, interesting, and it grabs you, but you cant shake that feeling that its missing something, and this is more apparent when the film ends, because it just seems to go by and end in the exactly same level it began rather that achieving a crescendo that would end with a bang. But sadly no. It's easy to resume what the movie is missing to one word: energy. It needed an adrenaline shot. No let me rephrase, two words; Martin Scorsese! He would have done amazing things with this, that is what this film really needed.
The cast is by far the best thing, and this is one of those films, that while, once again, good, it all comes down to the ensemble cast. I think that the academy will have a huge day with this film in the acting categories, because every actor/actress gives an enormous performance. There's two huge main performances, Joel Edgerton, that deserves a supporting nomination, and of course the grandest of them all, the return to form, Johny Depp. This is a leading actor winner right from the first frame with him. And if you really want to resume things, this film is Johny Depp.
The production values are great, but the score could, like the film overall, be more energetic.
Jimmy White Bulger is very easily one of the grandest real life villains of all time, a terrifying person that can put on a smile and say everything is alright in a second and kill you in the worst way possible in the next. The greatest moments of the film is when he kills someone, because each death is more terrifying than the previous and with each death you get to know more of the killer.
And while we see plenty of crime, we never really see what seems to be the best parts of the story, we should have seen more of what this gangs really does, where the money comes from. But all we seem to see is the backstage of one of the biggest crime reigns in America. And this weakens the film a lot, because the story loses some light for not showing what the fuss is all about. You hear he is one of biggest crime lords of all time, that Boston has crime at every corner thanks to him, but you never can quite see this.
In the end this could have been a huge film. There's material for it, because the story is epic. But it doesn't bring anything new, it just is what it is, a common good film, with a grander than life performances.