Had Potential

Rating: 6/10 (6 October 2015)

Black Mass is at times engaging and throws you in a world of vivid characters. Depp particularly shows that despite the foibles of his past years he is still a great actor. Yet despite those few gems the movie is coated with a deep layer of mundanity that does nothing but leave you with a sense of emptiness after the movie is done.
Black Mass suffers from a common ailment of Based on True Events films in that real stories do not fit nicely into narratives. That's especially true for films that try to span many years. Black Mass, like many such films, feels rough around the edges like it just doesn't have the time to tell the entire story so it just bites off pieces here and there making the finished work look like Cliff's Notes of a much larger story.
I didn't feel satisfied with what I got in the end. The movie doesn't focus on any one character or at least paint a portrait of the criminal world. To tell the truth I felt rather disappointed after the movie ended because I expected so much more from this film. I do believe it had the potential for greatness.