Enough with origin stories?

Rating: 4/10 (8 April 2017)

This is not terrible film but its not good either. Maybe I am just getting bored of origin films but I certainly found myself getting bored with this film. Most of it has been done before, not that long ago, and many times better.
The film makes a big mistake early on by introducing the antagonist with a fight that he is losing, this is just poor story telling as its hard to see the antagonist as much of a challenge after this. Cumberbatch does a reasonable job as the hero but a lot of the jokes fail to land (something that is even lamp-shaded). Tilda Swinton is completely unconvincing in the mentor role. Her performance reminded me of Gabriel in Constantine and whilst it worked brilliantly in that role she just felt paper thin in this role (to be fair it might be the writing not the performance).
Where this film really loses the plot is with the effects, I'm not against CGI but good effects should be there to enhance the story and immerse us in the world. In this case however the effects are often jarring and confusing. Its hard to follow a fight scene when the world is shifting all the time in the background. Finally I have to question why they put time manipulation in the film, I thought it was because this was the main power of the comic book character but apparently not. The trouble with time travelling and time manipulation is that its incredibly hard to do well, it often robs the story of gravity because of the lack of consequences of your actions when you can just rewind or go back in time. This film fell into that trap with both feet and the final 'showdown' was completely unrewarding as a result.