Falls a Bit Short of Amazing

Rating: 8/10 (22 January 2019)

10 February 2007. While a pretty good movie with compelling, thrilling cinematography, some of the best of the year, the screenplay falls a bit short with its over the top, somewhat manipulative and unnecessary exploitative death scenes. More subtlety and independent movie thinking would have made this movie a clear nominee for best picture. This movie follows in the footstep Fahrenheit 451 (1966), A.I. (2001), Saving Private Ryan (1998), Blade Runner (1982) with this amazing military scenes and the fine contrast between the rich and poor. The whole look of the movie is clearly a notch above almost any movie of the future, the atmospherics are terrific. The weak parts of the movie are the circumstances the scriptwriter needed to say the obvious with how many of the characters die. This is an ensemble piece where there really isn't the acting so much as the performance of the composite of the movie's actors. A credible, richly dense, layered movie with a few writing and plot weaknesses. Eight out of Ten Stars.